The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1898-03-12
INDIA IN PREHISTORIC TIMES.
Country Dotted with Mounds Which
Are Rich in Antiquities.

Country Dotted with Mounds which
Are Rich I'm Antiquities.
What were prehistoric times once are
now no longer so. Their history has
been exhumed and studied. In India
we know that the authors of the Vedas
speak about darker race of Dasyas
who were the inhabitants before the
Aryans. They lived in cities. But we
donot know much about them, although
1t is certain that many of the present
Inhabitants of India are their de-
scendants. Some of their mounds have
yielded flint implements. Those which
contain antiquities are scattered all
over the country, being situated in the
plains. When the country was first
peopled some of the earliest inhabitants
made their homes on these sites. The
houses were of mud or wood. In the
course of centuries the site of town
grew higher than the plain. Deposits
of all kinds were the cause of this ele-
walton. But in the unsettled condition
OF those early times no century ever
passed without the occasional destruc-
ton of the town by raiders or by inter
necine warfare. And it must have been
the case that owing to famines and cpl
denies the town was often depopulated
and deserted: Time after time, how
ever, the elevated site was again chosen
to be place of residence, and thus in
the course of centuries the mound grew
in size and height. Owing to the re-
currence of the causes mentioned the
site was altogether abandoned.
One other cause there was-the
change in the course of the rivers and
the loss of water near the surface. All
these sites were not similarly situated
Some We're near supplies of stone, and
this was utilized in building as civiliza-
ton spread Some religionists use
stone extensively for temples or stupas
as well as for palaces, houses and city
walls. When stone was not available
clay was used, the bricks made being of
great size and many of them highly or
namenteI. The great archaeologist, Sir
Alexander Cunningham, says that the
large size of the bricks points to a
period before the Christian era. The
nodded bricks are the most character
istic feature of all the old cities of the
Punjaub. The stone used was often
sculptured. In the Punjaub these
mounds are often rich in architectural
remains, which tell their own story of
bygone grandeur and cultivation. The
abandonment of the sites was some
times sudden in extreme, so sudden that
the inhabitants had not time to remove
their boarded wealth. 1t was left be-
hind and remains there still. Some
times the raiders gave the inhabitants
no chance of escape. a town would be
surrounded, its inhabitants seized and
the place plundered and burned. There
is a Persian couplet which exactly de-
scribes this:
They came, they uprooted. they burnt,
They slew, they carried away, they de-
parted.
After that the climate--the rains and
the sandstorms-covered the place
over. Nothing, however, could destroy
the mounds and their contents. Every
year the rains disclose numbers of
coins, and these find their way into the
hands of the money changers in the
bazars OF adjoining towns. These coins
show who was ieigning on the occasion
of the last abandonment of the site. In
the Punjaub the mounds have yielded
vast quantities of coins bearing inscrip-
were a people given to recording events
on stone. AS yet, however, no mound
has given Greek inscription. Only
which were regarded as being
the deposits of Buddhist remains have
been examined by the natives, and
those only partially. A small parcel of
ancient coins from the Akra mound
near Bannu, on the northwest frontier,
one of Kanishka, and had on
rs reverse the image of Nanaia. Her
hair is done in fashion which must |
have necessitated the use of large pins. |
Along with the coins was one OF the |
pins. 1t is of copper and is 734 inches |
ong and 0.2 inch thick. 1t is surmount- |
I'd by an image of n female 1s5 inches
nigh. What n story that Pin tells Of |
lrt and vanity 1000 years ago! All the
ancient mound in India are the prop
,rty of the government of India, which |
has already at work several archaeology
cal surveys, which have brought many
antiquities to light. But much
sculpture and many antiquities have
been quietly taken out of the country
unknown to the government. Year by
year collections of coins are made, and
hey too disappear without our mu-
eums being the richer by their ac-
James Gazette.
Bracelets for Men.
Bracelets are generally supposed to