CZECHOSLOVAK PEOPLE MATIEGKA. 
477 
the northeast and the other from the southwest, and which occupied 
parts of the territory. In southwestern Bohemia the new invasion 
gives rise to a special characteristic culture the remains of which 
are found in mounds (see figs. 2-5). The burial is generally on 
the level of the ground, is surrounded by stones, and covered by a 
moderate sized earth mound. Occasionally in addition the mound 
itself is surrounded by a ring of stones. 
The older mounds yield objects of the advanced bronze period, 
such as bronze swords and other weapons, typical long bronze pins, 
armlets, etc. ; but in later burials there begin to appear also objects 
of iron (knives, arrow points, etc.) and bronze objects character- 
istic of the younger bronze period. Finally, with the latest burials 
of this prolonged intrusive phase there are found objects of Roman 
derivation, such as coins and keys. The bodies of the mound builders 
were either cremated or buried as a whole; but even in the latter 
cases the bones, due to the construction of the graves, are generally in 
Fig. 3. — A section of a mound, showing' two old burials covered by piles of stone,, and 
an intrusive more superficial interment. 
such poor preservation that it has not as yet been possible to form a 
precise opinion concerning the physical characteristics of the stock 
or tribe concerned. From the fact that mounds of this nature may 
be followed into Bavaria and farther on into Switzerland and 
France, we may judge that the physical type of the mound people in 
Bohemia resembled that of those regions, and there is some evidence 
to show that this was a dark-haired people, with rather a short skull. 
A gradual transition of the mound culture to the plain Slav culture 
in southern Bohemia (sixth to seventh century) indicates that the 
mound population was at least partly preserved and assimilated into 
the later Slav people. 
ASH-URN CEMETERIES OF NORTHEASTERN BOHEMIA. 
While or even before the mound culture began to spread over 
southwestern Bohemia, the northeastern part of the country began 
to be overspread by another and larger ethnic stream, which oe- 
