ROUGH STONE MONUMENTS 



which cover them are too large for altar-tables, 

 and that the niches in which- they stand are too 

 narrow and inaccessible to have been the scene 

 of sacrificial rites. Neither of these arguments 

 has much force, nor is it easy to see how the cells 

 are derived from dolmens. The fact is that the 

 word ' dolmen-like,' which has become current 

 coin in archaeological phraseology, is a question- 

 begging epithet. The Maltese cells are not like 

 dolmens at all, they are either trilithons or tables 

 resting on a pillar. They are always open to the 

 front, and instead of the rough unhewn block 

 which should cover a dolmen they are roofed with 

 a well-squared slab. If the pillar which supports 

 the slab is, like the free-standing pillars, a baetyl, 

 the slab is probably a mere roof to cover and 

 protect it ; if not, the slab is almost certainly a 

 table. 



At the same time, although we may not accept 

 the hypothesis that the cell is derived from a 

 dolmen, Sir Arthur Evans may still be right in 

 supposing the worship to have originated in a 

 cult of the dead. But he was almost certainly 

 wrong, as recent excavation has shown, in sup- 

 posing that the cells were the actual burial place 

 of the deified heroes. 



A number of statuettes were found at Hagiar 

 Kim, two of which are of pottery and the rest of 

 limestone. One figure represents a woman 

 standing, but in the rest she is seated on a rather 



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