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A voust, 1873.]
TUMULI IN THE SALEM DISTRICT.
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must have been worn by women as necklaces and bracelets. Dr. Hunter makes the following remarks respecting them :-"The beads are very interesting; they are made of carnelian ornamented with a pure white enamel of considerable thickness, which has been let into the stone by grinding the pattern, filling in probably with oxide of tin and exposing the stone to heat. The enamel is very hard, cannot be touched with a knife, and is not acted upon by strong nitric acid. The small beads are made of white carnelian and ice-spar, a glossy felspar used by the natives to imitate diamonds..... They are in a better style than most of the beads I have seen from tumali." Besides these, a few were found made of quartz and of some dark-green stone. Figures 12 and 13 show the beads.
4. Iron implements.--These, consisting chiefly of knives or short swords, and measuring from 1 foot to 22 inches, are in such a crambling state that I have been able to procure only one unbroken. All the others have had to be gathered in pieces and stuck together on boards with strong cement. Figures 30-32 represent these. Some pieces of iron which appear to have been spear-heads, and some other things, have also been found, but in consequence of their broken condition I cannot pronounce positively what they were.
III. In discussing the difficult question “How old are the tumuli!" it is necessary in the first place to glance at the results already achieved by antiquaries in Europe. The nor, thern countries of Europe - Denmark, Sweden, and Norway-are particularly full of these ancient burial-places; and they have received the most careful attention from the northern antiquaries, by whom they have been divided, according to their contents, into three classes(1) Tamuli of the Stone period; (2) Tamuli of the Bronze period; and (3) Tamnli of the Iron period. Those of the Stone period are considered the oldest. They are often of great size, and are " peculiarly distinguished by their important circles of stones and large stone chambers, in which are found the remains of unburnt bodies, together with objects of stone and amber." This period represents the lowest state of civilization state before the intro
duction of metals, when arms and implements consisted of spear-heads of flint, and arrowheads of flint or bone. The tumuli of the Bronze period contain relics of burnt bodies, vessels of clay, and implements and ornaments of bronze; and so show the people in a more advanced state of civilization than the preceding. The tamuli of the Iron period are the most recent. They show the people in a comparatively advanced state of civilization. Iron swords, knives, and spear-heads, highly polished vessels and trinkets of gold, silver, and precious stones are found in them. Some of them also contain sculptures and inscriptions.
Now it will be readily seen that all the tumuli in the Salem District belong to the last or Iron period.
It is a striking fact that tumuli are found in almost every part of the world. Besides the countries already mentioned, they are found in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Great Bri. tain, Siberia, America, and the north of India. In Europe, tumuli belonging to each of these three periods are common. But in the south of India I believe that only those of the third period are found. I am not sure-not having seen Capt. Meadows Taylor's book--whether any of the tumuli in the north belong to any of the earlier periods, but I think not.
The question now is reduced to this:-What is the probable age of the last or Iron period ? I confess candidly, at the outset, that this question is enveloped in much darkness, and that, with the present data, nothing more can be done than to fix proximately the time when the Iron period ceased in Europe, and then, reasoning by analogy, to fix conjecturally the time when it ceased in India.
The earliest account of tumuli we have is in the Iliad. Homer in his account of the funeral of Patroclus describes in glowing terms how the body of the warrior was left burning during the night, and the embers quenched with wine at the dawn; how the ashes were then inclosed in an urn, placed near the centre of the place occupied by the pyre, which was surrounded by an artificial substructure, and how the loose earth was heaped above it so a to form a mound.
• But on this theory see Fergusson's Rude Stone Montments, pp. 9, 10, 19, et passim.-ED.
Bronse veuels and ornamento have been found in to
muli on the Nilgiri Hille, but iron implements were found with them, they do not define a Rronse age, but rather the transition from the Bronse to the Iron Age.
