It may be taken for granted that these Hunebeds were at one time much more numerous in Drenthe than they now are, but it is a much more difficult point to ascertain whether they extended into the neighbouring provinces or not. One is found in Gröningen, and one in Friesland, and none elsewhere. It may, of course, be that in these more fertile and thickly inhabited districts they have been utilised, or removed as incumbrances from the soil, while in Drenthe their component parts were of no value, and they are useful as sheep-pens and pigstyes; and to these uses they seem to have been freely applied. It may be, also, that there are no granite boulders in the neighbouring provinces, and that they are common in Drenthe. There certainly seem to be none in Guelderland, a country in which we would expect to find monuments of this class, as it is the natural line of connection with the German dolmen region; and unless it is that there were no materials handy for their construction, it is difficult to understand their absence.
As these Hunebeds have been open and exposed for centuries at least—if they were not so originally—and have been used by the peasantry for every kind of purpose, it is in vain to expect that anything will now be found in them which can throw much light on their age or use. We can only hope that an untouched or only partially plundered example may be found in some of the numerous tumuli which still exist all over the country. I confess I do not feel sanguine that this will be the case. I would hope more from the digging up of the floor of those which are known, and a careful collection of any fragments of pottery and other objects which may be found in them. Nothing of any intrinsic value will be found, of course; but what is perfectly worthless for any other purpose may be most important in an antiquarian sense. Judging them from a general abstract point of view, they do not seem of high antiquity, and may range from the Christian era down to the time when the people of this country were converted to Christianity, whenever that may have been. This, however, is only inferred from their similarity to other monuments mentioned in the preceding pages, not from any special evidence gathered from themselves or from any local tradition bearing on their antiquity.
When we have examined the megalithic remains of Brittany and of the north of France, we shall be in a better position than we now are to appreciate the importance of the gap that exists between the French and Scandinavian provinces; but in the meanwhile it may be convenient to remark even here that it hardly seems doubtful that the Hunebeds of Drenthe and the Grottes des fées of Brittany are expressions of the same feeling, and, generally, that the megalithic remains of the southern and northern divisions of the western parts of the European continent are the works of similar if not identical races, applied to the same uses, and probably are of about the same age.
These two provinces are now separated by the Rhine valley. It is probably not too broad an assertion to say there are no true Rude-Stone Monuments in the valleys of the Rhine or Scheldt,[377] or of any of their tributaries, or, in fact, in any of the countries inhabited by the Germans and Belgæ. The dolmen-building races were, in fact, cut in two by the last-named race on their way to colonise Britain. When that took place, we have no exact means of knowing. According to Cæsar, shortly before his time, Divitiacus ruled over the Belgæ of Gaul and Britain as one province;[378] and the inference from all we know—it is very little—is that the Belgian immigration to this island was of recent date at that time. Whether it was one thousand or ten thousand years, the fact that interests us here is that it took place before the age of the rude-stone monuments. If we admit that the peoples who, from Cadiz to the Cimbric Chersonese, erected these dolmens were one race—or, at least, had one religion—and were actuated by one set of motives in their respect for the dead, it seems impossible to escape from the conclusion that, whether they came direct from the east, or migrated from the south northward, or in the opposite direction, they at one time formed a continuous community of nations all along the western shores of Europe. They were cut across only in one place—between Drenthe and Normandy—and that by a comparatively modern people, the Belgæ. If this is so, the separation took place in the pre-dolmen period, whenever that may have been. If the original races in Belgium had been in the habit of erecting dolmens before they were dispossessed by the intruders, we should find remains at least of them there now, as we do both north and south of that district. As the case now stands, the conclusion seems inevitable that it was after their separation that the northern and southern families, though no longer in contact, adopted, each in its own peculiar fashion, those more permanent and megalithic forms which contact with a higher civilization taught them to aspire to, without abandoning the distinctions which separated them from the more progressive Celts and the thoroughly civilized Romans.
NOTE.
The map opposite is compiled partly from the two by M. Bertrand, mentioned p. 326, and partly from one which accompanies Baron de Bonstetten's 'Essai sur les Dolmens,' 1864. It has been corrected, in so far as the scale would allow, from the information since accumulated; and may be considered as representing fairly our knowledge of the distribution of dolmens at the present day. Till, however, the Governments of this country and of Denmark condescend to take up the subject, such a map must necessarily remain imperfect in its most vital parts.
