THE HARLTN BUEIALS. 101 



But the Harlyn sepulchres cannot be of the Palaeolithic age, 

 because they contain no Palaeolithic animal remains. The 

 human remains also are different. The skeletons found at 

 Cattedown (Plymouth), are genuine remains of Palaeolithic men 

 and they are quite different from the Harlyn bones and skulls." 

 Thus, the Cattedown skulls are orthocephalic, the Harlyn skulls 

 are dolichocephalic. The Cattedown skulls are orthognathous, 

 the Harlyn skulls are prognathous. Besides this the Cattedown 

 skeletons (4 feet 9 inches to 5 feet) are much shorter than those 

 from Harlyn. It is certain, therefore, that the bodies at Harlyn 

 were not interred during Palaeolithic times, since their skeletons 

 are quite different from those of the men who lived in Devonshire 

 during the early stone period. 



The Neolithic age, is the era of burials par excellence, for 

 cremation was only occasionally practised, and, judging from the 

 enormous number of skeletons which have been found of this 

 age, we may conclude that Western Europe was at this period 

 very populous. Sometimes the corpses were laid one on the 

 other in a natural orifice, the opening of which was closed by a 

 large slab to keep out wild beasts. The well-known sepulchre 

 of Aurignac in S. Prance is a good illustration of this form of 

 burial. Frequently, at this epoch, the dead were buried in 

 caverns, the corpses being laid on the back, at full length, with 

 the limbs stretched out. In the cave of Nutons in Belgium, 1 8 

 brachycephalic skeletons were found in this position, and in the 

 cave of L'Homme Mort in S. France, 50 Neolithic skeletons 

 were discovered stretched at full length on the sand, and at 

 Baumes Chaudes 300. The artificial grottoes of the Marne 

 (France), which are of Neolithic age, contained no fewer than 

 2,000 extended skeletons.'' But the form of burial which 

 specially prevailed in the Neolithic period was, to lay the body 

 in a contracted position, with the knees bent up towards the chin, 

 and the hands before the face. This is the usual form of 

 Neolithic burials in England and Ireland, and this is the usual 

 way in which the bodies at Harlyn are buried. So characteristic 

 of the Neolithic age is this position of the skeleton, that 

 Professor Boyd Dawkins has declared that burials may be 



6. Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 1887. 



7. L'Archiologie Prehistorique, by M. de Baye. 



