SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND ITALY.
It would not be easy to find a more apt illustration of the difficulty
and danger of writing such a book as this than the history of how
we acquired our knowledge of Spanish dolmens. When Ford published
his interesting and exhaustive 'Handbook of Spain,' in 1845, he had
travelled over the length and breadth of the land, and knew its
literature intimately, but he did not know that there was a single
"Druidical remain" in the country. The first intimation of their
existence was in a pamphlet by Don Rafael Mitjana,[441] containing
the description of one at Antequera; and since then Don Gongora ý
Martinez[442] has published a work containing views and descriptions of
thirteen or fourteen important monuments of this class in Andalusia and
the south of Spain; and from other sources I know the names of at least
an equal number in the Asturias and the north of Spain.[443] Had this
work consequently been written only a very few years ago, a description
of the dolmen at Antequera must have begun and ended the chapter. As
it now is, we not only know that dolmens are numerous in Spain, but
we have a distinct idea of their distribution, which may lead to most
important historical results.
With regard to Portugal, the case is even more striking. Kinsey, in his
'Portugal Illustrated,' in 1829, gave a drawing of a "Druid's altar"
at Arroyolos, and it was mentioned also by Borrow,[444] but there our
information stopped, till the meeting of the International Prehistoric
Congress at Paris in 1867, when S. Pereira da Costa described by name
thirty-nine dolmens as still existing in Portugal. He also mentioned
that as long ago as 1734 a memoir had been presented to the Portuguese
Academy enumerating 314 as then to be met with; and though this is
doubtful, it seems that they were at one time very numerous, and many,
no doubt, still exist which have escaped S. da Costa's enquiries.
Neither he nor any one else appears to have visited Cape Cuneus, the
most southern point of Portugal, where, if we read Strabo aright,
dolmens certainly existed in his day;[445] and if they do so now, it
would be a point gained in our investigation.
At present, according to S. da Costa, there are twenty-one dolmens in
Alentejo, two in Estramadura, nine in Beira, four in Tras os Montes,
and three in Minho. According to my information, they are numerous in
Gallicia, but have never been described. Three at least are known by
name in Santander, and as many in the Asturias. One at least is known
in Biscay, and two in Vitoria; one in Navarre, and one in Catalonia.
But I am assured that all along the roots of the mountains they are
frequent, though no one has yet described or drawn them.[446] So far as
is known, there are none in the Castiles, in the centre of Spain, and
only that group above alluded to in Andalusia, where probably, instead
of a dozen, it may turn out that there are twice or thrice that number.
Assuming this distribution of the Spanish dolmens to be correct--and
I see no reason for doubting that it is so, in the main features at
least--it is so remarkable that it affords a good opportunity for
testing one of the principal theories put forward with regard to the
migrations of the dolmen-building people. According to the theory of M.
Bertrand, the dolmen people, after passing down the Baltic and leaving
their monuments there, migrated to the British islands, and after a
sojourn of some time again took to their ships and landed in France and
Spain, to pass thence into Africa and disappear.[447] This seems so
strange, that it is fortunate we have another hypothesis which assumes
the probability of an indigenous population driven first to the hills
and then into the ocean by the advancing tide of modern civilization.
The first hypothesis involves the assumption that the dolmen people
possessed a navy capable of transplanting them and their families from
shore to shore, and that they had a sufficient knowledge of geography
to know exactly whither to go, but at the same time possessed with
such a spirit of wandering that so soon as they settled for a certain
time in a given place, and buried a certain number of their chiefs,
they immediately set out again on their travels. According to this
view, they were so weak that they fled the moment when the original
possessors of the land rose against them, though, strange to say, they
had in the first instance been able to dispossess them. What is still
more unlikely is that they should have possessed the organization to
keep together, and to introduce everywhere their own arts and their
own customs, but that, when they departed, they should have left
nothing but their tombs behind. This hypothesis involves in fact so
many difficulties and so many improbabilities that I do not think that
either M. Bertrand or the Baron de Bonstetten would now, that our
knowledge is so much increased, adhere to it. I at least cannot see
on what grounds it can be maintained. It is so diametrically opposed
to all we know of ancient migrations. They seem always--in so far as
Europe is concerned--to have followed the course of the sun from east
to west; and the idea that a people, after having peopled Britain,
should have started again to land on the rugged coasts of the Asturias
or in Portugal, and not have been able to penetrate into the interior,
is so very unlikely that it would require very strong and direct
testimony to make it credible, while it need hardly be said no such
evidence is forthcoming.
