238 Existing Analogues of Stonehenge and Avebury. 



Pausanias, Suidas and others), refers, in Agamemnon, 1. 503, to the 

 gods seated on thrones facing the sun, and as these remains are 

 older than any Greek erection, we may have here a reference to this 

 structure or to some of which this was an example, the models, 

 perhaps, from which the Greek theatres were designed. The 

 building is about 80ft. square at the base, has been about 60ft. 

 high, and the entrance to the hall is about 20ft. from the ground, 

 to which height the building appears to be solid, the floor being at 

 that level. Whatever purpose Silbury Hill served, any one of 

 these structures would fulfil. East of this pyramidal structure are 

 the remains of an early city, not unlike the walls of Tre 9 i Caeri, 

 on Yr. Eifl mountains, near Snowdon. The defending wall to this 

 pyramid, guarding also the sacred enclosure and the city, is 14ft. 

 thick and 10ft. high in its present ruinous condition, has a number 

 of deep recesses, like the Pelasgic portals at Norba, in Italy, and 

 one like the remarkable one at Phigalia in Greece, and is formed of 

 stones, some of which measure 15ft, in length, and resembles, in the 

 greatness of its dimensions, the vast Cyclopean wall at Samothrace, 

 illustrated by me in the Builder from a drawing made by me in that 

 island. In tumuli, near this old city, evidences of cremation have 

 been found, apparently showing that the conical erections were not 

 sepulchral. There are other widely different, but equally remarkable 

 structures, but I confine myself in this paper to the above. In the 

 Island of Minorca alone, although at a distance of thirty miles from 

 each other, and with a range of mountains between, even the ex- 

 tremely remote and all the intervening remains of this kind could 

 have almost instantaneous communication with each other, as tested 

 by me; and I believe a careful survey of the district between 

 Stonehenge and Avebury would show that either by ancient barrows 

 or natural heights communications could be made between these 

 places. Excavations near these structures have, as at Stonehenge, 

 and at Carnac, in Brittany, produced Roman remains, though it 

 need hardly be said the structures are not Roman. It is, however, 

 clear they were known to the Romans. One very curious point 

 arises here. In the Island of Minorca, near to the great port, 

 Mahon (so named from a Carthagenian general Mago), the stone 



