1888.] A. Rea— Pre-historic Burial-places in Southern India. 59 
or it might point to there having been a tnmulus or mound inside the 
circle, in which case the funeral urn would be close to the ground sur¬ 
face, and when the mound disappeared, the relics would go also. The 
fragments of pottery may be of service in a classification of such articles 
found at other places : they are quite different from the chatties found 
in the Pallavaram earthenware sarcophagi ; the pieces are moulded and 
have rude attempts at ornament. The contents of the Pallavaram tombs 
are all quite plain, and, with the exception of the crude notchings around 
the top of some of the larger tombs, there is no ornament of any sort : 
nor is there absolutely any on any of the small chatties yet found. As 
far as can be made out from these fragments, the outline also would Seem 
to have differed from the others. The rim around the earthen sarcophagus 
seen at Perianattarn, instead of being a bead-moulding as in some at 
Pallavaram, is moulded in a sort of spear-shaped section. 
Another circle, which had only one of the centre stones remaining, 
was examined ; but this had the appearance of having already been dug 
into at some previous time or other, and nothing was found but broken 
pottery. Could time have been had for an examination of one of the 
complete kistvaens, some relics, no doubt, would have been revealed. 
Megaliths and Earthenware Sarcophagi around Madura. 
Dadampatti. 
At Dadampatti, on the eastern outskirts of the village, are traces 
of about a dozen megalithic tombs. Some have been at one time or 
other partly excavated, probably for the treasure they were supposed to 
contain, or for the large slabs of stone of which they were formed. 
Those remaining show a large stone kist underground, formed of stone 
slabs on the top, sides and bottom. These have once on a time been 
enclosed by stone circles, but in only one case does this remain, and 
that, only partially. 
Close to these, a large stone covered a round earthenware tomb. 
I removed the slab and came to the tomb itself at over 3 feet below the 
ground surface : it was shaped like the pyriform earthen tombs at Palla¬ 
varam. The semi-globular earthen lid, which had once covered it, and 
which would extend up to the stone slab on the surface, was broken, but 
a few portions of it remained. Arranged around the outside of the rim 
was a series of chatties, but all broken ; from the different fragments, 
there seem to have been about half a dozen of them : they were all very 
soft and brittle. One of a reddish material is shown in Plate XT, 
fig. 1. It is semi-globular, broken, inches in diameter and 4<| inches 
deep, with moulded rim and groove around the outside. Auother was 
a portion of a black-glazed double-ringed stand for supporting the other 
