ROUGH STONE MONUMENTS 



we saw reason for believing that the megalithic 

 peoples were in the habit of worshipping great 

 stones as such. Other stones, not actually wor- 

 shipped, may mark the scene of some great event. 

 Jacob commemorated a dream by setting up the 

 stone which had served him as a pillow, and 

 Samuel, victorious over the Philistines, set up 

 twelve stones, and called the place " Stones of 

 Deliverance." Others again perhaps stood in 

 a spot devoted to some particular national or 

 religious ceremony. Thus the Angami of the 

 present day in Assam set up stones in com- 

 memoration of their village feasts. It seems clear 

 from the excavations that the menhirs do not 

 mark the place of burials, though they may in 

 some cases have been raised in honour of the 

 dead. 



The question of the purpose of stone circles 

 has already been dealt with in connection with 

 those of Great Britain. Alignements are more 

 difficult to explain, for, from their form, they 

 cannot have served as temples in the sense of 

 meeting-places for worship. Yet they must 

 surely have been connected with religion in some 

 way or other. Possibly they were not constructed 

 once and for all, but the stones were added gradu- 

 ally, each marking some event or the performance 

 of some periodic ceremony, or even the death of 

 some great chief. The so-called " Canaanite High 

 Place " recently found at Gezer consists of a line 



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