MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS. 



4i 



These antas frequently served for a considerable number of burials 

 each, and in that case the entrance-gallery seems to have been kept 

 open. At other times, a single corpse was deposited, and the crypt 

 was closed, as the friends thought, forever. 



Notwithstanding it has suffered considerable mutilations, the crypt of 

 the great anta of Freixo 



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stem 



Fig. 1. Anta op the Wood of Freixo. 



(Fig. 1) is still standing, 

 although the corner-stone 

 has disappeared and the 

 covered gallery has be- 

 come dilapidated. The 

 walls of the crypt, which 

 is 4 metres in diameter, 

 are composed of seven 

 stones, 3 - 80 metres high, 

 while the entrance is only 

 45 centimetres wide. 



Numerous antas have been explored at various times in search of 

 the treasures which popular traditions suppose to be hidden in them ; 

 and scattered bricks, pieces of pottery, iridescent glass, and rubbish of 

 the Roman period, testify to the energy of the diggers. The neolithic 

 articles under the dolmens which remain unviolated are similar to 

 those in the megaliths of the neighboring countries. The anta of 

 Portimao has furnished hatchets, stone adzes, steatite heads, and ad- 

 mirably worked arrow-heads ; that of Monte- Abrahao * hatchets of 

 trap and diorite, stone scrapers, a button of bone and pearls of Calais, 

 that precious stone described by Pliny and remaining unknown from 



his time ; the anta of 

 Estria, a curious plaque 

 of slate covered with 

 straight or broken lines 

 and resembling an epis- 

 copal crozier in shape ; 

 and the dolmen of Nora, 

 besides flakes and finely 

 cut arrow-heads, a highly 

 ornamented ivory disk, 

 the use of which it is 

 hard to determine. The 

 burial-place of Marcella (Fig. 2}, a regular cromlech, is one of the rich- 

 est in funeral paraphernalia. There have been collected from it, to- 

 gether with fine specimens of flint-flakes, retouched on the edges, and 

 of triangular points, three vases covered with ornaments, and forty- 

 three hatchets, nearly all of diorite, and remarkable specimens of work. 



Human bones, belonging to more than eighty persons of all ages and both sexes, 

 have been collected from within this dolmen. 

 3* 



Fig. 2. Burial-place op Marcella, Algarve Plan and 

 Profile View. 



