So far as we can see, this is the view that most nearly meets the facts of the case at present known, and in this respect their negative evidence is both interesting and instructive, though, except when viewed in this light, the monuments of the Mediterranean islands have no real place in a work treating on rude-stone monuments.
Footnotes
[487] 'Voyage pittoresque en Sicile et Malte,' 4 vols. folio, Paris, 1787.
[488] Ibid. pl. ccxli.
[489] The three formed part of a set of nine, a duplicate of which has kindly been lent to me by Mr. Frere, of Roydon Hall, Norfolk. Unfortunately there is no artist's name, and no date, upon them.
[490] 'Nouvelles Annales de l'Institut archéologique,' i.; Paris, 1836.
[491] With a paper by Mr. Vance, 'Archæologia,' vol. xxix. p. 227.
[492] For this plan and the photographs of it I am indebted to the kindness of Col. Collinson, R.E., who accompanied them by a very full description and notes on their history and uses, from which much of the following information is derived.
[493] Berbrugger, 'Tombeau de la Chrétienne—Mausolée des derniers Rois de Mauritanie;' Alger, 1867.
[494] 'Proceedings Soc. Ant. Scot.,' vi., Supplement.
[495] Hist., v. 12, 3.
[496] One at Mnaidra will be seen at F, in woodcut No. 180, and also in the view, woodcut No. 182.
[497] 'Voyage en Sardaigne,' par le Cte. Albert de la Marmora; Paris, 1840. As this is not only the best but really the only reliable work on the subject, all, or nearly all, the information in this chapter is based upon it.
[498] Bekker, iii. p. 604, para. 100.
[499] Diodorus, iv. 30; v. 15.
[500] 'Voyage en Sardaigne,' chap. iv. pp. 117 to 159.
[501] The Scotch brochs, which are in their construction the erections most like these, have all courtyards in their centre, in which all the domestic operations of the garrison could be carried on conveniently, and they only needed to creep into the chambers in the wall to sleep.
[502] 'Voyage en Sardaigne,' pp. 46 and 116.
[503] 'Voyage,' p. 152.
[504] De la Marmora, pl. v. p. 149.
[505] 'Antigüedades Celticas de la Isla de Menorca, &c.;' Mahon, 1818.
[506] 'Voyage,' pp. 547 et seq.
[CHAPTER XII.]
WESTERN ASIA.
Palestine.
Palestine is one of those countries in which dolmens exist, not in thousands and tens of thousands, as in Algeria, but certainly in hundreds—perhaps tens of hundreds; but travellers have not yet condescended to open their eyes to observe them, and the Palestine Exploration Fund is too busy making maps to pay attention to a subject which would probably throw as much light on the ethnography of the Holy Land as anything we know of. Before, however, retailing what little we know about the monuments actually existing, it is necessary in this instance to say a few words about those which we know of only by hearsay. All writers on megalithic remains in the last century, and some of those of the present, have made so much of the stones set up by Abraham and Joshua that it is indispensable to try to ascertain what they were, and what bearing they really have on the subject of which we are treating.
The earliest mention of a stone being set up anywhere as a monument or memorial is that of the one which Jacob used as a pillow in the night when he had that dream which became the title of the Israelites to the land of Canaan. "And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it."[507] The question is, What was the size of this stone? In the East, where hard pillows are not objected to, natives generally use a brick for this purpose. Europeans, who are more stiffnecked as well as more luxurious, insist on two bricks, and these laid one on the other, with a cloth thrown over them, form by no means an uncomfortable headpiece. The fact of Jacob being alone, and moving the stone to and from the place where it was used, proves that it was not larger than, probably not so large as, the head that was laid upon it. It certainly, therefore, was neither the Lia Fail which still adorns the hill of Tara nor even the Scone stone that forms the king's seat in Westminster Abbey, and, what is more to our present purpose, it may safely be discharged from the category of megalithic monuments of which we are now treating.
The next case in which stones are mentioned is in Genesis xxxi. 45 and 46: "And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap." This is not quite so clear; but the fair inference seems to be that what they erected was a stone altar, on which they partook of an offering, which, under the circumstances, took the form of a sacramental oath—one party standing on either side of it. The altar in the temple of Jerusalem, we know, down even to the time of Herod, was formed of stones, which no iron tool had ever touched,[508] and the tradition derived from this altar of Jacob seems to have lasted during the whole Jewish period. So there is nothing in this instance to lead us to suppose that "the heap" had any connection with the megalithic monuments of other countries.
The third instance, though more frequently quoted, seems even less relevant. When Joshua passed the Jordan, twelve men, according to the number of the tribes, were appointed, each "to take up a stone on his shoulder out of the Jordan, in the place where the priests' feet had stood, and to carry them and set them down at the place where they lodged that night, as a memorial to the children of Israel for ever."[509] Here, again, stones that men can carry on their shoulders are not much bigger than their heads, and are not such as in any ordinary sense would be used as memorials, inasmuch as they could be as easily removed by any one, as placed where they were. If ranged on an altar, in a building, this purpose would have been answered; but as an open-air testimonial such stones seem singularly inappropriate.