The hypothesis which seems to account much more satisfactorily for
the facts as we know them assumes that an ancestral worshipping
people inhabited the Spanish peninsula from remote prehistoric times.
If so, they certainly occupied the pastoral plains of Castile and
the fertile regions of Valencia and Andalusia, as well as the bleak
hills of Gallicia and the Asturias. Whether we call them Iberians, or
Celtiberians, or, to use a more general term, Turanians, they were
a dead-reverencing, ancestral worshipping people, but had not in
prehistoric times learnt to use stone for the adornment of their tombs.
The first people, so far as we know, who disturbed the Iberians in
their possessions were the Carthaginians. They occupied the sea coast
at least of Murcia and Valencia, and if, according to their custom,
they sought to reduce the natives to slavery, they probably frightened
multitudes from the coast into the interior, but there is no proof that
they ever made any extensive settlements in the centre of the country,
nor on its west or north coast. It was different with the Romans: with
them the genius of conquest was strong; they longed to annex all Spain
to their dominions, and no doubt drove all those who were impatient
of their yoke into the remote districts of Portugal and the rugged
fastnesses of the Asturias and the northern mountains. It is also
probable that many, to avoid their oppressions, sought refuge beyond
the sea; but the great migrations are probably due to the intolerance
of the early Christian missionaries. It thus seems that it was to avoid
Carthaginian rapacity, Roman tyranny, and Christian intolerance, that
the unfortunate aborigines were forced first into the fastnesses of the
hills, and thence driven literally into the sea, to seek refuge from
their oppressors in the islands of the ocean.[448]
Such an hypothesis seems perfectly consonant with all the facts as we
now know them, and it also accounts for the absence of dolmens in the
centre of Spain; for if this is correct, these migrations took place
in the pre-dolmen period, and just as we find the Bryts beginning to
use stones after having been driven from the fertile plains of the east
into the fastnesses of Cumberland and Wales, so we find the Spaniards
first adopting rude-stone monuments after having been driven into
Portugal and the Asturias.
The one point which this theory does not seem to account for is the
presence of dolmens in Andalusia. They however are, if I am not
mistaken, an outlying branch of the great African dolmen field, and
belong to the same age as these do, of which we shall be better able
to judge presently. That there was a close or intimate connection
from very early times between the south coast of Spain and the north
of Africa hardly admits of a doubt. The facility with which the Moors
occupied it in the seventh century, and the permanence of their
dominion for so many centuries, is in itself sufficient to prove that
a people of the same race had been established there before them, and
that they were not a foreign race holding the natives in subjection,
but dwelling among their own kith and kin.
It seems in vain to look among the written annals, either of Spain
or Ireland, for a rational account of these events. Both countries
acknowledge to the fullest extent that the migration did take place;
and the Spanish race of Heremon is one of the most illustrious of
those of Ireland, and fills a large page in its history. So, too, the
Spanish annalists fill volumes with the successful expeditions of
their countrymen to the Green Island.[449] The mania, however, of the
annalists of both countries for carrying everything back to the Flood,
and the sons and daughters of Noah, so vitiates everything they say,
that beyond the fact, which seems undoubted that such migration did
occur no reliance can be placed on their accounts of these transactions.
