ROUGH STONE MONUMENTS 



and opening off on each side into a side-chamber, 

 the whole group thus being cruciform. In these 

 chambers were found human remains and objects 

 of flint, bone, earthenware, amber, glass, bronze, 

 and iron. Cairn L had a central corridor from 

 which opened off seven chambers in a very irregular 

 fashion. Cairn T consisted of a corridor leading 

 to a fine octagonal chamber with small chambers 

 off it on three sides. 



The chief interest of these tombs lies in the 

 remarkable designs engraved on some of the stones 

 of the passages and chambers. They are fairly 

 deeply cut with a rather sharp implement, prob- 

 ably a metal chisel. They are arranged in the 

 most arbitrary way on the stones and are often 

 crowded together in masses. There is no attempt 

 to depict scenes of any kind, nor is there, indeed, 

 any example of animal life. In fact, the designs 

 seem to be purely ornamental. The most frequent 

 elements of design are cup-shaped hollows, con- 

 centric circles or ovals, star-shaped figures, 

 circles with emanating rays, spirals, chevrons, 

 reticulated figures, parallel straight or curved 

 lines. There seems to be no clue as to the meaning 

 of these designs. They may have been merely 

 ornamental, though this is hardly likely. 



At New Grange, near Drogheda, there is a 

 similar series of tumuli, one of which has become 

 famous (Fig. 8). It consists of a huge mound of 

 stones 280 feet in diameter surrounded by a circle 



46 



