ROUGH STONE MONUMENTS 



several smaller cists, some of which held cremated 

 bodies. 



A very remarkable mound in Calvados (Fig. n) 

 was found to contain no less than twelve circular 

 corbelled chambers, each with a separate entrance 

 passage. The megalithic tombs of Brittany all 

 belong to the late neolithic period, and contain 

 tools and arrow-heads of flint, small ornaments of 

 gold, calla'is, and pottery which includes among 

 its forms the bell-shaped cup. 



In Central and South France the alUes couvertes 

 are mostly of a semi-subterranean type, i.e. they 

 are cut in the ground and merely roofed with 

 slabs of stone. The most famous is that of the 

 Grotte des Fees near Aries (Fig. 12), in which a 

 passage (a) with a staircase at one end and two 

 niches (b b) in its sides leads into a narrow rect- 

 angular chamber (c). The total length is nearly 

 80 feet. Another tomb of the same type, La 

 Grotte du Castellet, contained over a hundred 

 skeletons, together with thirty-three flint arrow 

 or spear-heads, one of which was stuck fast in 

 a human vertebra, a bell-shaped cup, axes of 

 polished stone, beads and pendants of various 

 materials, 114 pieces of calla'is, and a small plaque 

 of gold. 



On the plateau of Ger near the town of Dax are 

 large numbers of mounds, some of which contain 

 cremated bodies in urns and others megalithic 

 tombs. Bertrand saw in this a cemetery of two 



64 



