Fig. 46.—Mound and sepulchral cist. The stones in this grave were of size of the fist, and formed a pavement of a diameter of about a yard. The urn contained burnt bones, among which were found a bronze awl, and fragments of a bronze saw.
Fig. 47.—Mound at Elsehoved, Fyen. At the bottom, in the centre of the mound, was found an irregular grave filled with earth, of about 4 feet 9 inches in length, 1 foot 9 inches in width, 1 foot 10 inches in depth (measured inside). Outside, on the natural soil, was spread a bed of earth, rich in charcoal, which contained remains of burnt bones and pieces of a clay urn, &c.
Burnt and unburnt bodies are sometimes found in the same mound; the latter generally at the bottom of the graves, the former at the top, this shows that the graves with unburnt bodies are considerably the older of the two. A mound with several graves may possibly have been the burial place of one family. The graves of the later bronze age are more numerous on the shores of the Baltic than in other parts of Europe. Sometimes the burnt remains have been found wrapped in clothing, and placed in an ordinary sized coffin, but more generally these burnt bones are preserved in urns of clay enclosed in a small stone cist.
Fig. 48.—Cairn covered with earth, bronze age, Kongstrup, Zealand. Diameter nearly 40 feet; height, 10 feet; covered with about 3 feet of clay, containing over thirty urns, one of which was fastened with a resin-like substance; with burnt bones and cinders, protected by little sepulchral cists made of slabs.
Fig. 49.—Mound of the bronze age, covering a double ring of stones; diameter of outside ring 86 feet; containing several burial-places, with urns and burnt bones.—Near Kallundborg, Zealand.
These stone cists of about the length of an average man are interesting as indicating the transition to the small ones containing burnt bones; some of these of a size large enough for an unburnt body have contained only a small heap of burnt bones, and evidently belonged to the period when the cremation of the dead began to prevail. Many of these little cists are only large enough to enclose a clay pot, in which the bones were collected; sometimes no coffins were found, but only clay pots containing ashes, a small bronze knife, a bit of bronze saw, or something of that kind. In some cases the bones were put simply into a hole in the mound and the whole covered with a stone slab.
