292 FOOTPRINTS or vanished races m Cornwall. 



a barrow. It is true that the barrow may have been raised 

 by the Celts, but the Ivernians continued to exist in Celtic 

 times, and perhaps they buried their warrior in a Celtic barrow, 

 to secure his remains from desecration by the Celts. Even in 

 Christian times in France, Christians were sometimes buried in 

 ancient barrows, and the practise was only stopped by the exer- 

 tions of the bishops and the clergy. At Sheviock, also, near St. 

 Germans, another case of contracted burial was discovered. ^^ The 

 skeleton lay in a cist of four stones, with a top cover. It lay on its 

 side, in the contracted Neolithic position, and a small earthen- 

 ware cup was by its side, as is found in the burials of the same 

 age in the north of England.'^*^ Another case of contracted burial 

 in Cornwall is doubtfully reported at Lesnewth. Mr. Borlase has 

 also drawn attention to the fact^™ that many of our Cornish cists, 

 which are now empty, are too small to have received a corpse 

 unless it was bent up, and M. Cartailhac has pointed out the same 

 fact with regard to many empty cists in France and Switzerland.^^^ 

 The Harlyn burials, also, which have been so fulh and so admir- 

 ably described in this journal by the Eev. W. lago,^^^ present 

 another instance of this form of burial. In this pre-historic 

 graveyard, most of the skeletons lay in the contracted position, 

 showing that (although later burials are found here), the oldest 

 burials are of Neolithic date, and belong to the Ivernians. On 

 the coast of Brittan}^, Neolithic graves buried in the sand, with 

 stone cists, like those at Harlyn, have been discovered. Other 

 graveyards like that at Harlyn, exist in Cornwall, and at any 

 time they may be unearthed by agricultural or building operations. 



From the foregoing facts — and others might be brought 

 forward — I conclude that men of the Ivernian i-ace lived in 

 Cornwall in the Neolithic Age, and we may picture their physical 

 and social characteristics, from what we have discovered of them, 

 in other parts of Great Bintain. 



748 Journal of the lioynl Instimiion of Coi nwall, vol. vii, 1881- 1 883. p. 136. The 

 account is given by Mr. C. Spence Bate, and there is also a drawing of the position of 

 the corpse, which well shows the contracted posture in which the body was buried. 



149. Sir John Evans gives cases of a drinking cup or food pot being found with 

 contracted skeletons in cists, in Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, pp. 148- 

 149. 



150. Noenia Corimbice, p. 78. 



151. La France P^'ehistorique, p. 230. 



152. Journal of ttie Royal Institution of Cornwall, vol. xiv, 1901, pp. 325—328. 



