Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixm. (1922), No. 4 9 



royal rank. This custom ,is associated directly with that of 

 using stone circles for council-meetings. 



In Europe it is well known that stone circles were used for 

 council meetings. The ancient Danes are said to have elected 

 their kings sitting on stones arranged in a circle. (5). 



The evidence gained from places where stone circles are in 

 active use, together with the traditional evidence derived from 

 Europe, suggests that the stone circles of this and other 

 countries were used for council meetings and other ceremonial 

 purposes. That would well explain the positions of Avebury 

 and Stonehenge. They would be the central meeting-places 

 for the whole country. As I have already shown, this part of 

 the country must have been thickly populated in the days when 

 these great monuments were made (11). 



In yet another way is it possible to show that the use of 

 stone is an element of culture. For stonework has associa- 

 tions, in this country, with definite periods of civilisation. No 

 stone was used for purposes of construction during the 

 paleolithic age, yet it was lying on the g^round. Those who 

 assert that stone is used because it is available must explain 

 why these early men did not use it. The obvious explanation 

 is that they had not learned the practice : they were not yet 

 civilised enough. But if it be argued that a certain level of 

 culture must be reached before men come to use stone for 

 monuments and so forth, it is evident that the real question is 

 being evaded, namely, how has that level of culture been 

 reached, and v/hat, therefore, has really directed the minds of 

 men towards the use of stone ? 



In this country the use of stone came in suddenly. For 

 some reason or other men began to manipulate great blocks of 

 stone, to make of them tombs, and, perhaps a little later, stone 

 circles. No signs exist of previous attempts ; on the contrary, 

 the earliest monuments are usually the largest. The erection 

 of megalithic monuments dies out after the appearance of the 

 use of bronze in this country. Why was that ? 



The beginning of the end of the use of stone for tombs, 

 stone circles, and so forth, began with the arrival in western 

 Europe of small triangular daggers, in some places of bronze, 

 in others of copper, of the use of solar symbols, of a great use 

 of gold for ornaments, and, in places where megalithic monu- 

 ments already existed, of tombs consisting of a beehive 

 chamber of smallish stones, approached by a gallery, and 

 surmounted by a tumulus of large size, usually made of earth. 

 This civilisation also appeared in other parts of Europe, but 

 the tombs were smaller. From that time onwards the use of 



