THE QUARTERLY 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



APBIL, 1870. 



I. MEGALITHIC STRUCTURES OF THE CHANNEL 

 ISLANDS: THEIE HISTORY AND ANALOGUES. 



By Lieut. S. P. Oliver, Roy. Art., F.R.G.S. 



The Cromlechs in Jersey and Guernsey and adjacent islands 

 partake of the character of the French Dolmens and Grottes aux 

 Fees, as well as the Gangrifter (gallery-tomhs) of the Swedes, the 

 Jettestuer (chambered tumuli) of the Danes, and the German 

 Iliuienbetten. 



Our word "cromlech," however, is so often applied to such 

 widely different structures, that there is no wonder if it sometimes 

 misleads foreign archaeologists. The cromlech of the English 

 antiquarian is the same as the Welsh and English " quoit" such 

 as Arthurs quoit or coeta?i, near Criccieth; Lanyon quoit, and 

 Chun qivoit and others in Cornwall ; Stanton Brew " quoit'" in 

 Somersetshire ; the Kitfs Koty or Goit, near Maidstone ; and the 

 Coit-y-enroe, in Guernsey. Now, we can quite understand what 

 we mean when we use the word cromlech to be identical with all 

 these; but the French archaeologist, when he uses the word 

 cromlech, is right only when he applies it to a circle of upright 

 stones, like the Hurlers and the Nine Maidens in Cornwall; thus 

 the bardic circles convey a very different meaning to the Dolmen, 

 or Table of Stone (Dot a table, moen a stone), when used by our 

 Gallic neighbours. 



Professor Sven Nilsson defines the English cromlech as synony- 

 mous to the French Dolmen, the Scandinavian dos, and the dyss of 

 Denmark, consisting of one large block of stone, supported by from 

 three to five stones arranged in a ring, and intended to contain one 

 corpse only,* several of these dorsar being sometimes enclosed in 

 circles of raised stones. 



Following, however, the nomenclature given by the late Dr. 

 Lukis, we cannot be far wrong in assigning the word cromlech to 

 all elaborate megalithic structures of one or more chambers, in 



* Nilsson on ' The Stone Ago.' pp 159. 

 VOL. VII. M 



