FRANCE, SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL
France contains large numbers of megalithic monuments. Of dolmens and
corridor-tombs no less than 4458 have been recorded. In the east and
south-east they are rare, but they abound over a wide strip running from
the Breton coasts of the English Channel to the Mediterranean shores of
Hérault and Card. In 1901 Mortillef counted 6192 menhirs, including
those which formed parts of _alignements_ and cromlechs. Several of
these attain to a great size. That to Locmariaquer (Morbihan), now
unfortunately fallen and broken, measured over 60 feet in height, being
thus not much shorter than the Egyptian obelisk which stands in the
Place de la Concorde in Paris.
Passing now to combinations of menhirs in groups, we must first mention
the remarkable _alignements_ of Brittany, of which the most famous are
those of Carnac. They run east and west over a distance of 3300 yards,
but the line is broken at two points in such a way that the whole forms
three groups. The most westerly, that of Ménec, consists of eleven lines
of menhirs and a cromlech, the total number of stones standing being
1169, the tallest of which is 13 feet in height. The central group, that
of Kermario, consists of 982 stones arranged in ten straight lines,
while the most easterly, that of Kerlescan, is formed by 579 menhirs, 39
of which form a rectangular enclosure.
There are other _alignements_ in Brittany, of which the most important
is that of Erdeven, comprising 1129 stones arranged in ten lines.
Outside Brittany _alignements_ are unusual, but a fine example, now
ruined, is said to have existed at Saint Pantaléon north of Autun. In
the fields around it are found large quantities of polished stone axes
with knives, scrapers, and arrow-heads of flint.
We have already noticed the cromlechs which form part of the
_alignements_ of Brittany. There are other examples in France. At
Er-Lanic are two circles touching one another, the lower of which is
covered by the sea even at low tide. Excavations carried out within the
circles brought to light rough pottery and axes of polished stone. Two
fine circles at Can de Ceyrac (Gard) have diameters of about 100 yards,
and are formed of stones about 3 feet high. Each has a short entrance
avenue which narrows as it approaches the circle, and in the centre of
each rises a trilithon of rough stones.
Of the definitely sepulchral monuments the dolmen is common in all
parts of the French megalithic area. It will suffice to mention the
magnificent example known as the Table des Marchands at Locmariaquer.
Perhaps the most typical structure in France is the corridor-tomb in
which the chamber is indistinguishable from the passage, and the whole
forms a long rectangular area. This is the _allée couverte_ in the
narrower sense. In the department of Oise occurs a special type of this
in which one of the end-slabs has a hole pierced in its centre and is
preceded by a small portico consisting of two uprights supporting a
roof-slab (Fig 10). A remarkable example in Brittany known as Les
Pierres Plates turns at a sharp angle in the middle, and is thus
elbow-shaped.
[Illustration: FIG. 10. _Allée couverte_, called La Pierre aux Fées,
Oise, France. (_Compte rendu du Congrès Préhistorique
de France_.)]
In the north of France the _allée_ is often merely cut out in the
surface of the ground and has no roof at all. It is sometimes paved
with slabs and divided into two partitions by an upright with a hole in
its centre. Tombs of this kind often contain from forty to eighty
skeletons, some of which are in the contracted position. The skulls are
in some cases trepanned, i.e. small round pieces of the bone have been
cut out of them; such pieces are sometimes found separate in the graves.
No objects of metal occur in these North French tombs.
There are many fine examples in Brittany of the corridor-tomb with
distinct chamber. The best known lies on the island of Gavr'inis
(Morbihan). It is covered by a tumulus nearly 200 feet in diameter. The
circular chamber, 6 feet in height, is roofed by a huge block measuring
13 feet by 10. The corridor which leads out to the edge of the mound is
40 feet in length. Twenty-two of the upright blocks used in this tomb
are almost entirely covered with engraved designs. These are massed
together with very little order, the main object having been apparently
to cover the whole surface of the stone with ornament. The designs
consist of spirals, concentric circles and semicircles, chevrons, rows
of strokes, and triangles, and bear a considerable resemblance to those
of Lough Crew and New Grange in Ireland.
