SCULPTURED LINES ON CAPSTONE OF THE 

 DOLMEN OF DEHUS. 



BY COLONEL T. W. M. DE GUERIN. 



In the autumn of 1914 I discovered that there were four 

 sculptured lines on the under side of the second, or broken, 

 capstone covering the great chamber of the dolmen of Dehus, 

 Vale. They form a curved, or slightly crescent-shaped design, 

 starting from a point 2 feet 10 inches from, and extending to 

 the western edge of, the capstone. The two lines on the 

 northern side meet again in a point on the broken fragment of 

 the capstone, while the other two end abruptly at the edge on 

 the main portion of the capstone from which a fragment has 

 been broken off. The lines are shallow grooves varying from 

 | to 1 in. in width and from £ to J in. in depth, and seem to 

 have been made either by pounding the surface of the stone 

 with a narrow hammer-stone and scraping with a flint burin, 

 or by rubbing with sand and water. The surface of the stone 

 is now too much weathered by long exposure to the atmos- 

 phere to enable one to determine which method had been used. 

 The capstone is partially supported by a stone pillar in 

 the middle of the chamber, which had evidently been placed 

 there by neolithic man as an additional support, as there was a 

 longitudinal fault in the stone. His fears were realised in the 

 course of time, for a large fragment of the stone became 

 detached at some remote period, and when this portion of the 

 dolmen was excavated, in 1847, by Mr. F. C. Lukis. F.S.A. 

 it was found resting upon the neolithic deposit of bones and 

 vases on the floor of the chamber, buried beneath a mass of 

 stones and rubble which had fallen with it, while the main 

 portion of the capstone remained supported by the pillar. 

 The broken fragment was replaced in its original position by 

 Captain F. C. Lukis and the Rev. G. E. Lee, F.S.A., in 1897 

 and was securely bound with wire rope to the remainder of 

 the capstone. The fact of the sculptured lines extending on 

 to the broken fragment, which was found by Mr. Lukis resting 