Footnotes
[321] 'Samlingar för Norders Fornälskare,' Stockholm, 1822-1830.
[322] 'Scriptures rerum Danicorum medii ævi,' 9 vols. folio, Hafniæ, 1722 et seq.
[323] 'Historic Danicæ,' lib. xvi. Soræ, 1644, in fol.
[324] The following list of the kings of Denmark, copied from Dunham's, and giving the dates from Suhm, and Snorro's 'Heimskringla,' will probably suffice for our present purposes:—
Suhm. Snorro. A.D. B.C. Frode I. 35 17 Fridlief 47 -- Havar 59 -- Frode II. 87 -- Wermund 140 -- Olaf 190 -- A.D. Dan Mykillate 270 170 Frode III. 310 235? Halfdan I. 324 290 Fridlief III. 348 300 Frode IV. 407 370 Ingel 436 386 Halfdan II. 447 " Frode V. 460 " Helge and Roe 494 438 Frode VI. 510 " Rolf Krake 522 479 Frode VII. 548 " Halfdan III. 580 554 Ruric 588 " Ivar 647 587 Harald Hildetand 735 " Sigurd Ring 750 -- Rajnar Lothbrog 794 -- Sigurd Snogoge 803 -- Herda Canute 850 -- Eric I. 854 -- Eric II. 883 -- Harald Harfagar -- 863 Gorm the Old (died?) 941 -- Harald Blatand 991 -- Sweyn 1014 -- [325] 'Samlingar,' &c. i. plate 11, fig. 38, p. 104.
[326] Loc. sup. cit., fig. 39.
[327] Stokes, 'Life of Petrie,' p. 260.
[328] Beowulf, loc. sup. cit.
[329] Engelhardt, 'Guide illustré du Musée à Copenhague,' p. 33.
[330] The woodcut is copied from a drawing in Sjöborg, ii. fig. 214. It is repeated by Worsaae, loc. sup. cit., both copying from some original I have not cared to trace.
[331] 'Historia Danica,' viii. p. 133.
[332] 'Danicorum Monument,' libri sex, i. p. 12.
[333] 'Primæval Antiquities of Denmark,' p. 113.
[334] At one time I was, on the authority of a Saxon charter, inclined to believe that this tumulus was the grave of Cissa, Saxon king of Winchester, who was contemporary with Arthur. I am now informed by the Rev. Mr. Jones, who has carefully gone into the matter, that the Charter No. 1094, which is taken from the 'Codex Winton.' fol. 54, refers to Overton in Hants, and not to Overton in Wilts, because Tadanliage (Tadley) is mentioned as part of it. As I cannot dispute the competency of so eminent an authority on such a question, its identification with the tomb of King Cissa must for the present be withdrawn, but it by no means follows in consequence that it may not be of his age.
[335] 'Prehistoric Times,' p. 153.
[336] The slaves of the Scythian kings were strangled (Herodotus, iv. 71 and 72).
[337] "Si quis, hominem diabolo sacrificaverit et in hostiam more paganorum dæmonibus obtulerit, morte moriatur."—Balusius, Capt. Reg. Franc. i. 253.
[338] The wood-blocks of these and other illustrations of Dr. Thurnam's paper were lent to Sir John Lubbock, and used by him in his 'Prehistoric Times,' Nos. 146-156, where they will be more accessible to many than in the 'Archæologia.'
[339] An argument for secondary interments has been attempted to be founded (Lubbock, 'Prehistoric Times,' p. 156) on an edict of Charlemagne, in which he says:—"Jubemus ut corpora Christianorum Saxonum ad cœmeteria ecclesiæ deferantur et non ad tumulos paganorum (Balusius, 'Cap. Reg. Franc.' i. p. 154). If the expression had been "in tumulos," there might have been something in it; but a fair inference from the edict seems to me to be that even in Charlemagne's time converted Saxons insisted on being buried—probably in tumuli—near where the tombs of their fathers were, and probably with pagan rites, in spite of their nominal conversion.
[340] 'Archæologia,' xlii. p. 195.
