NO. 6 GREAT STONE MONUMENTS FEWKES 5 



It will be well, at the very outset, to choose a few types of mega- 

 lithic monuments for study and to eliminate certain huge single stones 

 used in construction of cyclopean walls, although they also are the 

 same-mental expressions and have a close cultural affinity with colossi 

 and monoliths ; they may be passed by but not neglected. 



For convenience, monoliths may be treated under the following 

 headings : ( i) natural stones of great size placed vertically by human 

 means but showing no sign of having been artificially shaped; (2) 

 monoliths carved or otherwise worked artificially generally bearing 

 elaborate inscriptions; (3) colossi or cyclopean monolithic representa- 

 tions of real or imaginary beings. 1 Monoliths may be still further 

 classified, according to their purpose, as erected in commemoration 

 of events or persons, boundary stones, or connected with ceremonials, 

 but in no classification that has yet been devised do we find a clear cut 

 line of demarkation between different classes. Thus large stones 

 commemorative of events or statues of kings easily develop into 

 objects of reverence. It is interesting to note that colossal statues of 

 so-called gods are often commemorative of deified heroes, and it is 

 probable that the same feeling that leads civilized man to erect statues 

 of those he honors also accounts for the existence of monoliths among 

 men less highly developed culturally. 



Natural monoliths or huge stones, unchanged by the hand of man, 

 have been set tip by all races, occurring with equal abundance in 

 Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and the islands of the Pacific. They 

 are found singly, or in groups, regularly or irregularly arranged, 

 taking the forms of rectangles, circles, and other combinations. 



OLD WORLD MEGALITHIC EPOCH 



In certain regions of the earth's surface, as in France, England, the 

 Mediterranean Islands, along the coast of northern Africa, 2 Syria, 

 Egypt, and India, monoliths are more abundant .than in regions 

 situated in higher latitudes. They are not found very far from the 

 historic zone of civilization. The similarity of these objects along 

 both shores of the Mediterranean Sea and beyond the Pillars of Her- 

 cules has suggested to some students that they were erected at the 



1 The discussion is limited to monolithic colossi for obvious reasons. 



2 A. Lissauer, Archaeologische und Anthropologische Studien uber die 

 Kabylen (Zeit. f. Eth., Vol. 40, part 4, 1908. Berlin, 1908) gives figures and 

 illustrations of dolmens, menhirs, and cromlechs from Tunis to Tangiers. A 

 map locating the megaliths shows the distribution of different types. Trans- 

 lation in Smithsonian Report for 191 1. 



