ne of the _tells_ or mounds of sun-dried bricks have yet been
identified as tombs, and that is because, as we have seen, the course of
civilization was from south to north; the first impulse came from the
shores of the Persian Gulf, from the people inhabiting alluvial plains
consisting merely of sand and broken stone. From the very first hour these
people had to compel clay, kneaded and dried in the sun or the brick kiln,
to render the services which are demanded from stone elsewhere. They were
content therefore with entombing their dead either in small brick vaults,
under large terra-cotta covers, or in coffins of the latter material.

The tomb chamber illustrated in our Fig. 89 may be taken as a type. It is
five feet high by seven feet long, and three feet seven inches wide. The
vault is closed at the top by a single row of bricks and at each end by a
double wall of the same material. There are no doors. The tombs once shut
must have been inaccessible. The structure was put together with such care
that neither dust nor water could get within it. Some of these graves, and
among them this particular one, inclosed only one skeleton. Taylor found
fourteen clay vases in it, not to mention other objects such as a walking
stick, rings, cylinders, and bronze cups. Besides these there was a gold
waist-band about an inch wide, showing it to be the grave of a rich man. In
other tombs as many as three, four, and even eleven skeletons were found.
In these the brick under the head and the bronze cup in the hand were
sometimes missing, but the water jars were always there.

[Illustration: FIG. 163.--Tomb at Mugheir; from Taylor.]

In other parts of the same cemetery the dead instead of being placed in a
vault were laid upon an area paved with large well burnt bricks and covered
with a huge terra-cotta lid. These lids were in several pieces, joined
together with reeds soaked in bitumen. We give a section (Fig. 163) and
elevation (Fig. 164) of one of these peculiar sepulchres. The whole was
about seven feet long, three high, and three wide.

The body of the lid is formed of several rings decreasing in thickness with
their distance from the ground. The top is an oval plateau divided into
eight symmetrical compartments by flat bands. The skeleton always lies on
its side, generally the left, the limbs being drawn up as shown in the
engraving (163). Taylor gives a complete list of the objects found in this
tomb together with notes as to