Correlation of Chambered Tomb with Interments in the Caves of Perthi-Chwareu and Cefn.
Nor are we without evidence that the builders of this cairn belonged to the same race as those who buried their dead in the caves of Perthi-Chwareu and of Cefn. The crania and the limb-bones are identical, and in both the tombs and caves the dead were buried in a contracted posture.
Why then, it may be asked, were the remains of animals so rare in the one and so abundant in the other? In my opinion this difference may be explained by the hypothesis, invented by Professor Nilsson, of the origin of chambered tombs.[101] The idea of the “gallery graves,” according to that high authority, was derived from the subterranean house in which the deceased lived, and in which he was buried after his death, after the fashion of the Eskimos at the present day. The plan of the houses, like that of the ancient Lycian dwellings described by Sir Charles Fellowes, was preserved in the tombs, and probably for many ages after houses were no longer made in that fashion; since the principle of conservatism and the force of custom are more deeply rooted in religious and solemn ceremonial than in the changes of every-day life.
The rarity of the remains of the animals may be explained by the fact of these tombs never having been used as dwellings, while their abundance in the caves may be accounted for by the latter having been inhabited by man, and thus the idea of the dead resting in his own house would be the cause of burial both in caves and chambered tombs. It is not at all strange that the same race should have used both for sepulture, when we consider that a “gallery grave” is an artificial cave, and that natural caves are few in number.
This ancient race is proved by the remains to have been pastoral, rather than dependent on the chase, their principal food being the domestic goat, the short-horn (Bos longifrons), the horse, and hog. They are also proved to have been neolithic, not merely by the discovery of a polished stone axe in one of the caves, but also by the shape of the “gallery graves,” which Professor Nilsson and Dr. Thurnam agree in referring to that stage of culture.
Table of Contents of Caves and Chambered Tomb.
The contents of the caves and the stone chambers may be gathered from the Table which we give on the next page.
The broken bones of the hare prove that there was no prejudice against its flesh, as was the case among the neolithic dwellers in the Swiss Pfahlbauten. We shall see in the next chapter that the animal was also eaten by the dwellers in the neolithic caves both of France and Belgium.