104 THE HAELYN BTTRIALL. 



Northern Africa, who retained their primitive form of burial. 

 Recent discoveries in Egyj)t have brought to light the remains 

 of a prehistoric people, among whom similar burial customs 

 prevailed. In a grave lately opened on the west side of the 

 Nile lay a skeleton with the knees drawn up to the chin, a 

 dolichocephalic skull, and the hands placed before the face as at 

 Harlyn, while rough flints were placed around. The body lay on 

 its left side, and the height, 5 feet 9 inches, curiously agreed with 

 that of many skeletons found at Harlyn. In Palestine, also, in 

 the land of the Ammonites, to the east of Jordan, many dolmens 

 containing dolichocephalic skeletons, lying in the contracted 

 position, occur. 



Thus it appears that a long chain of similar burials can be 

 traced from Palestine, along the south coast of the Mediterranean, 

 through Spain and Prance, to Great Britain. All these burials 

 are considered to be of Neolithic age, all are characterised by 

 the dolichocephalic skull, and in them all the skeletons lie in the 

 contracted position. These Neolithic burials are common in 

 England, and the cemetery at Harlyn takes its place amongst 

 them, and forms one of the many links of the long chain of 

 burials which extends eastwards as far as Palestine. I do not 

 see, therefore, that it is possible to avoid coming to the conclusion 

 that the Harlyn cemetery is of Neolithic age. As far as I have 

 been able to examine them, many of the trinkets in the Harlyn 

 graves correspond with those found in the Prench sepulchres, 

 indeed it would be easy to find on the coasts of Brittany 

 Neolithic cemeteries, buried beneath the sand, with coffins of 

 stone slabs, exactly like those at Harlyn." The prognathous 

 skulls found in the Harlyn graves, also, much resemble the 

 prognathous skulls of Neolithic age from Denmark. Another 

 link in the chain of evidence is very curious. We often find in 

 the Neolithic graves in Prance and Switzerland, where the bodies 

 have been placed in graves formed of stone slabs, that the heads 

 of skeletons, here and there, have been removed, and laid in a 

 special place in the cist. The same thing has been observed, in 

 at least one of the graves at Harlyn, and it forms another 

 witness to the Neolithic date of the greater portion of this 

 burial place. 



11. La France Pi-ehistoriquc, by E. Cartailhac, p. 207. 