One only paragraph that I know of seems to have escaped perversion. In
his second chapter of his fourth book, D. O'Campo states:--"Certain
natives of Spain called Siloros (the Siluri), a Biscayan tribe, joined
with another, named Brigantes, migrated to Britain about 261 years
before our era, and obtained possession of a territory there on which
they settled."[450] This is so consonant with what we know of the
settlement of the Silures on the banks of the Severn that there seems
no good reason for doubting its correctness. It is more doubtful,
however, whether any Spanish colonies reached Ireland at so early an
age. Even allowing for the existence in the north-east of Ireland of
the realm of Emania, the only kingdom in Ireland of which we have any
authentic annals before the Christian era, there was plenty of room
for the contemporary existence of the race of Heremon in the south and
west. Tara did not then exist, and, in fact, according to the annals
of the 'Four Masters,' was founded by Heremon himself, and took its
first name, Teamair, from Tea, his wife, who selected this spot. All
this is perfectly consistent with what we know of the history of the
place. The earliest monument at Tara is the Rath of Cormac[451] (218
A.D., or probably fifty years later). Though therefore chosen
by Heremon as a sacred or desirable spot for residence, there is no
proof that his race ever occupied it; and in the two centuries that
elapsed from his advent to the time of Cormac his race had passed away
from Meath at least, and was only to be found in the south and west of
Ireland. The one reminiscence of the Milesian race that remained at
Tara, in historical times, is the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, which
these "veneratores lapidum" are said to have brought with them from
Spain, but which, with all due deference to Petrie, is not the obelisk
still standing there,[452] but may be the stone now in Westminster
Abbey. The Spanish colonists seem principally to have occupied the
country about Wexford and Galway,[453] and to these places, especially
the latter, a continual stream of immigration appears to have flowed
from the first century of our era down to the time of Elizabeth. No
one can travel in these counties without remarking the presence of a
dark-haired, dark-eyed race that prevails everywhere; but, strange to
say, the darkest-complexioned people in the west are those who still
linger among the long-neglected dolmens of Glen Malim More.
According to the annals of the 'Four Masters,' Heremon landed in
Ireland fifty years after the death of the great Dagdha. The Irish
historians say that the country was then ruled by three princesses,
wives of the grandsons of the Dagdha, and add that the event took
place 1002 years after Forann (Pharaoh) had been drowned in the Red
Sea.[454] If that event took place in 1312, as I believe it did,[455]
this would fix their advent in 310 B.C., which, though less
extravagant than the chronology of the 'Four Masters, is still, I
believe, at least three centuries too early. All this may not be--is
not in fact--capable of absolute proof; but it has at least the merit
that it pieces together satisfactorily all we know of the history and
ethnography of these races, and explains in a reasonable manner all the
architectural forms which we meet with. It is hardly fair to expect
more from the annals of a rude people who could not write, and whose
history has never been carefully investigated in modern times. It is
too early yet to say so, but the fact is, that it is these rude-stone
monuments which alone can reveal the secrets of their long forgotten
past. As they have hitherto been treated, they have only added mystery
to obscurity. But the time is not far off when this will be altered,
and we may learn from a comparison of the Irish with Spanish dolmens,
not only what truth there is in the migrations of Heremon, but also at
what time these Spanish tribes first settled as colonists in the Irish
isle.
DOLMENS.
[Illustration: 155. View of the Interior of Dolmen at Antequera. From
Mitjana.]
The finest dolmen known to exist in Spain is that of Antequera, above
alluded to; it will, indeed, bear comparison with the best in France
or any other country in Europe. The chamber is of a somewhat oval
shape, and measures internally about 80 feet from the entrance to the
front of the stone closing the rear. Its greatest width is 20 feet 6
inches, and its height varies between 9 and 10 feet.[456] The whole is
composed of thirty-one stones: ten on each side form the walls; one
closes the end; five are roofing, and three pillars support the last
at their junction. The stone forming the roof of the cell or innermost
part measures 25 feet by 21 feet, and is of considerable thickness. All
the stones comprising this monument are more or less shaped by art--at
least to the extent to which those at Stonehenge can be said to be
so; while the three pillars in the centre, which seem to be part of
the original structure, are certainly hewn. The whole was originally
covered with a mound about 100 feet in diameter, and is still partially
at least so buried. Its entrance is, however, and probably always was,
flush with the edge of the mound, and open and accessible, and it is
consequently not to be wondered at if nothing was found inside to
indicate its age or use.
[Illustration: 156. Plan of Dolmen called Cueva de Menga, near
Antequera.]
If we might assume--there is no proof--that the mound at Antequera was
originally surrounded by a circle of stones like those at Lough Crew
(woodcut No. 72), we should have a monument whose plan and dimensions
were the same as those of Stonehenge, and, _mutatis mutandis_, the two
would be, as nearly as may be, identical. There is the same circle
of stone or earth 100 feet in diameter, and the same elliptical
choir 80 feet in length, assuming that of Stonehenge to be extended
to the outer circle. Antequera is, in fact, a roofed and covered-up
Stonehenge, Stonehenge a free-standing Antequera. If both were situated
in Wiltshire or in Andalusia, I should unhesitatingly declare for
Antequera being the older. Men do what is useful before they indulge
in what is merely fanciful. The two, in fact, bear exactly the same
relation to one another that Callernish does to New Grange; but when so
widely separated geographically as the former two are, and belonging to
two different races, it is difficult to say which may be the older. All
we can feel sure of is that both belong to the same system, and that
they are not far removed from each other in date. We must, however,
know more than we do of the local history of Spanish dolmens before we
can feel sure that Antequera may not be even considerably more modern
than Stonehenge.
