Notices of the Proceedings at the Meetings of the Members of the Royal Institution, with Abstracts of the Discourses Volume 15 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ...skeleton has been that of a child. Sometimes the cist was below the average in size, and contained only the skeleton of a child or young person. Such examples throw light upon the family relations of the people of this period. They show that they desired to preserve the associations of kinsfolk even after death; and when the cist contained the remains only of a child it was constructed with the same care as if it had been the tomb of a chief. When cremated bodies are found associated with stone cists in the same cemetery, the cinerary urns in which the ashes were customarily deposited lie outside the cists, and in quite independent excavations in the soil, but in such close proximity as to show that they belonged to the same period. In two instances short cists have been opened, in which, alongside of the skeleton of an unburnt body were cremated human bones, not contained in a cinerary urn, but scattered on the floor of the cist, which conclusively prove that both cremation and inhumation were sometimes in practice at the same interment. One may now inquire into the reason why cinerary urns, with their contained ashes, and short cists, enclosing bodies which had been buried in a bent or stooping attitude, should be associated with the men of the Bronze Age. The first and most important is the presence of objects made of bronze. In the 144 localities under analysis in which interments ascribed to the Bronze Age have been examined, bronze articles were fouud in 34 directly associated with the interments. In four of these the bronze was along with objects made of gold. In seven other interments of the same character gold ornaments without bronze were present. The men of this period were, therefore, workers in gold also, and as it has been, ..