1870.] De Mortuis. 345 



The " Kongehoi " contained four wooden coffins, in which were 

 bodies clothed in woollen garments, a bronze sword in a wooden 

 sheath ornamented with carvings, two bronze daggers, a wooden 

 bowl ornamented by a large number of tin nails, a vase of wood, 

 and a small box of bark. 



There can, therefore, be no doubt that these very interesting 

 tumuli belonged to the Bronze age, and I am inclined (says Sir 

 John Lubbock) to place them somewhat late in the period, partly 

 on account of the knife and razor-knife, both of which are forms 

 referable to the close of the Bronze period, and to the beginning of 

 that of Iron. Bronze brooches are also very rarely found in the 

 Bronze age, and are common in that of Iron. The sword, again, 

 belongs to a form which Professor Nilsson regarded as being of late 

 introduction. The mode of interment may also be regarded as 

 unusual in the Bronze age, though commonly so found in inter- 

 ments of the Iron a^e. 



In Denmark cremation appears to have been all but universal, 

 and seems plainly to betoken the south-eastern origin of the peoples 

 who practised it. Bateman and Sir B. C. Hoare, record a number of 

 instances of graves opened by them in England containing objects 

 in bronze which well illustrate the prevalence of burning the dead: — 



Body contracted. Burnt. Extended. ^certain. 



Number of cases . . 19 . . 59 . . 7 . . 15 



Canon Greenwell also mentions that out of 100 interments with 

 bronze ornaments, &c, examined by him, all were either burnt or 

 the body was placed in a sitting posture. Of the wide-spread practice 

 of interment in a sitting posture, we may find abundant instances 

 in Wilson's ' Pre-historic Man.' Thus * in opening a Peruvian tomb 

 it is stated " the male mummy was that of a man in the maturity 

 of life, in the usual sitting position, with the knees drawn up to the 

 chin." We should certainly consider this mode of interment to be 

 the most primitive. 



If ornaments, weapons, or coins in any number, be found in the 

 grave, or if much labour has been bestowed upon its construction, we 

 may justly infer that, to whatever period the grave may belong, it was 

 the last resting-place of a chief or warrior of the tribe ; for the same 

 causes which operate now to deter the poorer classes from a lavish 

 expenditure upon the dead, acted in early times still more strongly, 

 when every article of dress and every weapon being required for 

 daily use were of so much greater intrinsic value, and consequently 

 the devotion which instigated their dedication to the use of the de- 

 parted must have been either the result of strong attachment, or a 

 display of the affluence of the family to which the deceased belonged. 



There can be no doubt that the introduction of Christianity was 

 * At p. 440. 