[Illustration: 157. Dolmen del Tio Cogolleros. From Gongora.]
None of the other dolmens in Andalusia approach Antequera in
magnificence, though they all seem to bear a similar character, and in
appearance belong to the same age. The supporting stones seem to be all
more or less shaped by art, and fitted to some extent to one another.
The cap-stone is generally left in its natural state, largeness being
the feature that the builders always aimed at. These peculiarities are
well exhibited in the dolmen called de la Cruz del Tio Cogolleros,
in the parish of Fonelas, near Guadix. Here the cap-stone measures
nearly 12 feet each way, and covers what was intended to be a nearly
square chamber; one side, as at Kit's Cotty House, being left open;
consequently it could hardly ever have been intended to be covered with
a mound. Indeed, so far as we can gather from Don Gongora's drawings,
none of those which he illustrates were ever so buried, nor does it
appear that it was originally the intention ever to cover them with
earth. Another monument, called only Sepultura Grande, in the parish
of Gor, in the same neighbourhood, is interesting from its resemblance
to the Swedish sepulchre illustrated in woodcut No. 108, and to the
Countless Stones at Aylesford. Its cap-stone is 12 feet by 8 feet, and
the side-stones fall away to a point in front. It evidently never was
intended to be further roofed, nor to be buried in a mound, and, so far
as can be judged from its appearance, is of comparatively modern date.
The most interesting of Don Gongora's plates is one representing
a dolmen near Dilar. This, if the drawing is to be depended upon,
consists of a monolithic chamber, hollowed out of a stone of
considerable dimensions, and hewn so as almost to look like an Egyptian
cell. It is surrounded by twelve or fourteen rude-stone pillars,
apparently 3 feet in height, and like those of Callernish in shape.
In the distance are seen two other circles of rude stones, but with
nothing in their centre. If I understand Don Gongora rightly, these
monuments are now very much ruined, if not entirely destroyed, and it
is not clear how far the drawings are actual sketches or restorations.
They may be correct, but without further confirmation it would hardly
be safe to found any argument upon them.
[Illustration: 158. Sepultura Grande. From Gongora.]
* * * * *
So little is known--or at least so little has been published--regarding
the dolmens of the north of Spain that it is very difficult and very
unsafe to attempt any generalisation regarding them. There are three,
however, which do seem to throw some light on our enquiries. The first
is at Eguilar, in the district of Vitoria, on the road between that
city and Pampeluna. It is of a horse-shoe form, like the Countless
Stones at Aylesford, and measures 13 feet by 10 feet internally.
Originally it was roofed by a single stone, measuring 19 feet by 15
feet, but which is now, unfortunately, broken. The side-stones and roof
are closely fitted to one another, showing that it was always intended
to be, and, in fact, is now, partially covered by a mound of earth.
[Illustration: 159. Plan of Dolmen at Eguilar.]
At Cangas de Onis, in the Asturias, about forty miles east from Oviedo,
there is a small church built on a mound which contains in it a dolmen
of rather unusual shape. Its inner end is circular in plan, from which
proceeds a funnel-shaped nave, formed of three stones on each side,
and with a doorway formed by two large stones at right angles to its
direction. On the top of the mound a church was built, probably in
the tenth or eleventh century,[457] to which this dolmen served as a
crypt. From this it seems to be a fair inference that, when the church
was built on the mound, the dolmen was still a sacred edifice of the
aborigines. Had the Christians merely wanted a foundation for their
building, they would have filled up or destroyed the pagan edifice, but
it seems to have remained open to the present day; and though it has
long ceased to be used for any sacred purpose, it still is, and always
was, an essential part of the church which it supported.
[Illustration: 160. Plan of Dolmen at Cangas de Onis.]
[Illustration: 161. Dolmen of San Miguel, at Arrichinaga.]
