668 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CHKISTIANIZED MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS. 



By M. ADRIEN DE MORTILLET. 



"TXT^E possess now more precise and more scientific data concerning 

 V V megalitliic monuments than those which we had before they 

 were studied and explored methodically. We know that the dolmens, 

 whether still covered with a tumulus or stripped of the envelope of 

 stone or earth which formerly covered them, are simply sepulchral 

 caverns, that they were built in the polished stone age, and that that 

 mode of burial was abandoned at the beginning of the 

 bronze age. While we do not know so exactly for 

 what purpose the menhirs were erected, we have every 

 reason to believe that they were for the most part con- 

 temjDorary with the dolmens. The great antiquity of 

 these rude constructions — monoliths sometimes of 



imposing dimen- 

 sions — seems to 

 be confirmed by 

 their being often 

 the subject of 

 very ancient and 

 deep - rooted le- 

 gends, which 

 have been pre- 

 served through 

 ages without ma- 

 terial alterations. 

 The recollection 

 of the real pur- 

 pose of these 

 stones was lost at 

 the beginning of 

 the Christian era, and probably a long time before. Marvelous tales 

 then began to be current, assuming to explain their existence, form, 

 and arrangement. The habit gradually was developed of resorting to 

 them to perform curious rites which have continued or are remem- 

 bered to the present day. A considerable number of them were 

 held in such veneration that they became clothed in a sort of sacred 

 character, of which it has not always been possible to divest them. 



When Christianity was introduced into France, it had of course 

 to contend against the old beliefs. A bitter war was declared against 

 everything that might tend to cast the new religion into the shade. 

 Vigorous attacks were made upon superstitions which by their 



Fig. 1. — Church of the Seven Saints. 



From the southwest. 



