PKIMITIVE MAN : II. NEOLITHIC MAN. 28 1 



have been cliippecl into sliape with extraordinary skill, stone 

 axes of most perfect and gracefid form, some of which were 

 pierced for the reception of the' haft, are amongst the 

 treasures of Neolithic workmanship, which are the admiration 

 of all who have seen them. 



Burial. 



The tumnli or dolmens in which the Neolithic people 

 bmied their dead were constrncted witli great masses of rock, 

 forming a fnnereal chamber or vault, which was then 

 buried under a great amount of soil. As a general rule the 

 bodies were interred in a crouching or doubled up position, 

 sometimes many of them together in a single tumulus, and 

 with the bodies numerous weapons and ornaments were 

 buried. 



Some have thought that the custom so generally pre- 

 valent dm"ing this age, of burying the dead in a doubled-up 

 attitude, was symbolica], the body being returned to motlier 

 earth in the attitude of the unborn child in its mother's 

 womb, an expression of a hope that from the womb of 

 earth they should one day be born again. It is curious to 

 note that the ancient Peruvians practised a similar mode of 

 burial. 



Burial in tumuli, dolmens, or cromlechs seems to have 

 been practised in prehistoric times all over the world ; 

 varying in mode of construction and form, yet the idea is 

 similar everywhere, some of these date back to the Stone 

 age, others belong to the Bronze age, whilst some are as 

 recent as to come Avithin the range of history.* 



In Denmark amongst the Chambered tumuli some of the 

 funereal chambers are approached by a passage, formed out 

 of blocks of stone, "Ganggraben" or "passage graves," 

 these bear a striking resemblance to some of the dwellings 

 constructed by various races, and it has been surmised that 

 .some of them may actually have been dwelhngs, but as 

 sometimes the ordinary houses were used as burial places, 

 amongst existing peoples, so may it have been during the 

 Neolithic age. Professor Nilsson thought that the Danish 

 "Ganggraben" were in fact "a copy or development or 



* Many of the great stone circles met with in various parts of this 

 country, as well as on the continent, have been considered to have been 

 originally the burial places of important chiefs abd used afterwards as 

 temples, thus consecrated to the memory of the dead. 



