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TOMBS OF THE BRONZE-PERIOD.

cinerary urns here are merely placed about a couple of feet deep in the earth, and without any other protection than a circle of small stones.

The barrows of the bronze-period occur in much greater numbers and extent, both in the islands, and in Jutland, Sleswig, and Holstein. Where the greatest number are found, the population was probably most numerous. Yet the multitude of barrows in single spots induces the idea of battles, after which the fallen were interred on the field. These barrows are met with both in the districts on the coast, which were those first inhabited, as well as in the interior of the country, which at a later period was gradually cleared of wood. It follows thence that they are not to be referred to any very brief period, but rather belong to a long series of years, in which various, and now unknown events, may have occasioned the immigration of allied races of people. As they also date from a period in which, particularly towards the close of it, a connection with other countries, and by this means the opportunity of learning and adopting their manners and customs, was opened, which could not of course be the case during the stone-period, it will as little surprise us that they occasionally differ in structure and arrangement, as that, without exception, they contain corpses unconsumed by fire. These are found in small narrow cists of stone, which are composed of thin flat squares of stone, covered with similar ones; but this mode of interment scarcely came into use till towards the close of the bronze-period. Many of these tombs have also been constructed after the more recent civilization, characteristic of the age of iron, had begun to produce its effect on the people; and from this we can easily perceive that the ancient usages were no longer so closely observed.

III. Tombs of the Iron-period.

We may regard as a result of the circumstance that the iron-period can have commenced only at a comparatively