560 THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



occasional traces of bronze. The skeletons were stretched upon the 

 back, the legs slightly drawn up. M. Antonovitch does not believe 

 that the bones were cleaned before burial. He thinks that the corpses 

 were covered with a layer of red ocher, and the soft parts becoming 

 decomposed, the color impregnated the bones. 



This same layer of ocher has been recognized by M. Ossowski in the 

 kourganes of Ukraine, where it attained the thickness of half a centi- 

 meter. The discovery in one of these sepulchres of an amphora of 

 Greek origin allows a great latitude in their date. According to M. 

 Zaborowski they might vary from the second century B. 0. to the 

 third century A. D.' 



At Kobrynowa, not far distant from the Dnieper and the Black Sea, 

 a kourgane (burial mound) contained twelve graves, the bodies laid 

 near the surface, but without regularity. The graves were trough-like 

 in form, about 5 feet in length, 28 to 30 inches in width, and 20 to 25 

 inches in depth. The walls were of clay, well mixed, which had been 

 originally sustained by joists and boards, all of which, however, had 

 disappeared centuries ago. These tombs contained fifteen skeletons, 

 all covered with a coat of red ferruginous paint of a variable thickness.^ 



M. Lygin anticipated M. Wasselowski in the Crimea. He had exca- 

 vated numerous kourganes in the districts of Yalta and Theodosia. 

 He tells us that the skeletons were sometimes extended at full length, 

 sometimes drawn up, but that the bones were always colored red. In 

 most of the tombs he found, near the skeleton, a small pottery vase 

 filled with ashes. This is confirmed by M. Vassilowitz. These repre- 

 sented, according to one or the other of these explorers, a funeral rite 

 which they were unable to understand.' Count Brobinski tells us of 

 the result of his excavations, in 1887, of fifty-two kourganes in the 

 Province of Kiew. The bones, and principally the skulls, had been 

 colored red by the use of i^eroxide of iron, remnants of which were 

 found near the skeletons. The tombs dated from the ISTeolithic period. 

 The funeral furniture comprised implements of stone and of reindeer 

 horn. Among the animal bones they found those of a rodent that had 

 disappeared from the country centuries before.* M. Ossowski cites 

 similar discoveries in Poland,^ and M. Yitkowski does the same for the 

 valley of Kitoi, Province of Irkutsk, Eastern Siberia. The dead were 

 buried with the arms, implements, and ornaments destined for their 

 use in the new life on which they were then entering. The corpses had 

 been covered with a thick layer of red ocher mixed with sand. The 

 decomposition of the flesh had aided the impregnation of the bones. 



'L'Anthropologie, 1890, pages 447, 448. Zaborowski, Du Dniester h la Caspienne. 

 Bill. See. Anth., February 21, 1895. 



2 Zaborowski, 1. c, page 126. 



^L'Authropologie, 1892, page 483. 



■"See. Anth. de Munich, 1888. Congres de Moscou, 1893. Bui. Soc. Anth., 1895, 

 page 126. 



■■• L'Anthvopologie, 1890, p. 446. 



