1897.] on Early Man in Scotland, 403 



rule, the urn was placed in proximity to the head and raised hands of 

 the skeleton. 



These varieties of nrn are by no means invariably present in short 

 cists. In twenty-five localities where this kind of grave was seen, 

 there is no record of either form of urn being present. It is obvious 

 therefore that, though associated with so many inhumation interments, 

 they were not regarded as necessary accompanimeuts, and they 

 obviously discharged in the minds of the people of the time a different 

 function from that of cinerary urns. The term food-urns applied to 

 the bowl-shaped variety is probably appropriate, as indicating that 

 edible substances were placed in them, in the belief that food should 

 be i^rovided for the use of the corpse. It is questionable, however, if 

 the taller variety were drinking cups, as the unglazed clay would not 

 fit them for the retention of liquids for any length of time. Their 

 presence in the stone cists, along with, in some instances, im2)lements 

 and weapons, would point to the belief, in the minds of those practis- 

 ing this form of interment, in a resurrection of the body, and a 

 restoration to the wants and habits of the previous life. It may be 

 that placing the body in the crouching position, lying on one side, 

 was regarded as the attitude best fitted, when the proper time came, 

 to enable it to spring into the erect position and assume an active 

 state of existence. The practice of cremation, however, to an almost 

 equal extent as inhumation, by people of the same period, shows that 

 they may not all have shared in the belief in a corporeal resurrection. 

 But it should not be forgotten that, even in many cremation inter- 

 ments, blades and other objects made of bronze have been found along 

 with the burnt bones and cinerary urns, as if for use in a future life. 



The association of bronze objects, both with short cists and 

 cinerary urns, establishes these forms of interment as practised at a 

 time when bronze was the characteristic metal used in many purposes 

 of life. The crouching attitude of the dead body, the contracted 

 grave, and the varieties of urns already described, are therefore to be 

 regarded as equally characteristic of this period, even if bronze is not 

 found in a particular instance associated with the interment, and this 

 view is generally held by archaeologists in Scotland. 



In a preceding paragraph implements and weapons made of stone, 

 flint and bone were referred to as having been sometimes associated 

 with bronze, and also of similar objects having been found in graves, 

 in which, though obviously of the same class and period, no article 

 made of metal was observed. Such an association proves that there 

 was no sharp line of demarcation between the employment of the 

 more simple substances used by Neolithic man in the manufacture of 

 implements and weapons, and the use of bronze for similar purposes. 

 The two periods undoubtedly overlapped. It has been customary to 

 regard this overlapping as if bronze-using man had continued for a 

 period to employ the same substances in making useful articles as did 

 his Neolithic predecessors ; that time was required before the more 

 costly bronze, imported from foreign sources, replaced the native 