Another tomb in the same district, that of Mané-er-Hroeck, was intact
when discovered in 1863. It contained within its chamber a hoard of 101
axes of fibrolite and jadeite, 50 pebbles of a kind of turquoise known
as _callaïs_, pieces of pottery, flints, and a peculiarly fine celt of
jadeite together with a flat ring-shaped club-head of the same stone.
The tomb was concealed by a huge oval mound more than 100 yards in
length. The famous Mont S. Michel is an artificial mound containing a
central megalithic chamber and several smaller cists, some of which held
cremated bodies.
[Illustration: FIG. 11. Chambered mound at Fontenay-le-Marmion,
Normandy. (After Montelius, _Orient und Europa_.)]
A very remarkable mound in Calvados (Fig. 11) was found to contain no
less than twelve circular corbelled chambers, each with a separate
entrance passage. The megalithic tombs of Brittany all belong to the
late neolithic period, and contain tools and arrow-heads of flint, small
ornaments of gold, _callaïs_, and pottery which includes among its forms
the bell-shaped cup.
In Central and South France the _allées couvertes_ are mostly of a
semi-subterranean type, i.e. they are cut in the ground and merely
roofed with slabs of stone. The most famous is that of the Grotte des
Fées near Arles (Fig. 12), in which a passage (_a_) with a staircase at
one end and two niches (_b b_) in its sides leads into a narrow
rectangular chamber (_c_). The total length is nearly 80 feet. Another
tomb of the same type, La Grotte du Castellet, contained over a hundred
skeletons, together with thirty-three flint arrow or spear-heads, one of
which was stuck fast in a human vertebra, a bell-shaped cup, axes of
polished stone, beads and pendants of various materials, 114 pieces of
_callaïs_, and a small plaque of gold.
On the plateau of Ger near the town of Dax are large numbers of mounds,
some of which contain cremated bodies in urns and others megalithic
tombs. Bertrand saw in this a cemetery of two different peoples living
side by side. But it has since been shown that the cremation mounds
belong to a much later period than those which contain megalithic
graves. In these last the skeletons were found seated around the walls
of the chamber accompanied by objects of flint and other stone, beads of
_callaïs_, and small gold ornaments.
[Illustration: FIG. 12. Plan and section of La Grotte des Fées, Arles,
France (_Matériaux pour l'histoire de l'homme_, 1873).]
[Illustration: FIG. 13. The so-called dolmen-deity, from the tombs of
the Petit Morin. (After de Baye.)]
France has also its rock-hewn tombs, for in the valley of the
Petit-Morin is a series of such graves. A trench leads down to the
entrance, which is closed by a slab. The chamber itself is completely
underground. In the shallower tombs were either two rows of bodies with
a passage between or separate layers parted by slabs or strata of sand.
In the deeper were seldom more than eight bodies, in the extended or
contracted position, with tools and weapons of flint, pots, and beads
of amber and of _callaïs_. On the walls were rough sculptures of human
figures (Fig. 13), to which we shall have to return later.
The Channel Islands possess megalithic monuments not unlike those of
Brittany. They are corridor-tombs covered with a mound and often
surrounded by a circle of stones. Within the chamber, which is usually
round, lies, under a layer of shells, a mass of mingled human and animal
bones. The bodies had been buried in the sitting position, and with them
lay objects of stone and bone, but none of metal.
The Spanish Peninsula abounds in megalithic monuments. With the
exception of a few menhirs, whose purpose is uncertain, all are
sepulchral. Dolmens and corridor-tombs are numerous in many parts,
especially in the north-east provinces, in Galicia, in Andalusia, and,
above all, in Portugal. There is a fine dolmen in the Vall Gorguina in
North-East Spain. The cover-slab, measuring 10 feet by 8, is supported
by seven rough uprights with considerable spaces between them. In the
same region is a ruined dolmen surrounded by a circle nearly 90 feet in
circumference, consisting of seven large stones, some of which appear to
be partly worked. Circles are also found round dolmens in Andalusia.
Portugal abounds in fine dolmens both of the round and rectangular
types. At Fonte Coberta on the Douro stands a magnificent dolmen known
locally as the Moors' House. In the name of the field, Fonte Coberta,
there is doubtless an allusion to the belief that the dolmens conceal
springs of water, a belief also held in parts of Ireland.
