KABYLES OF NORTH AFRICA—LISSAUER, 525 
2. Oven-shaped tombs of large stone plates, forming a vault whose 
upper keystone is supported by two very large stone plates at. the 
entrance. These tombs are seen at Hammam-Soukhra, in the region 
of Ellez. 
3. Cone-shaped tombs, the largest megalithic monuments in the 
country, are found at Henchir-el-Assel, in the territory of Enfida, 
Tunis. They consist of two concentric circles of large stone plates 
1.5 meters apart and are covered with a cone-shaped roof in such a 
way that the top of the roof is a flat cone whose apex is formed by 
the large stone cover of the grave chamber. Hamy found here 106 
such tombs, in various states of preservation, the largest of which 
measured 19 meters in diameter. These prehistoric structures are 
evidently the prototypes of the beautiful Mauretanian royal tombs of 
Medracen near Batna and of the so-called Tombeau de la Chretienne 
near Algeria, the models of which have been set up in the Trocadero 
at Paris and in the museum of Algiers. 
4. “ Senam ”—that is, stone circles with a niche-shaped entrance— 
have been investigated by Maciver and Wilkin? at Msila in Algeria, 
where about 100 can still be seen, although the Arabs have been for 
a long time carrying away the stone plates for building purposes. 
Besides those named above there is still a series of other mega- 
lithic monuments which have been described by Letourneux,? and 
will be here merely mentioned. They are the “ Bazina,” which ap- 
- pear to resemble the Senam; then the “ chouchet,” tower-shaped 
structures, which have especially become known in the Aurés and 
Hodna, and finally the “ Hanouat ” or rock tombs, as they are known 
in Sicily. 
On the question as to what period these monuments belong, only 
excavations can give an answer. Unfortunately till now only a tew 
tombs in proportion to their great number have been explored. Only 
this much is fully known concerning them, namely, that they contain 
sitting crouching skeletons, accompanied with potsherds and rings of 
“copper ” and of genuine bronze. Near one dolmen lay also three 
silex axes and a crude stone figure. On the other hand, one dolmen 
contained rings, a bridle, a bit of iron, and a coin of Faustina. While 
thus the larger number of dolmens containing accompaniments (12) 
must be ascribed to the stone or bronze age, one at least belongs to 
the Roman period. It is true that further investigations may show 
that a great many of these megaliths were still in use during the iron 
age—but the conclusion that they were already in vogue in the bronze 
age can no longer be disputed. 
1 Randall-Maciver and Wilkin, Libyan Notes, p. 78 ff, 
2 Archiv fiir Anthropologie, ii, p. 307 ff. 
