12 W. J. Perry — Cultural Significance of the use of Stone 



been broken up, and the people have lost their rulers who 

 needed such stone monuments for their tombs, or for their 

 ritual performances. In Polynesia it is noteworthy that the 

 later peoples who do not make stone monuments, such as the 

 Maori of New Zealand, do not hold council meetings of the 

 same nature as their ancestors in eastern Polynesia. In the 

 old days the council was a potent force, and served to control 

 the rulers. But when the old order broke up, the rulers 

 became more autocratic, and the council became merely 

 advisory, if it existed at all. The disappearance of stone in 

 such places is thus the sign of profound social and political 

 transformations, and is not a matter of caprice or accident. 



The disappearance of the use of stone as the result of the 

 appearance on the scene of more warlike communities is a 

 phenomenon of world-wide extent. In Siberia the gold and 

 copper miners of the valley of the Upper Yenesei erected 

 thousands of megalithic monuments, especially near Minusinsk 

 and in the valley of the Abakan, the stones along the Abakan 

 often being carted for several miles to be placed in position. 

 These old people practised irrigation, a noteworthy thing in 

 a country where the average temperature is zero for the whole 

 year. These people, sedentary miners, were succeeded by 

 horse-riding nomads coming from the south, and bearing 

 signs in their art of contact with the civilisations of Persia 

 and Assyria. In these days the graves are much smaller. 

 Finally, the Kirghiz, the descendants of these warriors, make 

 still smaller stone graves (12). 



A similar story can be told in Africa. In North- West 

 and West Africa the first population made polished stone 

 implements and erected megalithic graves, which are found 

 from Algeria to the bend of the Niger. These were succeeded 

 by warlike people from the south, who never used stone at all. 

 In Palestine the same sequence is observable. The Israelites, 

 tent-dwelling nomads, settled in a country possessing many 

 dolmens, stone circles and other stonework. 



In Europe it is evident that the solution of the problem 

 must be along similar lines. In the old days in Scandinavia 

 a council of great nobles served to check the rulers, who were 

 usually sacred kings. The councils were associated with 

 stone circles. But the Teutonic conquerors, such as the rulers 

 of the Angles and Saxons, and those of other branches of the 

 Teutonic ruling group, threw off the restraints of their home 

 when they set out on their conquests, and the council 

 disappeared. This is probably why the practice of using 

 stone circles disappeared. A like solution can also be applied 



