O'Reilly — On the Orientation of Certain Dolmens. 577 



" L'orientation des monuments n'eclaire pas les questions qu'ils 

 soulevent." 



It may be seen that the orientation of the entrances of the 

 Catalunian monuments is also in the main to the S. and S.E. ; and so 

 far there is concordance between them and those mentioned by 

 Cartaillac in this respect. As to the degree of importance to be attached 

 to the matter of orientation and its significance, I do not pretend, in the 

 present Paper, to examine it, since, to do so with any hope of attaining 

 to some tangible conclusion, there should be at hand a very large 

 number of carefully and correctly made measurements, which, so far as 

 I am aware of, is at present wanting. 



It may not be out of place to call attention to the local name used 

 in Portugal for the dolmens. The author of the Paper from which I 

 cite, says that they are there known as " Antas." Thisls also the name 

 given to them by Cartaillac in his ' ' Ages pr^historiques de I'Espagne 

 et du Portugal." He cites (p. 147) from the Memoire of Martinho 

 de Mendonqa de Pina on the Antas (1733) as follows : — 



" Le mot Anta ou Antas, au pluriel, comme on a coutume de 

 dire dans la province de Beira, parait propre k I'ancieune langue 

 portugaise puisqu'on ne lui trouve de connexion avec aucun mot de la 

 langue qui se parle actuellement chez nous, on de celle qui se parle 

 cher nos voisins. II entre dans la composition de divers noms de 

 bourgs et de villages existant depuis nombre de siecles, comme Antas 

 de Penalva, Antas de Penadono, et il entre de meme, par suite dans 

 plusieurs noms de famille. 



" Mr, Pereira da Costa, en 1868, dans sa ' Description de quelques 

 Dolmens ou Antas,' et Mr. Roulin, en 1869, dans une note lue k 

 I'academie des Sciences, ' Remarques sur le sens primitif du mot 

 Antas' ont compulse la litterature en se fourvayant risiblement 

 au milieu des etymologies. Dans la 6"* Edition du Dictionnaire de la 

 langue portugaise par Moraes on trouve ce mot Antas comme issu du 

 Grec ai/Tttco * Je chemine ' et avec cette definition, ' autels anciens 

 distribu^s dans les routes pour servir comme bornes.' Trois idees, 

 autant d' erreurs ! " 



Cartaillac does not give the solution presented by Mr. Koulin in 

 1869, although his note on the matter is very interesting. Roulin 

 points out that the word, as indicated by Mendon^a, is a plural word 

 {antas, not anta) and connects it with the latin anta, a term of 

 architecture which passed into the French as " antes," explained by 

 the dictionary of the Academy des Beaux Arts as the pillars or 

 quadrangular pilasters which in certain Greek or Boman temples 



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