TREATMENT OF THE CORPSE. 103 



in the one case, and only T V r <l in the other. On the whole 

 we may certainly conclude that this mode of burial was 

 introduced at about the same period as the use of iron. 



As regards the habit of burning the dead, the evidence is 

 less conclusive. Out of a hundred cases, indeed, of graves 

 characterised by the presence of bronze, the corpse appears to 

 have been buried in a contracted posture nineteen times only, 

 in an extended position only seven times. It is evident, 

 therefore, that during the Bronze age the dead were 

 generally burnt. Possibly the graves in which a contracted 

 skeleton was found together with objects of bronze, may 

 have belonged to the commencement of the period, and to 

 representatives of the earlier race. It is true that there 

 are many cases in which interments by cremation, if I may 

 use such an expression, contain no weapons or objects of 

 bronze. We know, however, that this metal must always 

 have been expensive ; and it is not unreasonable to suppose 

 that many, if not most, of these interments may belong 

 to the Bronze age, although no objects of metal occurred 

 in them. 



There can be no doubt that in the Neolithic Stone age it 

 was usual to bury the corpse in a sitting, or contracted 

 posture ; and, in short, it appears probable, although far from 

 being satisfactorily established, that in Western Europe this 

 attitude is characteristic of the Stone age, cremation of that 

 of Bronze; while those cases in which the skeleton was 

 extended may be referred, with little hesitation, to the age 

 of Iron, At the same time, it must be admitted that the 

 evidence is very far from conclusive ; and we must remember 

 that in Anglo-Saxon times the dead were burned by some 

 tribes, and buried by others. 



Although the mere presence of a few flint flakes, or other 

 stone implements, is certainly no sufficient reason for referring 

 any given tumulus to the Stone age; the case is different 