A still more remarkable instance of the same kind is to be found at
a place called Arrichinaga, about twenty-five miles from Bilboa, in
the province of Biscay. In the hermitage of St. Michael, at this
place, a dolmen of very considerable dimensions is enclosed within
the walls of what seems to be a new modern church. It may, however,
be the successor of one more ancient; but the fact of these great
stones being adopted by the Christians at all shows that they must have
been considered sacred and objects of worship by the natives at the
time when the Christians enclosed them in their edifice. If the facts
are as represented in the woodcut,[458] we can now easily understand
why the councils of Toledo, in 681 and 692, fulminated their decrees
against the "veneratores lapidum;"[459] and why also the more astute
provincial priesthood followed the advice that Pope Gregory gave to
Abbot Millitus, and by means of a little holy water and an image of
San Miguel turned the sacred stones of the pagans into a temple of the
true God. It is difficult to say when Christianity penetrated into
the Asturias--not, probably, before the time of Pelayo (A.D.
720); but even this would be too early for such churches as those of
Cangas de Onis and Arrichinaga. They, in fact, seem to carry down the
veneration for big stones to almost as late a date as the age indicated
by the dolmen at Confolens (woodcut No. 123), and bring the probable
erection of some of them at least, if not of all, within the historic
era.
PORTUGAL.
[Illustration: 162. Dolmen at Arroyolos. From Kinsey.]
Only one drawing of a dolmen in Portugal has as yet, so far as I know,
been published. It is situated on a bleak heath-land at Arroyolos, not
far from Evora. Mr. Borrow describes it as one of the most perfect and
beautiful of its kind he had ever seen. "It was circular, and consisted
of stones immensely large and heavy at the bottom, which towards
the top became thinner, having been fashioned by the hand of art to
something like the shape of scallop-shells. These were surmounted by
a very large flat stone, which slanted down towards the south, where
was a door. Three or four individuals might have taken shelter within
the interior, in which was growing a small thorn-tree."[460] Neither
he nor Kinsey condescend to dimensions, and S. da Costa merely remarks
that the dolmens which he has seen at Castello da Vide are of a similar
construction to this one at Arroyolos.[461]
This, it must be confessed, is but a meagre and imperfect outline of
one of the most important dolmen-fields in Europe, but it is probably
sufficient to indicate its importance and its bearing on the history
of megalithic remains in general. When filled up, it promises to throw
a flood of light on the subject in general, not only from being one of
the connecting links serving to join the African dolmen-field to that
of Europe, but more especially from the assistance it seems to afford
us in understanding the hitherto mysterious connection of the Irish
Milesians with Spain. If the dolmens on the north and west coasts of
the Spanish peninsula were carefully examined and compared with those
in Ireland, their similarity would probably suffice to prove their
affinity, and to establish on a broad basis of fact what has hitherto
been left to the wild imaginings of patriotic annalists, more anxious
for the fabled antiquity of their race than for the prosaic results of
truthful investigations.
From such knowledge as we at present possess, I see no reason for
supposing that any of the Spanish dolmens are as old as the Christian
era; and the facts connected with the two at Cangas de Onis and
Arrichinaga seem to prove that they were "venerated" as late at least
as the eighth, it may be the tenth, century, and, if venerated, there
is no reason why they should not also have been erected at that late
age.
ITALY.
Although the experience we have just acquired with reference to dolmens
in Spain ought to make any one cautious as to making assertions
regarding those in Italy, still it probably is safe to assert that,
with the exception of one group at Saturnia, there are no dolmens in
that country. In many respects Italy is very differently situated from
Spain. Her own learned societies and antiquaries have for centuries
been occupied with her antiquities, and foreign tourists have traversed
the length and breadth of the land, and could hardly have failed to
remark anything that called to their recollection the Druids or Dragons
of their own native lands. As nothing, however, of the sort has been
recorded, we may feel tolerable confidence that no important specimens
exist; though at the roots of the hills and in remote corners there can
be little doubt that waifs and strays of wandering races will reward
the careful searcher for such objects. One, for instance, is known to
exist near Sesto Calende, in Lombardy. It is a circle of small stones,
some 30 feet in diameter, with an avenue 50 feet in length touching
it tangentially on one side, and with a small semicircle of stones 20
feet wide a few yards farther off.[462] The whole looks like the small
alignments on Dartmoor, and if several were found and the traditions of
the country were carefully sifted, this might lead to some light being
thrown on the subject. At present it is hardly much bigger or more
interesting than a sheep-fold.
