cemetery of Caranda[1] in the commune of Fère-en-Tardenois, Aisne, in which great numbers of flint flakes and arrow-heads, and in some cases fragments of polished stone scrapers were found along with a battle axe, and the characteristic Merovingian brooches interred with the bodies. Their abundance is accounted for by the fact of the cemetery having been situated near the spot where the flint implements were manufactured, like that described at Cissbury. In other Merovingian cemeteries the flint implements are scarce, and are, according to M. de Mortillet, found under conditions which show them to have been used as amulets. In Britain, therefore, we may conclude that flint flakes were used in burial ceremonies in the Romano-British age, as late as the fourth century after Christ, and in France as late as the Frankish conquest. A parallel case of survival in religious ceremonial, after the things had passed away from every-day life, is that of the sacerdotal vestments in the Christian churches, in which the ordinary dress of the Roman gentleman of the time has been preserved.
The Neolithic civilisation formerly spread over Northern Africa, the whole of Europe, and Asia, the islands of the Pacific, and the Americas, and lingered in remote places until the introduction of iron in the course of the present century. In the days of Captain Cook it was to be studied in nearly all the islands of the Pacific, and perhaps may still survive in some remote islet as yet unvisited by European sailors.
- ↑ Matériaux, 1875, p. 105.
