STUDY OF HIGH ANTIQUITY. 309 



Just beneath the surface was discovered an ancient grave, to all appearance of 

 pre-historical date. It was occupied by a skeleton, with fragments of coarse 

 pottery and with a piece of iron, rusted away. Lower down, at about midway 

 the depth of the mound, were three tombs of the bronze age. They consisted 

 of small chests or cells of stone-work without mortar, and containing each a 

 cinerary urn lilled with fragments of calcined bones, mingled with various ob- 

 jects of bronze, such as neck-collars, hair-pins, and a knife. Finally, at the 

 bottom of the mound was discovered a sepulchral chamber of the stone age, 

 formed of large unhewn boulders, and containing coarse pottery and flint 

 hatchets. Evidently the first inhabitants of the country had constructed, upon 

 the natural soil, a tomb, according to the custom of the times, covering it over 

 with earth. Upon this elevation some interments of the bronze age had taken 

 place, and another covering of earth was added, thus doubling the height of 

 the mound. Finally, in the early iron age, a corpse had been buried by dig- 

 ging a tomb on the summit of the hillock.* 



Thus, what at first sight appears to be only one tomb, may furnish antiqui- 

 ties belonging to different periods, and it is of the utmost importance to carry 

 on the researches so as carefully to determine the exact relative position of 

 whatever presents itself, if serious mistakes are to be avoided. MM. Castan 

 and Delacroix, at Besan^on, surprised to And a mixture of objects which they 

 thought belonged to different periods, succeeded in distinguishing, in the same 

 mound of only slight elevation, burials of the Roman time, established over 

 Gallic entombments of the early iron age, proving thus an indigenous civiliza- 

 tion, based on the use of iron, and previous to the Roman invasion.! 



But the incident of mere superposition, notwithstanding its value, can only 

 furnish notions of relative chronology, expressed like those of geology, which 

 knows of no absolute dates in numbers of years or of centuries. And yet we 

 could wish to know when each of the three ages of stone, of bronze, and of 

 iron began, and how long each lasted. The best that we can do is to acknowl- 

 edge our ignorance. The introduction of iron is itself a pre-historical event ; 

 even tradition is silent about it ; how much, then, must the preceding ages of 

 the bronze and of the stone lie further back, beyond all memory ! The prob- 

 lem can only be solved by the aid of geology, by finding out cases of some 

 regular and constant action of the elements, connected with marks of the prin- 

 cipal human periods. The following is an example, which Avill show how dates 

 of ABSOLUTE CHRONOLOGY are to be obtained : 



The alpine torrents, when they issue from the ravines or small lateral val- 

 leys, which give rise to them, accumulate their alluvium in f;vn-sliaped deposits, 

 or portions of cones of a very regular form. These are real deltas, but with a 

 surface necessarily more inclined than is the case in those of rivers. The 

 inclination of the cone depends on that of the ton-ent in its previous course, 

 on the volume of the water, and on the quantity of shingle it drifts. This 

 inclination varies with each torrent, and the limits of the variation are, on the 

 one hand, the descent of rapid rivers; on the other, the slope of any accumula- 

 tion of loose matter formed without the intervention of water, as, for exam- 

 ple, in certain landslips. The usual inclination of these torrential deltas in the 

 Alps ranges between 2 and 5 degrees. An inclination of 7 degrees is much 

 less frequent, and the cases where it reaches 15 degrees are rare. If the 

 form and nature of the hydrographical basin of a given torrent and the 

 meteorological circumstances, such as the annual quantity of rain, do not 

 change, it is evident that the torrent cannot alter the form nor the inclination 

 of its cone or delta. The latter Avill consequently grow by concentric layers, 



* Eeitvaeije zur nordischen Alterthums Kunili', vom Verein fur LiibockiscLe Geschichtc. 

 I. Heft, Lubeck, 1844. 

 t Meiiioiics de la, .Socifcto d'cmukitiou du Doubs. 13esan(,'on, ISGJ. 



