2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 6l 



The able archeologist. Dr. Daniel Wilson, was one of the first to 

 clearly recognize this epoch, as will appear in the following quotation 

 from his article on Archaeology in the Encyclopaedia Britannica : 



There appears to be a stage in the development of the human mind in its 

 progress towards civilization when an unconscious aim at the expression of 

 abstract power tends to beget an era of megalithic art. The huge cromlechs, 

 monoliths, and circles still abounding in many centers of European civilization 

 perpetuate the evidence of such a transitional stage among its prehistoric races. 

 But it was in Egypt that an isolation, begot by the peculiar conditions of its 

 unique physical geography, though also perhaps ascribable in part to certain 

 ethnical characteristics of its people, permitted this megalithic art to mature 

 into the highest perfection of which it is capable. There the rude unhewn 

 monolith became the graceful obelisk, the cairn was transformed into the sym- 

 metrical pyramid, and the stone circles of Avebury and Stonehenge, or the 

 megalithic labyrinths of Carnac in Brittany, developed into colonnaded avenues 

 and temples, like those of Denderah and Edfu, or the colossal sphinx avenue of 

 Luxor. 



He refers elsewhere to it as follows : 



There seems to be an epoch in the early histon^ of man when what may be 

 styled the megalithic era of art develops itself under the almost endless variety 

 of circumstances. It is one of the most characteristic features pertaining to the 

 development of human thought in the earliest stages of constructive skill. 



It is an instructive study in religious or culture history to trace 

 the distribution of megalithic monuments characteristic of this epoch, 

 to compare the varieties of forms they assume in different localities 

 and consider their purpose ; but the vastness of the subject limits my 

 consideration to one aspect, monoliths and colossi, rendering it neces- 

 sary to pass over a large number, perhaps the majority, of megaliths. 



Why do these monuments occur in certain geographical localities 

 and not in others, and how are they to be interpreted by the student 

 of human geography ? What is the nature of the feeling they express ? 



The causes which have led one race and not another to develop a 

 megalithic habit may be sought in certain psychical conditions diffi- 

 cult of interpretation, but the custom appears to have originated inde- 

 pendently and spontaneously under different physical conditions. The 

 erection of monoliths is not due to similarity of environment so much 

 as to identity of thought ; ' the feeling originating subjectively rather 

 than in response to surroundings. Westropp ( " Prehistoric Phases ") 

 writes: 



It is now a generally accepted canon that there are common instincts 

 implanted by nature in all the varieties of the human race, which lead mankind 





1 A consciousness of power, always a source of personal and racial gratifica- 

 tion, tends to express itself in huge monuments. 



