626 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SOME OF THE LOCALITIES IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND 



WHERE MONUMENTS OF THE LATE STONE AND 



BRONZE AGES HAVE BEEN FOUND. 



By J. HOWARD WILSON, 



COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



AS we pass from the earlier periods into the neolithic, the culture 

 and modes of life of our ancestors become more varied and 

 complex ; the weapons, implements and ornaments are found in greater 

 number and in almost universal geographical distribution and exhibit 

 an ever increasing diversity of form and perfection of workmanship. 

 All these characters are still more pronounced at the beginning of the 

 bronze age, which is comparatively close to the first confines of the 

 historic period. In the later prehistoric times, the developing culture 

 and, in a measure, civilization, made such progress and became so 

 diversified as to require their division and classification into different 

 groups, each of which demands special study. 



In the present brief paper, I have confined myself to a short ac- 

 count of the stone monuments of the late stone and bronze ages, which 

 are found in many parts of the world, and furthermore have restricted 

 it to some of the most famous groups in northern France and southern 

 England. 



There would seem to be no well-defined law in regard to the 

 general distribution of the prehistoric stone monuments. They are 

 found all over Europe and Asia, as well as in other parts of the world ; 

 at high altitudes above the sea in interior mountain districts, as well 

 a} in low lying lands so close to the sea as to be drenched with spray 

 in storms. But the greatest known groups are found, curiously enough, 

 within or near the region which has furnished the most numerous 

 evidences of paleolithic man. This fact may be a mere coincidence 

 and not possessed of any especial significance. 



At Carnac, in Brittany, and in the neighboring region is the 

 greatest group in the world of these stone monuments. In one field 

 at Carnac, in eight or more parallel rows, are over 1,100 standing 

 stones or menhirs, while two other groups near-by furnish similar num- 

 bers, besides a great number of dolmens with stone-circles and tumuli. 

 On Wiltshire Downs there are said to be over 1,000 tumuli, which,, 

 although at first sight seem to be mere mounds of earth, are really 

 megalithic monuments in their more complete form. On Salisbury 



