96 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



nine were in tumuli which had been previously opened, and 

 in one case no body was found. Of the remaining eighteen, 

 five were tumuli containing iron, and seven were accom- 

 panied with bronze. In one more case, that of the ' Liffs,' 

 it is doubtful whether the barrow had not been disturbed. 

 Of the remaining six tumuli, two contained beautiful drink- 

 ing vessels, of a very well-marked type, certainly in use 

 during the Bronze Age, if not peculiar to it; and in both 

 these instances, as well as in a third, the interment was 

 accompanied by burnt human bones, suggestive of dreadful 

 rites. Even, however, if these cases cannot be referred to 

 the Bronze Age, we still see that out of the two hundred and 

 ninety-seven interments only sixty-three contained metal, 

 or about twenty-one per cent., while out of the eighteen 

 cases of horses' remains, twelve, or about sixty-six per cent., 

 certainly belonged to the metallic period. This seems to be 

 prima facie evidence that the horse was very rare, if not 

 altogether unknown, in England during the Stone Age. Both 

 the horse and bull appear to have been sacrificed at graves 

 during later times, and probably formed part of the funeral 

 feast. The teeth of oxen are so common in tumuli that they 

 are even said by Mr Bateman to be ' uniformly found with 

 the more ancient interments'" ("Prehistoric Times," 4th 

 ed., p. 174). 



Professor Boyd Dawkins thus writes : " From this outline 

 it is clear the domestic animals were not domesticated in 

 Europe, but that they had already been under the care of 

 man probably for long ages in some other region. The turf- 

 hog, the Celtic shorthorn, the sheep, and the goat must have 

 been domesticated in the countries in which their wild 

 ancestors were captured by the hunter in Central Asia. To 

 this region also belong the jackal, the wild boar, and the 

 wild horse, and in ancient times the urus. It is therefore 

 probable that all these domestic animals came into Europe 

 with their masters from the south-east — from the Central 

 plateau of Asia — the ancient home of all the present 

 European peoples" ("Early Man in Britain," 1880, 



p. 300). 



Before coming to any decision on these conflicting opinions. 



