WHO WERE THE BUILDERS? 



is nothing a priori improbable in the idea that the 

 megalithic monuments were built by a single 

 invading race. 



There are other considerations which support 

 such a theory. It will be readily admitted that 

 the commonest and most widely distributed form 

 of the megalithic monument is the dolmen. Both 

 this and its obvious derivatives, the Giant's Grave, 

 the allee couverte, and others, are known to have 

 been tombs, while other types of structure, such 

 as the Maltese temple, the menhir, and the crom- 

 lech, almost certainly had a religious purpose. 

 It is difficult to believe that these types of building, 

 so closely connected with religion and burial, were 

 introduced into all these regions simply by the 

 influence of trade relations. Religious customs 

 and the burial rites connected with them are 

 perhaps the most precious possession of a primitive 

 people, and they are those in which they most 

 oppose and resent change of any kind, even when 

 it only involves detail and not principle. Thus 

 it is almost incredible that the people, for instance, 

 of Spain, because they were told by traders that 

 the people of North Africa buried in dolmens, 

 gave up, even in isolated instances, their habit 

 of interment in trench graves in favour of burial 

 in dolmens. It is still more impossible to believe 

 that this unnatural event happened in one country 

 after another. It is true that the use of metal 

 was spread by means of commerce, but here there 



149 



