MONUMENTS OF THE STONE AND BRONZE AGES. 631 



The covered passage or allee couverte may terminate in a small 

 chamber, made by partitioning off the end of the passage by means of 

 one or more menhirs or supports, so that there would seem to be no 

 sharp line of distinction between the dolmen and the covered passage, 

 each perhaps at times being a modification of the other. 



The dolmen seems to be always sepulchral and, as the final resting 

 place of the earthly remains of a chief or a line of important rulers, 

 it must have been regarded as sacred and an object of veneration. At 

 all events it was covered with an elaborate tumulus. 



The stone cist appears to be, as a rule, of later age than the dolmen, 

 but was likewise the receptacle of the remains of the dead and was 

 covered with a tumulus or galgal. The great tumulus of Mont Saint 

 Michel at Carnac, which in its eastern part seems to be composed of 

 small stones and thus to be in the nature of a galgal, contains a number 

 of dolmens and stone cists or cists-veu, as they are called in Brittany. 

 A tunnel which has been driven near the base at the eastern end for the 

 purpose of exploration has brought to view dolmens and stone cists with 

 their contents of human bones, ashes, stone implements and ornaments, 

 including some jadeite axes and a collar of white pearls. 



The alignments seem to have more of a religious than a mortuary 

 significance, and are associated with the cromlechs or stone circles. 

 The great circular temple. of Avebury in England had originally a 

 double row of menhirs leading away from it on two opposite sides. 



Dolmen, at Lockmariaquer, Brittany. 



