45 



A NOTE ON THE BURIAL CUSTOMS OF THE 

 TASMANIAN ABORIGINES. 



By Clive Lord, F.L.S., 

 Director of the Tasmanian Museum. 



(Read 9th July, 1923.) 



The methods of burial as practised by primitive races 

 ai'e of distinct interest in assisting- to trace their evolutionary 

 history. Owing to the lack of authentic information in 

 detail of the customs of the Tasmanian aborigines, our 

 knowledge is, in many matters, vague and uncertain. Often 

 the observations relating to the aborigines were made years 

 after their contact with the white race, and naturally their 

 customs had been affected. 



Further, the more one studies the early records and 

 observations made by early colonists, the more one realises 

 their contradictory nature. The available evidence which 

 could be gathered from early records has been admirably 

 summarised by Ling Roth (1899, pp. 116-122). A later 

 paper by Noetling (1908, p. 36) dealt with the supposed 

 native burial ground near Ross, but, personally, I am unable 

 to agree with all the conclusions ari'ived at by Dr. Noetling. 

 In a later paper Noetling (1910, p. 271) again referred to 

 the matter, but his deductions are at variance with the 

 observations of the Fiench naturalist Peron, who distinctly 

 states that the tombs found by the French on Maria Island 

 in 1802 were placed near the camping ground.'" 



There is sufficient evidence to show that the natives 

 usually burnt their dead, and often, after cremating the body, 

 the residue would be buried or certain portions carried as a 

 charm. In some cases the body would not be burnt, but 

 would be placed in a hollow tree or a shallow grave. 



I am not aware of any authentic records as to the posi- 

 tion of the l)uricd body, and hope that the following observa- 

 tion, made in exhuming aboriginal remains, may be of inter- 

 est, as information on the point helps to illustrate the evo- 

 lutionary status of the race. 



•It must l)e remembered of i-oursc that in revraril to the tombs referred 

 to by Peron the bodies had first of all been cremnted anU the remains 

 Kathercd and iilaccd in the vrround, over which a frail superstructure of 

 grass and liark b:ul li<ii r:iivc<l. 



