THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THE SOUL.
49o
496 INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THE SOUL.
On the other hand the Acheans of Homer are practising
cremation at least B.C. 1000.
Let. us now investigate the burial customs of the peoples
lying north of Greece. If it can be shown that cremation was
practised in central and upper Europe from at least 1200 B.C.,
there will be a very high probability that cremation had
descended from thence into Gi-eece.
We saw the Scythians invariably burying their dead in the
fifth century B.C. Let us now return to their neighbours on
the European side.
The wealthy Thracians were buried thus :
the
body was
laid out for three days, and during this time they killed victims
of all kinds, and feasted upon them, after first bewailing the
departed. Then they either burned the body or else buried it in
"
the ground. Lastly, they raise a mound over the grave and
hold games of all sorts, wherein the single combat is awarded
the highest y)rize'."
As the genuine Thi'acians wore shown to be of the same
race as the Illyrians, this statement is confirmed by the facts
revealed in the cemeteries of Bosnia (p. 482). Thus at Glasinatz
the builders of the barrows of the L'on Age practised both
inhuiiuitiou and cremation at the same time, burials of the
former class forming (jO j)er cent., of tht' latter oO ])ei' cent.,
while the I'emainiiig 10 ])er cent. we!e of a mi.xed eiiaracter,
and contained both kinds of inteinieiits. We also saw that
inhumation was hmt ))rol)al)ly
tlie earlier practice,
as tht* few
burials of th