Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric PeoplesNadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
History
Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples
Nadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
Archaeology; Prehistoric peoples
What we have just said about historic times applies equally to more
remote epochs. Thanks to the learned researches of Dr. Prunières32 we
are able to trace for a great length of time the modes of sepulture
adopted in Lozère. The cave men of the eroded limestone districts of
Les Causses took their dead to the caves in which their ancestors had
been laid, and the invaders, who were probably more civilized than
those they dispossessed, placed theirs beneath the dolmens which they
erected in their honor. In the sepulchral caves of Rouquet and of
_L’Homme Mort_ we find inhumation; beneath the megalithic monuments
dating from the end of the Neolithic period, we meet with the first
traces of cremation, but so far of a very incomplete cremation; the
action of the funeral fire had not been intense, and the bones were
hard and resisted the heat. Noting beneath certain dolmens a few bones
blackened by fire mixed with large quantities unaffected by it, one is
inclined to think with the learned Doctor, that after practising
cremation men had reverted to the old mode of burial. In the tumuli of
the Bronze age, on the other hand, where the date can be determined
with the aid of the ornaments and trinkets scatered about, the ustion
was more complete; the bones are friable and porous, crumbling into
dust when touched, and there is nothing to indicate that inhumation and
cremation were both practised.
It is strange indeed to find that incineration was practised from
Neolithic times in the wild mountains of Lozère. There can be no doubt
on the point, however, and excavations beneath the dolmen of
Marconnières strikingly confirm the earlier discoveries of Dr.
Prunières. Beneath a layer of broken stones and a very thin pavement,
was found a mass of human bones in the greatest confusion; some still
retaining their natural color, others blackened and charred by. fire.
Among these bones was picked up an arrow of rock foreign to the
country, three admirably polished lance-heads, and some finely cut
flint-darts. The dolmen contained no metal objects, and there was no
trace of metal on any of the bones.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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