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 1 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 Aures 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 rew 

 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 

 u 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 fur Anthropologic, ii, p. 307 ff. 



