Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixv. (192 1), No. 13 3 



the influence of cultural streams, emanating from the 

 Mediterranean, and that the presence of stone has had no 

 causal effect in the matter, seeing that igneous rocks have 

 been transported for unknown distances to make Stonehenge. 

 It can, moreover, be shown that the use of stone for megalith ic 

 monuments is confined, the world over, to metal-working 

 peoples, or to peoples who have directly derived their culture 

 from such peoples. This all harmonises with the contention 

 of Elliot Smith that the working of stone only came into being 

 after the invention of the copper chisel. Monuments of 

 unhewn stone would be due simply to that cultural degenera- 

 tion that tends to set in when the original focus becomes 

 remote in space and time. These considerations support the 

 contention that the megalith builders of England and Wales 

 were actually metal workers or searchers after the metaliferous 

 ores, even if they show no signs of being so from their remains. 

 The only way to put such a contention to the test is to find 

 out if the megalithic monuments were situated in mining 

 districts and in no others. If that be so, then the contention 

 will be enormously strengthened, if not made into a certainty. 

 For, given that the distribution of megalithic monuments 

 agrees with that of ancient sources of metals of various kinds, 

 then it is beyond any probability that any other cause could 

 have been at work, for no other natural circumstance, such 

 as height of land, climate or anything else, has the same 

 distribution as the mineral deposits of this country. The 

 degree of accuracy to which it is possible to work will there- 

 fore determine the degree of certainty with which the theory 

 can be regarded. 



A broad survey of the distribution of megalithic monuments 

 in England and Wales shows at once that there is a general 

 agreement between that distribution and the sources of 

 minerals Cornwall, Devonshire, Wales, Derbyshire, Northum- 

 berland, and Cumberland were well known to possess various 

 forms of mineral wealth ;* and this correspondence is enough 

 to allow of a presumptive agreement with the theory. But 

 there is one very great difficulty that must be overcome before 

 the theory can hope for general acceptance. Those of us 

 who are convinced of the truth of the theorv have always felt 

 that the distribution of megaliths in Dorset, Wilts and Oxford 

 demanded explanation, and that this explanation would not be 

 exactly on the same lines as those for the megaliths of Devon 

 and Cornwall. For there are neither minerals nor pearls in 



* Sketch Map, No. i, based on (7) and (20). 



