ON ETHNOLOGY. 
237 
is a remarkable fact, that in this wintry region, where organic nature seems 
to struggle against the elements for a precarious existence, even the arts 
of decoration were studied in those times of yore which witnessed the 
erection of these tombs. Implements ol silver, gold and copper, girdles 
of the precious metals, bracelets decked with pearls, anil fragments of por¬ 
celain, have surprised the travellers who liave seen a few of these tumuli 
acavated. Similar tumuli spread over the north of Eurojie contuiu the 
remains either of the same people or of races more barbarous than the 
.\siatics. Hundreds of these have been rifled by treasure-hunters, or by 
mere antiquaries little more cnlighteued, who have sought to make collec¬ 
tions of cariosities without any view to promote science or history. Of late 
veai% Eschricht, NiUson and Retzlus have nttemjited in Denmark and 
Sweden to identify in these relics the remains of dittereut races supposed to 
hare inhabited successively the north of Europe in early limes. Their 
example lias been followed by Dr. Wilde in Ireland ami by MM. Uobert 
and .‘'ems in France. I shall only observe, that in the opinion of the 
learned Swedes who have devoted tlicir attcniion to this subject, the sepul- 
^ral remains of Northern Europe may be referred to three successive teras. 
They display diflerent pliysical types and different ntoges of advancement in 
eivilizatum. The oldest are the relics of a people with round heads, having 
the transverse diameter of the cranium largo in jiroportion to the longitu- 
ilitml. The implements and ornaiiients which are found In the tombs of 
tii^B race indicate the greatest rudeness. They consist of tools and the heads 
of arrows and lances made of stone and bone, but nothing indicating n know- 
Wge of the use of metaU. Wiictlier these oldest tombs were the sepulchres 
®‘“^f>crace, is a cjupstion not yet decided. It soema to be the opinion 
w Retziiis and tliat of Nilsson who has written a learned work on Uie anti¬ 
quities oj Scandinavia*, that they were the burial-places of a people much 
oilier than the Celts. Similar remains more recently discovered in France, 
nave been supposed by MM. Robert aud Serres to bo referriblc in like 
jnatitier to different crus, but to what successive races they respectively 
utlouged is as yet only matter of conjecture. It seems however to have 
wen observed in many paru of Europe, that the skulls, which from their 
situation, and from the ruder character of the implenicnfs and ornaments 
lined with them, may be supposed to have belonged to the most ancient 
class, are of a rounder and broader form than the crania discovered in 
tombs of a later date ; and this olwervation tends to support the notion en- 
tmained by many persons, that the west of Europ had inhabitants pre- 
viously to the arrival of Celtic colonies, and that these earliest people 
dooged to a family of different physical characters from those of the Indo- 
fJtcc, and wert^ raon* nearly allied to the nations of Northern Asia. 
Ihe information afforded by inscriptions is much more definite, aud this 
wurce uf knowleilge has been greatly augmented of late years by the un- 
J«raUe!ed success of modern investigators, who have deoijihered the written 
oituiorials of many ancient nations, engraven on rocks and various monu- 
mcats, though the sense had remained unknown for thousands of years and 
1‘veii the languagea in w hich they were wriltcu had been lost. Numerous 
>iiwriptioii8 scattered over ull India, on rocks and the sides of caves, in Kabdl 
and tlirough the ancient empires of Iran and Assyria, Uirough Hadramaut 
tiid Oman, the remotest dislricU of Arabia, and through the north of 
Africa, to say nothing of the more celebrated remains of Egypt, prove that 
bleiature was cultivated in ihuse countries at a time when Europe was in- 
oabited by jiaiuted or taltoowl barbarians. In all those countries inscrip- 
" Scandlnaviska Xordens Urinvantre, af S. Nilsson. Lund, ld38-43. 