The Saturnia group is thus described by Mr. Dennis:--"They are very
numerous, consisting generally of a quadrangular chamber sunk a few
feet below the surface, lined with rough slabs of rock set upright,
one on each side, and roofed over with two large slabs resting against
each other, so as to form a penthouse, or else a single one of enormous
size, covering the whole, and laid with a slight slope, apparently for
the purpose of carrying off the rain. Not a chisel has touched these
rugged masses, about 16 feet square to half that size; some divided,
like that shown in the annexed woodcut, into two chambers over 18 feet
across. To most of them a passage leads, 10 or 12 feet long and 3 feet
wide. All are sunk a little below the surface, because each had a
tumulus of earth piled around it, so as to cover all but the cap stone."
One tumulus was observed with a circle of small stones set round it,
and Mr. Dennis suggests "that all may have been so encircled, but that
the small stones would be easily removed by the peasantry." "Nothing,"
he adds, "at all like them is seen in any other part of Etruria."[463]
Saturnia is situated twenty miles from the sea, and if it is true that
nothing of the sort is found elsewhere in Italy, these dolmens must
be looked upon as exceptional--the remains of some stray colony of
dolmen-builders, the memory of which has passed away, and may probably
now be lost for ever.
[Illustration: 163. Dolmen at Saturnia. From Dennis' 'Etruria.']
If this is a correct representation of what took place in Italy,
the conclusion seems inevitable that the chambered tumuli of that
country--all of which are erected with hewn stones--did not grow out
of rude-stone monuments. In no country in Europe are the tumuli so
numerous or so important as in Etruria, and, as before mentioned, they
certainly extend back to an era twelve or thirteen centuries before
Christ. But if the dolmens of France or Scandinavia are prehistoric,
or, in other words, extend back to anything like a thousand or fifteen
hundred years before Christ, there is no reason whatever why dolmens
should not be found also in Italy, if they ever existed there. Either
it must be that Italy never possessed any or that those in the rest of
Europe are very much more modern. If the northern dolmens are only one
thousand to two thousand years old, the matter is easily explained. If
they are three thousand or four thousand years old, they ought also to
be found in Italy.
The fact seems to be that both the Pelasgi of Greece and the Tyrrheni
of Italy came in contact either with Egypt or some early stone-hewing
people before they left their homes in the East to migrate into Europe,
and that they never passed through the rude-stone stage of architecture
at any period, or at any place with which we are acquainted; and as
they were, so far as we know, the earliest colonists of the countries
they afterwards occupied, it seems in vain to look for dolmens where
they settled. If Attila had lived five centuries before instead
of after the Christian era, he and his Huns might have produced a
rude-stone age in Italy. The inhabitants of Etruria were essentially a
burying, dead-reverencing people, and if they had only been thrown back
to that stage of barbarism which the rude monuments of our forefathers
represent, we might have found dolmens there in thousands. The fate
of Italy was different. Pressed by the Celts of Gallia Cisalpina
in the north and by the Romans in the south, Etruria was squeezed
out of existence, but by two races more civilized and progressive
than herself. So far from throwing her back towards barbarism, Rome
in adopting many of her forms advanced and improved upon them, and
imparted to her architecture a higher and more intellectual form than
she had been herself able to impress upon it. So, too, in Greece. The
Dorian superseded and extinguished the Pelasgic forms, but after a
longer interval of time. Four or five centuries elapsed between the
last tomb we know of, at Mycenæ, and the earliest Doric temple at
Corinth, and the consequence is that we see far fewer traces of the
earlier people in the architecture of Greece than we do in that of
Rome. But in neither instance was there any tendency to retrograde to a
dolmen stage of civilization.
The case was widely different with such countries as Spain or France.
There an aboriginal population had existed for thousands and tens of
thousands of years, unprogressive and incapable, so far as we know, of
progress within themselves, and only at last slowly and reluctantly
forced by Roman example to adopt a more ambitious mode of sepulture
than a mere mound of earth. No semi-civilized race ever settled in
their lands, and the Carthaginians at Carthagena or Marseilles hardly
penetrated into the interior, and were besides neither a building nor
burying race, and had, consequently, very little influence on their
modes of sepulture.
With Rome the case was different. She conquered and administered for
centuries all those countries in which we find the earliest traces
of rude-stone monuments, and she could hardly fail to leave some
impress of her magnificence in lands which she had so long occupied.
