CHAP, x.] TEMPLES OF BRONZE AGE. 377 



found scattered over the moors and hilltops in the south 

 of England, in Wales and Cumberland, as well as in 

 Scotland, are to be looked upon as the parish churches 

 and chapels of ease. It has been urged by Mr. Fergusson, 

 in his interesting work on Eude Stone Monuments, that 

 these circles are merely tombs. Even if we allow that 

 they originally were tombs in every case, it does not fol- 

 low that they have not also been temples, for the reli- 

 gious sentiment has in all ages and in all places tended 

 to centre in tombs which ultimately have become places 

 of worship. Many of our Christian churches have ori- 

 ginated in this manner, and it is a most obvious transi- 

 tion from the tomb to the temple. The worship of the 

 spirits of the dead at the one would naturally grow into 

 the worship of the Great Unknown in the other. Prob- 

 ably the idea of both large and small circles sprang 

 originally from the stones placed round the base of the 

 circular hut, which was the usual habitation in the 

 Prehistoric period. 



Stone circles are to be found over the greater part of 

 Europe and Asia, as well as in northern Africa, and they 

 have been used as places of burial, worship, or assembly 

 by various peoples. Their archaeological date in each 

 case can only be fixed by the remains in and around 

 them. 1 



The large standing-stones or menhirs, by no means 

 uncommon where large blocks of stone are easily ob- 

 tained, may belong to the Neolithic as well as to the 

 Bronze age, and have been objects of worship like the 

 unwrought stone at Hyettos, adored by the Greeks 

 as Herakles, or that taken for the Thespian Eros in 



1 For an interesting account of the distribution of circles, see Fergus- 

 son, Rude Stone Monuments. 



