Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 35.djvu/530

508 belonging to the period. Caldrons of clay have holes bored in the upper part, by which the vessel was probably hung over the fire for cooking. Vessels were decorated with straight lines. A horn axe assigned to this period bears two engraved representations of animals.

Except the pile-houses of the Swiss lakes, we know nothing of the dwellings of the Stone age. Prof. Montelius thinks the conjecture is allowable that the people lived in tents made of hides, or in hovels of wood, stones, and turf. Prof. Nilsson has traced a resemblance in form between what are called the "passage-graves" of Scandinavia and the homes of the arctic races in America and Europe. That the Stone-age men had fixed dwelling-places "appears from their often magnificent tombs, which seem to point to the beginning of an organized society, and the combined industry of a small community or of a whole tribe." These tombs are described as "dolmens" (Fig. 7), "passage-graves" (Fig. 8), and "stone cists" (Fig. 9). Of these, the dolmens were the earliest; the passage-graves are a little later; the



uncovered stone cists are later still; and the cists covered with a barrow belong to the time of transition between the Stone and Bronze ages.

"During the Stone age," says Prof. Montelius, "bodies were always buried unburned, in a recumbent or sitting position. By the side of the dead body was usually laid a weapon, a tool, or some ornaments. We often find in graves of this period earthen-ware vessels, now filled only with earth. The care bestowed upon the last resting-place of the departed certainly betokens a belief in a future life; but the things placed by the side of the dead seem to show that that life was believed to be merely a continuation of the life on earth, with the same needs and the same