180 THE EARLIEST MEN 



would disappear, unless some lucky accident 

 occurred to preserve them or some portion of them. 

 They might be covered up, or the complete body 

 might be covered up by wind-blown sand, by 

 gravel or earth brought down by a flood, by a 

 land-slip or by other natural, fortuitous circum- 

 stance. Then long ages afterwards, the gravel- 

 seeker or some other son of toil gets to work and 

 exposes the remains. Let us suppose, however, 

 that his fellows resolve to bury their dead com- 

 rade. They may do so by depositing his body in a 

 cave, as was actually done in many portions of the 

 Palaeolithic Age, though not, as far as we are aware, 

 in its very earliest stages, and if that cave was 

 rendered inaccessible to wild beasts, the remains 

 would have the best chance of surviving to our 

 own day. 



Incidentally it may be added that where primi- 

 tive man took the trouble to place the remains of 

 his dead brother in security, he in the vast majority 

 of cases placed with them some of the implements 

 which the dead man had been in the habit . of 

 using whilst on earth. These offerings are called 

 " grave-goods " or " accompanying gifts," and 

 they are important from two points of view. First 

 of all they throw great light upon the period to 

 which the remains belong. Thus, if a bronze dagger 

 is found with a skeleton, in an untouched inter- 

 ment, it must be clear to everyone that the re- 

 mains are not earlier than the Bronze Age. They 

 may be later, because the implement may be one 

 of an earlier period, placed with the remains of 

 the dead man for some ritual or other reason, but 



