ROUGH STONE MONUMENTS 



bated since. At the Stockholm Congress in 1874 

 de Mortillet advanced the theory that megalithic 

 monuments in different districts were due to 

 different peoples, and that what spread was the 

 custom of building such structures and not the 

 builders themselves. This theory has been ac- 

 cepted by most archaeologists, including Montelius, 

 Salomon Reinach, Sophus Miiller, Hoernes, and 

 Dechelette. But while the rest believe the influ- 

 ences which produced the megalithic monuments 

 to have spread from east to west, i.e. from Asia to 

 Europe, Salomon Reinach holds the contrary view, 

 which he has supported in a remarkable paper 

 called Le Mirage Oriental, published in 1893. 



The questions we have to discuss are, therefore, 

 as follows : Are all the megalithic monuments 

 due to a single race or to several ? If to a single 

 race, whence did that race come and in what 

 direction did it move ? If to several, did the idea 

 of building megalithic structures arise among the 

 several races independently, or did it spread from 

 one to another ? 



We shall consider first the theory that the idea 

 of megalithic building was evolved among several 

 races independently, i.e. that it was a phase of 

 culture through which they separately passed. 



On the whole, this idea has not found favour 

 among archaeologists. The use of stone for build- 

 ing might have arisen in many places indepen- 

 dently. But megalithic architecture is something 



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