MANUAL OF THE NILAQIRI DISTRICT. 235 



I Large quantities of broken pots are frequently found embedded CHAP. x. 



i^'^ ^ Antiquities. 

 Of the age of the cairns it is difficult to form an opinion. That 

 I the most modern are from three to four centuries old is almost — P'"'^'^"'* 



1 _ age. 



proved by the fact that the Badagas know nothing about them, 



whilst the enormous girth of some of the trees which have grown 



up within them, filling the interior of the circles with their roots, 



bears witness to an undisturbed possession of the locality for 



even a longer period. On the other hand the contents of the 



cairns do not point to any very remote antiquity. The weapons 



I are mostly of iron, many of them such as are in use in the present 



1 1 day, and the few bronze vessels which have been found are always 



ij found with iron ones. This, as need hardly be explained, is 



I { significant, as it at once fixes the era to which these antiquities 



\ I belong, though the actual date of the iron age in India may very 



likely differ materially from that of the iron age in Europe, the 



use of iron having been much earlier known in Asia. 



The barrows ^ differ from the cairns chiefly in being surrounded Barrows. 

 by a ditch which is sometimes enclosed in one or more circles of 

 loose single stones. The centre consists of a mound, which 

 appears to have been like the cairns, almost invariably a place of 

 interment for the ashes of the dead, if not the spot where crema- 

 tion actually took place. They are very numerous, generally 

 occurring near cairns or in similar elevated localities. 



^ 



?- 



s^'^^ 



BARROW. 



Co7iqreve 



The diameter, measuring across the outer circle of stones or to 

 the outer slope of the ditch when this forms the extreme edge of 

 the barrow varies from 20 to above 60 feet. 



The contents are very similar to those of the cairns, leaving no 

 doubt whatever of the sepulchral nature of these tumuli. The bones 

 are most frequently found in small bronze vessels enclosed in an 



Badaga Ponguli or gold pit. 



