One point, I fancy, there will be very little difficulty in proving, which is, that the whole form one continuous group, extending in an unbroken series, from the earliest to the latest. There is no hiatus or break anywhere; and if some can be proved to belong to the 10th century, it is only a question how far you can, by extenuating the thread, extend it backwards. It can hardly be much beyond the Christian era. It seems that such a date satisfies all the known conditions of the problem, in so far as the Stone Monuments at least are concerned. There is, so far as I know at present, absolutely no evidence on the other side, except what is derived from the Danish system of the three ages: if that is established as a rule of law, cadit questio, there is no more to be said on the subject. But this is exactly what does not appear to have yet been established on any sufficient or satisfactory basis. There need be no difficulty in granting that men used stone and bone for implements, before they were acquainted with the use of the metals. It may also be admitted, that they used bronze before they learned the art of extracting iron from its ores. But what is denied is, that they abandoned the use of these primitive implements on the introduction of the metals; and it is contended that they employed stone and bone simultaneously with bronze and iron, down to a very late period. The real fact of the case seems to be, that the people on the shores of the Baltic and the North Sea, were as remote from the centres of civilization on the Mediterranean and to the eastward of it in the earlier centuries of our era, and were as little influenced by them, as the inhabitants of the islands in the Pacific and Arctic America were by Europe in the last century. In the remote corners of the world, a stone and bone age exists at the present day, only modified by the use of such metal implements as they can obtain by barter or exchange: and this appears to have been the state of northern Europe, till, with their conversion to Christianity, the new civilization was domesticated among its inhabitants.
Footnotes
[2] Those three treatises were afterwards republished in one volume, small folio, with all the plates, &c., in London, 1725. It is from this volume that the above is abstracted.
[3] Cæsar, 'De Bell. Gal.' vi 13-20.
[4] 'Hist. Nat.' xxix. 3.
[5] 'Historia,' v. 31.
[6] 'Geographica,' iv. 273.
[7] Tacitus, 'Ann.' xiv. 29.
[8] See controversy between M. Bertrand and M. Henri Martin, in volume of 'Congrès préhistorique' (Paris, 1867), 193, 207, &c. See also 'Revue archéologique,' août, 1864, 144.
[9] For further information on the subject, the reader is referred to 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' by the author, p. 26 et seq., where the subject is treated of at length.
[10] 'Archæologia,' xxv. 188 et seq.
[11] Mr. Ellis, 'Gent. Mag.' 4th series, ii. 317.
[12] 'Proceedings of the Archæological Institute, Salisbury,' volume 113.
[13] Diodorus, ii. 47.
[14] Ibid. v. 21 et seq.
[15] The volume containing the account of the proceedings of the congress has not yet been published; so those who were not present cannot feel sure to what extent these modifications were carried or admitted. A short account of the Congress was published by Gen. Lefroy, in the 'Journal of the Archæological Institute,' Nov. 1869, p. 58 et seq.
[16] "According to an analysis made by Sir John Lubbock, of the contents of 250 tumuli described by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, in the first volume of his 'Ancient Wiltshire,' 18 only had any implements of stone, only 31 of bone, 67 of bronze, and 11 of iron, while one-half of them contained nothing to indicate their age; but whether those that contained nothing are earlier or more modern is by no means clear."—Prehistoric Times, 2nd edit. p. 131.
[17]" Veterum Gothorum et Suevorum antiquissimus mos est ut ubi acriores in campis seu montibus instituissent et perfecissent pugnas, illic erectos lapides quasi Egyptiacas pyramides collocare soliti sunt ... Habent itaque hæc saxa in pluribus locis erecta longitudine x. vel xv. XX. aut xxx. et amplius et latitudine iv. vel vi, pedum, mirabili situ sed mirabiliori ordine et mirabilissimo charactere, ob plurimas rationes collocata literato, rectoque et longo ordine videlicet pugilarum certamina, quadrato, turmas bellantium, et spherico familiarum designantia sepulturas ac cuneato equestrium et pedestrium acies ibidem vel prope fortunatum triumphasse," &c. &c.—De Gentibus Septentrionalibus, &c. p. 48.
Or again:—"Quos humi recondere placuit honorabiles statuas lapidum excelsorum prout hodie cernuntur mira compagine in modum altissimæ et latissimæ januæ, sursum transversumque viribus gigantum erecta."—Ibid. 49.
[18] 'Danicorum Monumentorum,' libri sex, 22 et seq.
[19] 'Memoirs of Hugh Falconer,' by Dr. Murchison, ii. p. 596.
[20] In 1797, Mr. John Frere found flint implements identical with those at Abbeville, and published an account of them, with engravings, in vol. xiii. of the 'Archæologia,' in 1800.
[21] In the first years of the last century a flint implement, together with some bones of the Elephas primigenus, were found in an excavation in Gray's Inn Lane. An engraving of it was published in 1715, and the implement itself is now in the British Museum.
[22] For the last, and one of the best, accounts of the Hydahs, see 'Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society,' vol. xiii. No. V. p. 386 et seq., by Mr. Brown.
[23] 'Germania,' 9.
[24] Strabo, iv. p. 198.
[25] Bede, 'Hist. Eccles.' i. 30.
[26] "Inibi antiquo Romanorum fidelium opere factam," Bede, 'Hist. Eccles.' i. 32.
[27] Thorn, 'Dec. Script. Col.' 1760:—"Erat autem non longe ab ipsa civitate ad orientem quasi medio itinere inter ecclesiam Sti. Martini et muros civitatis Phanum sive ydolum situm ubi rex Ethelbertus secundus ritum gentis suæ solebat orare et cum nobilibus suis dæmoniis et non deo sacrificare. Quod Phanum Augustinus ab iniquinamentis et sordibus gentilium purgavit et simulacro quod in eo erat infracto, synagogam mutavit in ecclesiam, et eam in nomine Sti. Pancratii martyris dedicavit."
