ROUGH STONE MONUMENTS 



and to say that the dolmen is an imitation in 

 stone of a hut is the purest conjecture. Still 

 more improbable is Montelius's idea that the 

 corridor-tomb imitates a dwelling. It is true 

 that the Eskimos have a type of hut which is 

 entered by a low passage often 30 feet in length, 

 but for one who believes as Montelius does that 

 the corridor-tomb is southern or eastern in origin 

 such a derivation is impossible, for this t}^pe of 

 house is essentially northern, its aim being to 

 exclude the icy winds. In the south it would be 

 intolerably close, and its low passage besides 

 serving no purpose would be inconvenient. 



There is really no reason to derive either the 

 dolmen or the corridor-tomb from dwellings at 

 all. Granted the use of huge stones, both are 

 purely natural forms, and the presence of the 

 corridor in the latter is dictated by necessity. 

 The problem was how to cover a large tomb- 

 chamber with a mound and to leave it still acces- 

 sible for later interments, and the obvious solution 

 was to add a covered passage leading out to the 

 edge of the mound. 



A remarkable feature of the megalithic tombs 

 is the occurrence in many of them of a small round 

 or rectangular hole in one of the walls, usually an 

 end-wall, more rarely a partition-wall between 

 two chambers. Occasionally the hole was formed 

 by placing side by side two upright blocks each 



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