Archaic Sculftiirixos. i;i7 



vallfv tlated many centuries before the time of P\tiiagoras. 

 It would, then, appear that many of the ideas were borrowed 

 bv the earlv Greeks from much more ancient schools of 

 philosophy. It would therefore seem probable that the 

 *' Counter-Earth " was an inxention not of Pythagoras but 

 of some people li\ iny^ at a \ery much more ancient time. 



If the pre-historic peoples of Scotland and indeed Europe 

 liad this conception, then the Uni\ersc to their mind would 

 consist of eleven units, namely, the nine celestial bodies 

 already referred to and the Central Fire and the " Counter- 

 Earth." \'ery probably they knew also of elliptical motions. 

 Oddly enough the cult of eleven units (which I detected some 

 fifteen years ago) as representing the universe can be dis- 

 cerned in the art of the late Neolithic and Bronze Ages in 

 Scotland and over a much wider area. For example, in 

 nearly all the cases of Scottish necklaces of beads of the 

 Bronze Age which have survived intact, it will be found that 

 they consist of a number of beads which is eleven or a 

 multiple of eleven. I have, for example, a fine Bronze Age 

 necklace from Wigtownshire consisting of 1S7 beads (that 

 is of 17x11), and a triangular centre piece. ^ The same 

 curious recurrence of the number and its multiples can often 

 be detected in the number of standing stones in a circle, in 

 the number of stones placed in slightly converging rows 

 found in Caithness, Sutherland, some parts of England. 

 Wales, and in Brittany. ^'^ The number eleven is occasionally 

 involved in the Bronze Age pottery decorations and in the 

 patterns on certain ornaments and relics of the Bronze Age. 



The foundation stones of the Megalithic monuments of 

 the late Neolithic period seem also to enshrine the same 

 cultus, and the Neolithic horned cairns, for example, seem 

 to have had their ground plan laid out with great care so as 

 to symbolize religious as well as other conceptions. 



6 Note on the Findimj of an Urn. Jet Necklace, etc. (P.S.A.S.. 

 vol. xxxvi.. 1902, pp. 584-589). 



6ft Stone circles were mo-st frequently const nirted of stones 

 numbering nine or eleven (or .some multiple), not reckoin"ni!; acces- 

 sory stones which are occasionally associated, called " recumbent," 

 "altar."' " outlyiiifj;." "sentinel." or "portal" stones. 