Of this "Fane" we further learn from Godselinus ('Leland Collect.' vol. iv. p. 8), that "extat adhuc condita ex longissimis et latissimis lateribus more Britannico ut facile est videre in muris Verolamiensibus," and may now be seen in this very church at Canterbury. "Basilica Sti. Pancratii nunc est ubi olim Ethelbertus idolum suum coluit. Opus exiguum structum tamen de more veterum Britannorum."
[28] Gervaise, 'Acc. Pont. Cant.' p. 1640.
[29] Bede, 'Hist. Eccles.' ii. 15.
[30] "Succendere fanum cum omnibus septis suis," Bede, 'Hist. Eccles.' ii. 13.
[31] Summo decertare debent studio episcopi et eorum ministri ut—Lapides quoque, quos in ruinosis locis et silvestribus, demonum ludificationibus decepti venerantur ubi et vota vovent et deferunt, funditus effodiantur, atque in tali loco projiciantur ubi nunquam a cultoribus suis inveniri possint et omnibus annunciatur quantum scelus est idolatria.—Labbeum, t. ix. 474.
[32] Richard, 'Analyse des Conciles,' i. 646.
[33] Si in alicujus episcopi territorio infideles, aut faculas accendunt, aut arbores, fontes vel Saxa venerentur si hoc eruere neglexerit, sacrilegii reum se esset cognoscat.—Labb., iv. 1013.
[34] Contestamur illam solicitudinem tam pastores quam presbyteros, gerere ut quemcunque in hac fatuitate persistere viderint, vel ad nescio quas petras aut arbores vel fontes, designata loca gentilium perpetrare, quæ ad ecclesiæ rationem non pertinent eos ab ecclesia sancta auctoritate repellant.—Baluz, i. 518.
[35] Cultores idolorum, veneratores Lapidum, accensores facularum excolentes sacra fontium vel arborum admonemus, &c.—Baluz, vi. 1234.
[36] Illi diversis suadelis decepti cultores idolorum efficiuntur, veneratores Lapidum, accensores facularum, excolentes sacra fontium vel arborum, &c.—Baluz, vi. 1337.
[37] Si aliquis vota ad arbores, vel fontes, vel ad Lapides quosdam, quasi ad altaria, faciat aut ibi candelam, seu quolibet munus deferet velut ibi quoddam Numen sit quod bonum aut malum possit inferre.—Baluz, 1. 2, p. 210.
[38] Item de arboribus vel Petris vel fontibus ubi aliqui stulti luminaria vel aliquas observationes faciunt omnino mandamus, ut iste pessimus usus et deo execrabilis ubicunque invenitur tolletur et distruatur.—Baluz, t. i. p. 235.
[39] Barbara est autem adoratio, sive quas idola (puta gentium divos), Solem, Lunam, Ignem, Profluentem, Fontes, Saxa, cujusque generis arbores lignam coluerunt.—Keysler, 'Antiquitates Septemtrion.' (Hanoveræ, 1720), p. 18. He quotes also a canon of Edgar (967) to the same effect.
[40] 'Ant. Sept.' chap. ii.
[41] Laing in his wrath seems to have, by accident, very nearly guessed the truth, when, refuting the authenticity of Ossian, he accuses Macpherson of "having rendered the Highlanders a race of unheard-of infidels, who believed in no Gods but the ghosts of their fathers."
[CHAPTER II.]
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
Before attempting to examine or describe particular instances—in which, however, the main interest of the work must eventually be centred—it would add very much to the clearness of what follows if a classification could be hit upon, which would correctly represent the sequence of forms. In the present state of our knowledge such an arrangement is hardly possible, still the following 5 groups, with their sub-divisions, are sufficiently distinct to enable them to be treated separately, and are so arranged as roughly to represent what we know of their sequence, with immense overlappings, however, on every joint.
| I. | —Tumuli | a. | Or barrows of earth only. |
| b. | With small stone chambers or cists. | ||
| c. | With megalithic chambers or dolmens. | ||
| d. | With external access to chambers. | ||
| II. | —Dolmens | a. | Free standing dolmens without tumuli. |
| b. | Dolmens upon the outside of tumuli. | ||
| III. | —Circles | a. | Circles surrounding tumuli. |
| b. | Circles surrounding dolmens. | ||
| c. | Circles without tumuli or dolmens. | ||
| IV. | —Avenues | a. | Avenues attached to circles. |
| b. | Avenues with or without circles or dolmens. | ||
| V. | —Menhirs | a. | Single or in groups. |
| b. | With oghams, sculptures, or runes. |
Tumuli.
The first three of the sub-divisions of the first class are so mixed together that it is almost impossible in the present state of our knowledge to separate them with precision either as to date or locality, while, as they hardly belong to the main subject of this book, it will not be worth while to attempt it here.
Without being too speculative, perhaps, it may be assumed that the earliest mode in which mankind disposed of the bodies of their deceased relatives or neighbours was by simple inhumation. They dug a hole in the earth, and, having laid the body therein, simply replaced the earth upon it, and to mark the spot, if the person so buried was of sufficient importance to merit such care, they raised a mound over the grave. It is difficult, however, to believe that mankind were long content with so simple a mode of sepulture. To heap earth or stones on the body of the beloved departed so as to crush and deface it, must have seemed rude and harsh, and some sort of coffin was probably early devised for the protection of the corpse,—in well-wooded countries, this would be of wood, which, if the mound is old, has perished long ago—in stony countries, as probably of stone, forming the rude cists so commonly found in early graves. That these should expand into chambers seems also natural as civilization advanced, and as man's ideas of a future state and the wants and necessities of such a future became more developed.