472 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



To many people the mention of a culture period may not convey 

 very much. To give a date in actual years is by no means easy. The 

 march of culture in those distant times was slow and liable to be 

 arrested from time to time. The passage from the use of one mate- 

 rial to another was prolonged, often reaching into centuries. Speak- 

 ing very generally, it may be said that the Megalithic culture reached 

 the west of England and Wales about 2500 B. C. and that it was 

 followed by the Bronze Age culture, on the east and south coasts of 

 Britain about 2000 B. C. 



WHO BUILT STONEHENGE? 



So far nothing has been said as to the race or races which built 

 Stonehenge, beyond the fact that two races are recognizable in the 

 structure of the stones and the objects which have come to light in 

 the course of excavation. This subject opens up rather a wider field 

 of inquiry than that hitherto pursued. It is necessary now to survey 

 the continent of Europe, and to study the distribution of the Mega- 

 lithic Builders and their successors, the Early Bronze Age or Beaker 

 Folk as they are generally known. 



Sir Cyril Fox in his "Personality of Britain" furnishes the requisite 

 material in his wonderfully suggestive maps of Megalithic and 

 Beaker distribution in this country, as well as in his map of Europe 

 showing the approach of these races to Britain. He shows very 

 clearly that the Megalithic monuments of the late Neolithic Age are 

 concentrated in the south, west, and north of the island, while the 

 Beaker Folk can be located as certainly in the east and south. But 

 as he points out, "the only intensive overlap is in the south of 

 Britain — the Salisbury Plain region." Let us consider the Mega- 

 lithic people first of all. Their monuments (long barrows, cham- 

 bered cairns and dolmens) follow the Atlantic coast of Portugal, 

 Spain, and France, notably of course at Camac in Brittany. The 

 first landfall of Britain from that district is round and about Land's 

 End, with its very numerous and convenient harbors and estuaries, 

 whence it would be easy to pass up the Irish Sea to the Hebrides. 

 This contention is fully supported by the distribution of their monu- 

 ments in Cornwall, South Wales, and up the deepwater channel north- 

 ward to the Hebrides. With this western sea route open to the 

 primitive shipmen, Britain was in the stream of European culture, 

 and in all probability western Britain was living in a higher standard 

 of culture than eastern Britain. 



There would seem to be very little doubt as to the origin of the 

 Prescelly stones at Stonehenge, but the actual route by which they 

 were transported seems as yet a matter of conjecture rather than 

 proof. The question may be asked. Why were they ever carried such 



