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

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INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THE SOUL. 497
Almost all the Umbrian graves at Bologna are cremation,
nevertheless some skeletons have been found with articles
dating from the same epoch. These skeletons are found "sulla
nuda terra" (without coffin) and are usually a little higher
than the ordinary graves.
The remains are chiefly those of
women, the objects buried with them are poor in value. One
lay on its belly some of them were placed over or quite near
;
the tombs of wealthy persons. They were probably female
slaves' sacrificed not to go with their masters, but rather to
take charge of his grave.
The graves of the Etruscans are of a thoroughly distinct
type (pp. 23!), 240), and in them the dead are always unburnt.
cremation was
Advancing to Rome we find that although
regularly practised by the upper classes at the end of the
Republic and under the early empire, nevertheless the poorer
classes biu'ied their dead, probably from the fact that interment
was much cheaper than burning. Yet we must not regard
poverty as the sole cause, for in India people of but scanty
means will do their best to provide a pyre of sufficient size to
at least partiall\'
consume the C(jrpse.
But we know from
Plinv that stuiie of the m(jst ancient Roman faiidlies alwavs
contiinied to inter their dead unburnt. Sulla was the first of
the Cornelian gens whose body was burned.
The bodies of iidaiits- were never burned, but alwavs
buried, a piaetiee which we shall socjii Hnd among the creniatioiiist
Hindus. The Ixxlies of those' who 1i:h1 been struck
1)\'
lightning were also bnrie(l, ;in(l not burned.
Both Cicei-o' and Pliny' held that iidniniation was the
most ancient, custom.
Molitcliii-, I., I drills, i/iiiii I'riiii. I'll It.ili,', ])]>. :i(l:i, lid I. I'lic .skeletons
lav cither to .N'.W. oi- S.W. In the I'miuian ^rravcs the ciiuiaiy urns --land at
tlic cast, end of the loiiilj.
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.Fuvcnah \v. 110,
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l. Sul'.ain (hetatoreni tia(htur cicniatus, idi[Ue voliiissc viMituni talinneni
ciiito (iai Mari ehla\eie. '{'he lonihs ,,t' the Si'ipiiis eonliiiii the la^-t slatenii nt.
498 INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THE SOUL.
In view of the mixed nature of the population of early
Rome Ave need not be surprised at the dual forms of disposing
of the dead. The Siculi had overmastered the Aborigines of
Latium, whom we held to be Ligurians. These Aborigines
had later on, with the aid of the Pelasgians, expelled or
subjugated the Siculi, whilst finally came the Sabines from
Reate. We have seen that not only the earliest inhabitants
of southern Italy, but also the Siculi, who had settled there
and in Sicily, as well as the aboriginal Ligurians of upper
Italy, had all interred their dead, whilst on the other hand
the Umbrians, who had advanced down after the Siculi, always
practised cremation. But as the Sabines belonged to this
later layer of population, we may safely conclude that it was
with the Sabine element in the population that cremation got
into Rome. It certainly did not come up from the south.
Returning to the Alps, we find that the Rhaetians practised
cremation, for the cemeter}" of Vadena shows no other form of
burial. The graves found there, as might have been expected,
are practically
identical with those of their Umbrian kinsfolk.
" The Yadena tombs arc of the same stamp as those of Golasecca.
They belong to a similar civilization, to a similar
population'." The ashes of the dead were placed in large urns
in the earth along with the ornaments and other personal
possessions, which usually bear traces of fire. As at Golasocca
the ossuaries were covered with cup-shaped vessels to serve as
lids, and were accompanied by smaller vases. The ornament of
all the pottery was of a simple linear character. The gra\es
were formed of slabs of stone (cf. p. 28cS).
Now let us cross the Alps, and we shall find that cremation
was both of a v(,'i'y early
|)arts of u]>|)('r
Kuro))e.
date and almost, universal in certain
The Swiss Luke-dwellers of the Stone Age seem to ha\'e
ahnost exclusively ])i-actise(l
inhumation. Thus at C'hablandes
neai' Fully were found graves of the Stone Age,
the sitles of
which were ioi'uied of four slabs set on v^V^v with a fifth one for
a c()ver.
They average a metre in length
Mortillct, l.f Siiiiic ilf III ('mix iinnit It: ('liri.-li(iiiisiiu\
JSiitiami and S. Itt'iuacli, /.