[341] Nothing would surprise me less than the discovery of an interment in the upper part of the barrow at West Kennet, between the roof of the chamber and the dolmen. Many indications in the West Country long barrows lead us to expect that such might be the case, but it by no means follows that it would be secondary. On the contrary, it would probably be, if not the first, at least the chief burial in the mound.
[342] I have tried hard to follow Worsaae's argument in respect to this point ('Zur Alterthumskunde des Nordens,' 1847), but without success. As he is personally familiar with the country and its monuments, he may be perfectly correct in what he states, but as there are neither maps nor illustrations to this part of the work, it is almost impossible for a stranger to judge; and as, like all Danes, he is a devout believer in the three-age system, it is difficult to know how far this may or may not influence his view.
[343] 'Prehistoric Times,' p. 107.
[344] 'One Year in Sweden,' ii. p. 183.
[345] Engelhardt, 'Catalogue illus.' p. 33. Suhm makes it 991, but this seems more probably to have been the date of the death of his son Harald Blaatand.
[346] 'Annalen for Nordk. Oldk.' xii. p. 13.
[347] 'Hist. danica,' x. p. 167.
[348] 'Guide ill.' p. 33.
[349] 'Primæval Ant. Denmark,' p. 104.
[350] Engelhardt, 'Cat. ill. du Musée,' p. 33.
[351] 'Proceedings Soc. Ant. Scot.' v. p. 265. If Ragnar was taken prisoner by Ella of Northumberland, it must have been in the latter half of the ninth century. Suhm places his death nearly a century earlier, 794.
[352] 'Primæval Ant. of Denmark,' p. 112.
[353] 'Annalen for Nord. Aldk.' vi. pl. x.
[354] Holmberg, 'Scandinavien Hallristingar,' p. 3.
[355] Ibid. p. 21. 'Soc. des Ant. du Nord,' ii. pp. 140 et seq.
[356] Sir James Simpson, appendix, vol. vi. 'Proc. Soc. Ant. of Scotland,' passim.
[357] Madsen, 'Antiquités préhistoriques du Danemark,' 1869.
[358] 'Samlingar,' i. pl. iii. fig. 6.
[359] Olaus Wormius, 'Danica Monumenta,' pp. 8 and 35.
[360] 'Essai sur les Dolmens,' p. 9.
[361] 'Heidnische Alterthümer von Uelzen,' Hanover, 1846.
[362] Madsen, 'Antiquités préhist.' pl. 8.
[363] 'Antiquitates Septentrionales,' pp. 320 and 519, pl. xvii.
[364] Madsen, plates 13 and 14.
[365] Bateman, 'Ten Years' Diggings,' p. 23. Lewellyn Jowett, 'Grave Mounds,' pp. 14 and 15, &c.
[366] Sjöborg. loc. sup. cit.
[367] Now destroyed. Sjöborg, iii. pl. 10, p. 143.
[368] Vide ante, footnote, p. 15.
[369] The woodcut is reduced from a plate in Worsaae's 'Alterthumskunde Scandinaviens,' but both it and the Amrom group are found in the 'English Archæological Journal,' xxiii. p. 187.
[370] Archæol. Journal,' loc. sit. p. 185.
[371] Bähr, 'Die Gräber der Liven,' Dresden, 1850, pl. i. Unfortunately, as is too often the case, no scale is engraved on the plate, and no dimensions are mentioned in the text.
[372] Not yet published, so far as I know.
[373] 'Die Gräber der Liven,' p. 51.
[374] 'Ant. Septent.' p. 5, pl. ii.
[375] It is by no means clear whether Mr. Sadler, who is the author of this paper, ever visited the spot, or compiled his information from Janssen's book, which, however, he never mentions. Be this as it may, it is the best paper I know of on the subject, and well worthy of perusal.
[376] The woodcut is from a photograph kindly lent me by Mr. Franks. It is sufficient to show the nature of the construction, but the camera is a singularly unintelligent interpreter of plan or arrangements.
[377] There are several dolmens, as before stated, in rugged mountainous parts of Luxemburg, but they seem to belong to the old races that in those corners were not swept away by the Belgian current.
[378] Cæsar, 'Bell. Gall.' ii. p. 4.