In Denmark the modern history of the Bauta stones, as the grave or battle stones are there called, is somewhat different. They early received a Runic as the Irish received an Ogham inscription, but Denmark was converted at so late an age to Christianity (the eleventh century) that her menhirs never passed through the early Christian stage, but from Pagan monuments sank at once into modern gravestones, with prosaic records of the birth and death of the dead man whose memory they were erected to preserve.
13. Lochcrist Menhir.
In all these instances we can trace back the history of the menhirs from historic Christian times to non-historic regions when these rude stone pillars, with or without still ruder inscriptions, were gradually superseding the earthen tumuli as a record of the dead. It is as yet uncertain whether we can follow back their history with anything like certainty beyond the Christian era. This, however, is just the task to which antiquaries should address themselves. Instead of reasoning as hitherto from the unknown to the known, it would be infinitely more philosophical to reason from the known backwards. By proceeding in this manner every step we make is a positive gain, and eventually may lead us to write with certainty about things that now seem enveloped in mist and obscurity.
Footnotes
[42] It is so curious as almost to justify Piazzi Smyth's wonderful theories on the subject. But there is no reason whatever to suppose that the progress of art in Egypt differed essentially from that elsewhere. The previous examples are lost, and that seems all.
[43] Herodotus, ii. 123; and Sir Gardner Wilkinson's 'Ancient Egyptians,' second series, i. 211; ii. 440 et passim.
[44] Herod, i. 93.
[45] 'Lydische Königsgräber,' Berlin,
1859.[46] I am, of course, aware that the now fashionable craze is to consider Troy a myth. So far, however, as I am capable of understanding it, it appears to me that the ancient solar myth of Messrs. Max Müller and Cox is very like mere modern moonshine.
[47] Paus. ii. ch. 16; 'Dodwell's Pelasgic Remains in Greece and Italy,' pl. 11.
[48] Dodwell, 1. c. p. 13.
[49] More particulars and illustrations of these tombs will be found in the first volume of my 'History of Architecture,' and they need not, therefore, be repeated here.
[50] 1 Kings, vii. 13 et seq.; 2 Chron. iv. 1 et seq.
[51] Hesiod. 'Works and Days,' 1. 150.
[52] 'Crania Britannica,' passim. 'Archæologia,' xxxviii.
[53] 'Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire,' 1848. 'Ten Years' Diggings,' 1861.
[54] See controversy between Sir George Cornewall Lewis in his 'Astronomy of the Ancients,' p. 467 et seq. and Sir John Lubbock, in 'Prehistoric Times,' p. 59 et seq. with regard to Pytheas and his discoveries.
[55] In the Kubber Roumeia, in the Sahil, or the Madracen, near Blidah.
[56] See Turnour in 'J. A. S. B.' vii. p. 1013.
[57] Cunningham, 'Bilsah Topes,' passim; and 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' by the author, p. 87-148.
[58] Dolmen is derived from the Celtic word Daul, a table—not Dol, a hole—and Men or Maen, a stone.
[59] Crom, in Celtic, is crooked or curved, and therefore wholly inapplicable to the monuments in question; and lech, stone.
[60] The most zealous advocate of this view is the Rev. W. C. Lukis, who, with his father, has done such good service in the Channel Islands. His views are embodied in a few very distinct words in the Norwich volume of the 'Prehistoric Congress,' p. 218, but had previously been put forward in a paper read to the Wiltshire Archæological Society in 1861, and afterwards in the 'Kilkenny Journal,' v. N. S. p. 492 et seq.
[61] 'Iter Curiosum,' pl. xxxii. and xxxiii.
[62] 'Stonehenge and Avebury,' pl. xxxii. xxxiii. and xxxiv.
[63] Madsen, 'Antiquités Préhistoriques,' pl. 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
[64] Norwich volume of 'Prehistoric Congress,' p. 355, pl. vi.
[65] Sir H. Colt Hoare, 'Ancient Wiltshire,' ii, 71.
[66] The stones of which it was composed were transported by General Conway to Park Place, near Henley-on-Thames, and re-erected there.
[67] 'Archæologia,' viii. p. 384.
[68] 'Sculptured Stones of Scotland,' ii. Introd. p. 25.
[69] 'Archæologia,' viii. p. 385.
[70] Deum maxime Mercurium colunt. Hujus sunt plurima simulacra. 'Bell. Gal.' vi. 16.
[71] Sir Gardner Wilkinson in 'Journal, Archæological Association,' xvi. p. 112, pl. 6 for Cas Tor, and pl. 7 for Merivale Bridge.
[72] From Maen, as before, stone, and hir—high. Minar is supposed to be the same word. It cannot, at least, be traced to any root in any Eastern language.
[73] 'Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,' iv. 119 et seq.
[74] 'Freminville, Finistère,' pl. iv. p. 248.
[75] All these, and many others, are to be found illustrated in Taylor and Nodier's 'Voyage Pittoresque dans l'ancienne Bretagne;' but as the plates in that work are not numbered they cannot be referred to.
[76] I know only one instance of sculptured stone in France; it occurs near the Chapelle St. Marguerite in Brittany.