But when she withdrew her protecting care, France, Spain, and Britain
relapsed into, and for centuries remained sunk in, a state of anarchy
and barbarism as bad, if not worse than, that in which Rome had found
them three or four centuries before. It was in vain to expect that the
hapless natives could maintain either the arts or the institutions
with which Rome had endowed them. But it is natural to suppose that
they would remember the evidences of her greatness and her power, and
would hardly go back for their sepulchres to the unchambered mole-hill
barrows of their forefathers, but attempt something in stone, though
only in such rude fashion as the state of the arts among them enabled
them to execute.
[Footnote 441: 'Memoria sobre el Tempio Druida de Antequera,'
Malaga, 1847.]
[Footnote 442: 'Antegüedades prehistoricos de Andalucia,' Madrid,
1868.]
[Footnote 443: For a great part of the information regarding them,
I am indebted to my friend Don J. F. Riaño, of Madrid.]
[Footnote 444: 'Bible in Spain,' ii. p. 35.]
[Footnote 445: Strabo, iii. p. 138.]
[Footnote 446: There is an interesting paper by Lord Talbot de
Malahide on this subject in the 'Archæological Journal,' 108, 1870,
illustrated by drawings of hitherto unknown dolmens, by Sir Vincent
Eyre.]
[Footnote 447: 'Revue archéologique,' new series, viii. p. 530.]
[Footnote 448: "In the year B.C. 218, the second and
fiercest struggle between the rival republics of Carthage and Rome
was commenced by Hannibal taking Seguntum. The Peninsula thereafter
became the theatre of a war afterwards carried by Hannibal into
Italy, which was not concluded till 202 B.C., when Spain
was added to the growing Italian Republic. But the nation of Spain
did not willingly bow to the yoke. One of the bloodiest of all
the Roman wars commenced in Spain in 153, and did not finally
terminate for twenty years, during which cities were razed to the
ground, multitudes massacred and made slaves, and the triumphant
arms of Rome borne to the Atlantic shores. Here, therefore, is
an epoch in the history of the Spanish peninsula which seems
completely to coincide with the ancient traditions of the Scoti,
and the knowledge we possess of the period of their arrival in
Ireland."--_Dan Wilson_, 'Prehistoric Annals of Scotland,' p. 475.]
[Footnote 449: See a paper on the migration from Spain to Ireland,
by Dr. Madden, 'Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy,' viii. pp. 372
_et seq._]
[Footnote 450: Madden, _l. s. c._ p. 377.]
[Footnote 451: _Ante_, p. 193.]
[Footnote 452: Petrie, "Essay on Tara," 'Trans. R. S. A.' xviii.]
[Footnote 453: "The two provinces which the race of Heremon
possessed were the province of Gailian (_i.e._ Leinster) and the
province of Olnemacht (_i.e._ Connaught)."--_Petrie_, 'Round
Towers,' p. 100.]
[Footnote 454: Reeves, translation of Nennius, p. 55.]
[Footnote 455: 'True Principles of Beauty in Art,' by the Author,
appendix, 526.]
[Footnote 456: These dimensions are taken from Mitjana's book,
merely turned into their equivalents in English feet. They do
not, however, agree in scale with the plan, but are probably
approximately correct.]
[Footnote 457: There is a view of the mound and church in
Parcerisa, 'Recuerdos y Bellezas de España, Asturias y Leon,' p.
30, but too small to enable us to be able to form any idea of its
age from the lithograph.]
[Footnote 458: The woodcut is copied from one in Frank Leslie's
'Illustrated News;' which is itself, taken from a French
illustrated journal. I do not doubt that the American copy is a
correct reproduction of the French original; but there may be
exaggerations in the first. I see no reason, however, for doubting
that the great stones do exist in the hermitage, and that they are
parts, at least, of a dolmen---and this is all that concerns the
argument. I wish, however, we had some more reliable information on
the subject.]
[Footnote 459: Vide _ante_, p. 24.]
[Footnote 460: Borrow, 'Bible in Spain,' ii. p. 35.]
[Footnote 461: 'Congrès international préhistorique,' Paris volume,
p. 182.]
[Footnote 462: 'Congrès international préhistorique,' Paris volume,
p. 197.]
[Footnote 463: 'Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria,' ii. p. 314.]