1897.] on Early Man in Scotland. 401 



same cemetery, the cinerary iirns in which the ashes were customarily 

 deposited lie outside the cists, and in quite independent excavations 

 in the soil, but in such close proximity as to show that they belonged 

 to the same period. In two instances short cists have been opened, in 

 which, alongside of the skeleton of an unburnt body were cremated 

 human bones, not contained in a cinerary urn, but scattered on the 

 floor of the cist, which conclusively prove that both cremation and 

 inhumation were sometimes in practice at the same interment. 



One may now inquire into the reason why cinerary urns, with 

 their contained ashes, and short cists, enclosing bodies which had been 

 buried in a bent or stooping attitude, should be associated with the men 

 of the Bronze Age. The first and most important is the presence of 

 objects made of bronze. In the 144 localities under analysis in which 

 interments ascribed to the Bronze Age have been examined, bronze 

 articles were found in 34 directly associated with the interments. In 

 four of these the bronze was along with objects made of gold. In 

 seven other interments of the same character gold ornaments without 

 bronze were presont. The men of this period were, therefore, workers 

 in gold also, and as it has been, and indeed still can be, mined in 

 Scotland, it is not unlikely that the ornaments had been wrought 

 from native metal. Additional proof that the burials in short cists, 

 and after cremation in cinerary urns, both belonged to the same 

 period, and were practised by the same people, is furnished by the 

 presence of articles of bronze and gold in both groups of interment. 



But, in addition to metallic objects, the graves sometimes con- 

 tained other implements and ornaments. In many localities articles 

 made of flint, stone, or bone and jet beads were associated with bronze. 

 In others flints in the form of chips, knives, arrow heads and spear 

 heads ; stone implements in the form of whetstones and hammers ; 

 bone and jet ornaments and bone pins were found in short cists, and 

 some of these articles also in cremation interments, unaccompanied 

 by bronze. 



Attention has been called by Dr. Joseph Anderson to the character 

 of the bronze objects usually associated with these burials.* For the 

 most part they have been thin blades, leaf-like or triangular in form, 

 and either with or without a tang for the attachment of a handle. 

 From their shape they might have been used as spear-heads, daggers, 

 or knives. Not unfrequently the surfaces of the blade were orna- 

 mented with a punctated or incised pattern. Sometimes bronze 

 pins, rings, and bracelets have been obtained from these interments. 

 It should, however, be stated that the bronze articles and ornaments 

 of gold found in association with the burials are of a more simple 

 character, and present less variety in form, purpose and decoration 

 than those which have been got in hoards in various parts of Scotland. 

 It would seem, therefore, as if the people of this period, even if they 

 were in possession of such finished and beautifully decorated swords, 



♦ * Scotland in Pagan Times.' 



