216 SCULPTURE OF A HUMAN FIGURE. 



shallow grooves, meeting in a point near the centre of the 

 capstone and extending to its western edge. The two lines 

 nearest to the hands meet again in a point on the broken 

 portion of the capstone. A few inches beneath this figure is a 

 small circle five inches in diameter touching a straight grooved 

 line. 



The dolmen of Dehus is the second largest in Guernsey. 

 It stands partially concealed in its mound, within a circle of 

 large stones, GO feet in diameter, many of which are still ht situ. 

 The great central chamber is 18ft. long by lift, wide, by 6ft. 2in. 

 in height under the western capstone, and it is entered by a 

 gallery of access 14ft. long, on each side of which are two small 

 secondary chambers. It is covered by three large capstones, 

 the western one being a large block of syenite 14ft. 6in. long by 

 7ft. 6in. wide and 3ft. 9in. thick. The second capstone, on 

 which are the sculptured figures, is nearly in the centre of the 

 chamber, and is of rather smaller dimensions, 14ft. Gin. long, 

 6ft. wide and 2ft. 9in. thick. It is supported by an upright 

 stone pillar placed a little to the north of the centre of the 

 chamber. The northern half of the under surface of this cap- 

 stone has a very smooth surface, and in the opinion of Major 

 Carey Curtis, R.E., President of the Guernsey Society of Natural 

 Science, appears as if it had been rubbed down with sand and 

 water by Neolithic man, leaving on its eastern edge a curved 

 ridge with a rough surface a quarter of an inch above the 

 smooth portion of the stone. When this part of the chamber 

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

 that a large portion of the northern end of this capstone had 

 become detached and had fallen, at some very early period, into 

 the chamber, where it was resting on a mass of stony rubble 

 that had fallen with it upon the Neolithic deposit of bones and 

 vases on the floor of the chamber. It was replaced in its ori- 

 ginal position in the year 1898 by Captain F. de B. Lukis and 

 the Rev. G. E. Lee, F.S.A., and securely bound with wire ropes 

 to the main portion of the capstone which scill rested on the 

 stone pillar, and it was further supported by two oak posts as 

 an additional security. It is on this detached fragment that the 

 face, left hand and part of the crescent-shaped design are sculp- 

 tured. 



Anthropomorphic figures very similar to that of Dehus 

 are found in France sculptured on the props of the late 

 Neolithic dolmens of the valleys of the Seine and Oise, and 

 also of Collorgues in the department of Gard. Very similar 

 figures are also found sculptured on the walls of the grottoes of 

 Le Petit Morin, Marne, which, from the small copper beads 

 found in them by the late Baron de Baye, are thought to date 

 from the JEneolithic period. Later representations of this same 

 primitive divinity are the statue-menhirs of the departments 



