Use of Cowyy-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 131 



mens of the ring-cowry {C. anniilus) were found by Dr. 

 Layard in the ruins of Nimroud,-' and others of this form, 

 riMed down on the back, were met with in graves at 

 Shusha, in Transcaucasia, associated with numerous car- 

 nelian beads, perforated animals' teeth, stone implements, 

 and bronze and iron objects." 



Another find of special interest was made by Dr. 

 Truhelka at the pile-dwelling of Donja Dolina, on the 

 bank of the Save (Bosnia). Here urn-burials were met 

 with in under-ground vaults which contained the in- 

 cinerated remains of bodies and a wealth of grave-goods. 

 From the valuable nature of the latter it would appear 

 that the cremated persons were of great social distinction. 

 The objects comprised fibula;, beads of glass, amber, and 

 enamel, and other articles characteristic of the late 

 Hallstatt period. One of the chief objects of interest 

 was " one urn, which contained a necklet composed of 

 several hundreds of beads of amber, enamel, coloured 

 glass, seven cowrie shells, two perforated teeth, and a 

 large bead of clay without any ornamentation." ^ 



Dr. Schneider (op. cit., p. 1 1 5), quotes many interesting 

 discoveries of cowries in ancient graves, chiefly in the 

 neighbourhood of Danzig — the great amber-producing 

 region. According to this authority they were found at 

 Marienhausen, in the government of Witebsk, where in 

 1879, some 50 specimens occurred in a grave, doubtless 

 belonging to Slavonic times ; also in old pagan Lithuanian 

 graves, at Riigenwalde in Pomerania, in the urn of a 

 " giant's-grave " at Stolpe, on the well-known Pomerellen 



" S. P. Woodward, " Manual of the Mollusca," Reprint of 4th Ed., 

 London, 1890, p, 233. 



22 Verhandl. der Berliner Gess. f. Anthrop., 1892, pp. 566-8; 1894, 

 p. 216. 



-' R. Munro, " Palzeolithic Man and Terraraara Settlements in 

 Europe," Edinburgh, 1912, p. 473. 



