THE HARLYN BURIALS, 99 



of Great Britain. Palaeolithic burials are numerous on the 

 Continent, and in France and Belgium they form a most 

 interesting study. One way of burying the dead in Palaeolithic 

 times, was to place the bodies, one above the other, in a natural 

 hole, at the end of a cave, and close the aperture by a large 

 stone slab. The sepulclu-e in the cave of Frontal in Belgium 

 illustrates this.^ A natural aperture at the end of the cave had 

 been filled by sixteen bodies, the skulls of which were 

 brachycephalic, and the opening had been closed by a perfectly 

 fitting large slab of limestone. The chamber had, after the 

 burial, been covered by a vast flood-deposit of yellow clay, which 

 had forced the door-slab out of its place and buried the entrance. 

 This yellow clay is a Palaeolithic deposit, as it contains the bones 

 of the lion and hyaena, and in many parts of the neighbourhood 

 it is overlaid by another Palaeolithic deposit, the Loess, which 

 also contains the bones of the extinct mammalia. As the burial 

 took place before the yellow clay was deposited, and as it is 

 certain that the yellow clay is a Palaeolithic deposit, it follows 

 that the Palaeolithic age of the burial in the cave of Frontal is 

 unanswerably demonstrated.^ It is often thought that in the 

 Neolithic period men must have been acquainted with metal tools 

 in order to have shaped the stone slabs which face the graves, 

 such as we find at Harlyn. But in the cave at Frontal we find 

 that the Palaeolithic men were able with rude stone tools to 

 form and square a limestone slab to an exact size as a door for 

 the sepulchral chamber. Much more then could the Neolithic 

 men frame and fit stone slabs without metal tools. The burial 

 place in the cave of Frontal is therefore a test case which should 

 be carefully studied. ^ Unfortunately it is generally ignored in 

 English text books, little indeed to the credit of their authors ! 



During Palaeolithic times bodies were often, also, buried 

 stretched at full length, singly, with the arms and legs extended. 

 This is well shown in the burial place of Solutre, near Macon, in 

 Eastern France, which is undoubtedly the most wonderful relic- 

 ground of Palaeolithic man in Europe. On the top of a barren 



1. V Homme pendant les Ages de la Pierre, by E. Dupont, pp. 195-201. 



2. Etudes stir les cavernes des bords de la Lesse, 1865, by E. Dupoiit. 



3. See also, Etude sur V Ethnographie de I'hotntne, by E. Dupont. 



