24 W. J. Perry — Megalithic Monuments 



to work the gold gravels of the rivers (3), regardless of 

 disease, danger and all the climatic adversities imaginable, 

 in his desire to get certain objects he has ransacked the whole 

 earth and left vanished civilisations as witnesses to his 

 strength of will when once his desires are fully aroused. 



It would seem that in the possession of the principle of 

 the association of certain elements of human culture with 

 definite geological formations we have an implement of 

 research which may help in the determination of the relation- 

 ships between the economic and political factors in any 

 civilisation. Sketch Map No. 6 suggests that men of the 

 early paleolithic age lived mainly in the flint-producing 

 regions where they found the material for their implements. 

 So it is possible that the first act in the drama of civilisation 

 was played out on flint-bearing formations. This relationship 

 between geological formation and human distribution seems 

 to hold in this country down to the time of the megalith- 

 builders. If that be so, it should not be impossible to discover 

 by what means men came to create the needs that led to the 

 inauguration of the neolithic age and to settle on other forma- 

 tions that provided the means of satisfaction of these needs. 

 What led men first into regions containing volcanic rocks 

 that supplied him with material for his polished stone imple- 

 ments ? How and why did he create the need that led him 

 on to the carboniferous limestone for lead ? Such problems 

 as these will have to be faced and solved. 



It is found, however, that the relationship between human 

 distribution and geological formation does not exist in every 

 type of civilisation. In early days the economic factor was 

 evidently paramount, and the pattern produced on the map 

 by man corresponded strictly to the needs of the community. 

 But when we come to consider the distribution of settlements 

 such as those of the Romans, we realise that both political and 

 economic factors were at work ; because the Romans made 

 many settlements that were purely strategical, and bore no 

 direct relationship to sources of wealth. In the case of the 

 Romans there was a sort of balance between the economic and 

 the political life of the community which is reflected in the 

 distribution of population. When we come to the Teutonic 

 invasions we find that the distribution of settlements was not 

 determined by causes that were patent in the case of the 

 megalith-builders. Apparently political forces were para- 

 mount, and industrial needs mainly neglected.* This diver- 



* Or perhaps, as Dr. Haddon suggests, agricultural interest was predominant 



