SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 83 



PBEHISTOKIC BUEIAL IN SCOTLAND. 



By ALEXANDER MACDONALD, M.A., Durris. 



(Bead 25th November, 1905.) 



After pointing out the far-reaching character of the Evolution 

 Theory and its great utility as a working hypothesis in many branches 

 of Science, the paper went on to trace its bearing on the solution of 

 the questions of the origin and early history of mankind in general, 

 and of the British races in particular. It enumerated the various 

 studies that lead up to the solving of these inquiries, such as Folk- 

 lore, Philology, Custom and the more exact branches, concerned with 

 the measurement and structure of the human body, in which the 

 Society is specially interested. 



The value of burial customs in this connection was mentioned, 

 as these customs were fairly fixed in the different races. A review 

 of the whole series of these rites was given in the order in which they 

 are supposed to have succeeded each other. The first point to be 

 noted is the fact that very soon the habit of burning the bodies of 

 the dead came into partial use, and brought about a lessening of the 

 size of the sepulchres. 



The unburnt body was placed in a chamber of stone, usually with 

 a cairn built over it or a mound of earth. Dug-out coffins were occa- 

 sionally used, and cases occur where the body was placed in the bare 

 earth, with no external sign to mark the spot. 



When the corpse was cremated, the ashes were usually placed in 

 an urn, and deposited in a cist or in the bare earth in a little heap. 

 Cairns sometimes of great size were raised over chambered graves. 

 The chambers were made of slabs, and were divided into two or three 



