The human remains in a cave in the province of Reggio,[96] on the northern flank of the Apennines, brought before the Prehistoric Congress at Bologna by M. l’Abbé Chierici, and considered by him to be proofs of cannibalism, are probably merely the result of interment in a refuse-heap that had previously been accumulated. They were associated with bronze pins, rivets, polished-stone axes, and various implements of bone, fragments of pottery and of charcoal, bones of pig, sheep, and dog, and belong therefore to the period of transition from the neolithic to the bronze age.
The caves have contributed but very little to our knowledge of the bronze-folk in any part of Europe. Examples, such as those given above, are scattered through France and Spain, but they are not sufficiently important to require notice. We could not expect that men, in the high state of civilization implied by the beautiful jewellery and ornaments which are distinctive of the bronze-folk, would have chosen the wild, half-savage life which is involved in cave-habitation.
CHAPTER V.
CAVES OF THE NEOLITHIC AGE.
Neolithic Caves in Great Britain.—The Refuse-heap at Perthi-Chwareu.—The Sepulchral Caves.—The Neolithic Caves in the neighbourhood of Cefn, St. Asaph.—The Chambered Tomb near Cefn.—Interments in Tomb and Caves of the same age.—Contents of Tomb and Caves.—Description of Human Remains by Professor Busk—From Cave No. 1 at Perthi-Chwareu—from Cairn at Cefn—from Cave at Cefn.—General Conclusions as to Human Remains.
It is evident, from the scanty remains found in caves, that they were not the normal habitations of men in the Bronze or Iron stages of culture. We shall, however, find that they were used by the neolithic peoples, both for shelter and for burial, in nearly every portion of Europe which has been explored.
Neolithic Caves in Great Britain.—Perthi-Chwareu.
The most remarkable examples of caves, turned to both these uses, in Britain, are offered by the group clustering round a refuse-heap at Perthi-Chwareu, a farm high up in the Welsh hills, about ten miles to the east of Corwen, and a mile to the west of the little village of Llandegla, in Denbighshire.