—Paleolithic cave dwellers of France and Belgium buried their dead in natural caves or crevices, like those in which they lived. Later stone-age people throughout Europe buried in chambered barrows or cairns. Bronze age people buried in unchambered barrows or in cemeteries of stone cists set in the ground often on a natural eminence, and surrounded by circles of standing stones. The cist was formed of a double row of stones covered with rude stone slabs.
Britains.
—Neolithic tribes in Britain buried either in caves or in chambered tombs, probably representing the huts of the living. Some of these barrows are very elaborate and massive; that of West Kennett is said to be 350 feet long. The dead were buried in the British tombs as they died, or in a contracted posture, probably due to their habit of sleeping in this position, and not at full length on a bed. Many cleft skulls are found in these tombs, suggesting human sacrifice, which as Caesar tells us, was prevalent among the Gauls. The bronze age usages were divided between burying and cremation. In burying, the contracted posture was followed. In cremation, the body was placed in a coffin made of the hollow trunk of an oak, split in two. In cremation, the ashes were collected in a funeral urn, twelve to eighteen inches high and were placed in a chamber. Articles of daily use were thrown into the fire.
Peruvians.
—The aborigines of the western continent were familiar with embalming. Prescott's “Conquest of Peru” tells that the royal “Incas” of Peru, were preserved by some process which did not give evidence of an external application. These bodies were then secreted under mounds of earth and in the interior of the temples. Prescott presents highly interesting pictures of these embalmed Peruvian monarchs sitting “natural as life,” in the chairs of the temples of the sun, at Cusco. They were clothed as in life, the raven black hair on their heads was still unchanged, and their hands were crossed upon their bosoms in the grim dignity of death.
Aztecs.
—The Aztecs, who were highly civilized, and were one of the most interesting and powerful tribes of early America, inhabited Mexico. The Aztecs were conquered by Cortez in 1519. Their history has been traced back to the twelfth century. The bodies of their dead, especially of those who could claim royal descent, were embalmed. It is related in Aztec legends how, after the deluge, seven persons came forth from the tomb to which their mummified bodies had been committed, and, in renewed existence, repeopled the earth.
North American Indians.
—Even our own North American Indians knew the art of embalming. Mummies remarkably well preserved have been found among the Flat Heads, Dakotas and Chinooks; and the Florida and Virginia Indians preserved the bodies of their Kings in the same way. The Kentucky caves have given up some remarkable specimens of this kind. The bodies of a woman and child were, in 1899, found in a cave in the Yosemite valley, and which, on account of its size (six feet and eight inches), some authorities believe to be a relic of the lost tribe of the stone age, possibly antedating the Christian era 3,000 years.