At Eguilaz in the Basque provinces is a fine corridor-tomb, in which a
passage 20 feet long, roofed with flat slabs, leads to a rectangular
chamber 13 feet by 15 with an immense cover-slab nearly 20 feet in
length: the whole was covered with a mound of earth. The chamber
contained human bones and "lanceheads of stone and bronze." A famous
tomb of a similar type exists at Marcella in Algarve. The chamber is a
fine circle of upright slabs. It is paved with stones, and part of its
area is divided into two or perhaps three rectangular compartments. A
couple of orthostatic slabs form a sort of neck joining the circle to
the passage, which narrows as it leads away from the circle, and was
probably divided into two sections by a doorway whose side-posts still
remain.
In South-East Spain the brothers Siret have found corridor-tombs in
which the chamber is cut in the rock surface and roofed with slabs; the
entrance passage becomes a slope or a staircase. Here we have a parallel
to the Giants' Graves of Sardinia, which are built usually of stone
blocks on the surface, but occasionally are cut in the solid rock.
Other tombs in the same district show the common megalithic construction
consisting of a base course of upright slabs surmounted by several
courses of horizontal masonry (Fig. 14). The chamber is usually round,
and may have two or more niches in its circumference. It is roofed by
the successive overlapping or corbelling of the upper courses. The vault
thus formed is further supported by a pillar of wood or stone set in
the centre of the chamber. On the walls of some of the chambers there
are traces of rough painting in red. The whole tomb is covered with a
circular mound. In the best known example at Los Millares there are
remains of a semicircular façade in front of the entrance, as in many
other megalithic monuments.
[Illustration: FIG. 14. Corridor-tomb at Los Millares, Spain.
(After Siret.)]
The finest, however, of all the Spanish monuments is the corridor-tomb
of Antequera in Andalusia. It consists of a short passage leading into a
long rectangular chamber roofed with four slabs. Within it on its axial
line are three stone pillars placed directly under the three
meeting-points of the four slabs, but quite unnecessary for their
support. The whole tomb is covered with a low mound of earth. In the
great upright slab which forms the inner end of the chamber is a
circular hole rather above the centre.
It is not the plan of this tomb, but the size, that compels the
admiration of the beholder. He stands, as it were, within a vast cave
lighted only from its narrow end, the roof far above his head. The rough
surface of the blocks lends colour to the feeling that this is the work
of Nature and not of man. Here, even if not in Stonehenge, he will pause
to marvel at the patient energy of the men of old who put together such
colossal masses of stone.
Among the corridor-tombs of Spain must be mentioned a wedge-shaped type
which bears a close resemblance to those of Munster in Ireland (cf.
Fig. 7). In Alemtejo, south of Cape de Sines, are several of these,
usually about 6 feet in length, with a slight portico at one end.
A further point of similarity with the Irish monuments is seen in the
corridor-tombs of Monte Abrahaõ in Portugal, where the chamber walls
seem to have been reinforced by an outer lining of slabs. Remains of
eighty human bodies were found in this tomb, together with objects of
stone and bone, including a small conical button similar to that of
Carrowmore in Ireland.
The Spanish Peninsula also possesses rock-hewn tombs. At Palmella, near
Lisbon, is a circular example about 12 feet in diameter preceded by a
bell-shaped passage which slopes slightly downwards. Another circular
chamber in the same group has a much longer passage, which bulges out
into two small rounded antechambers. These tombs have been excavated and
yielded some pottery vases, together with objects of copper and beads of
a peculiar precious stone called _callaïs_. All the finds made in the
megalithic remains of Spain and Portugal point to the period of
transition from the age of stone to that of metal.
The Balearic Islands contain remarkable megalithic monuments. Those
known as the _talayots_ are towers having a circular or rarely a square
base and sloping slightly inwards as they rise. The largest is 50 feet
in diameter. The stones, which are rather large and occasionally
trimmed, are laid flat, not on edge. A doorway just large enough to be
entered with comfort leads through the thickness of the wall into a
round chamber roofed by corbelling, with the assistance sometimes of one
or more pillars. From analogy with the _nuraghi_ of Sardinia, which they
resemble rather closely, it seems probable that the _talayots_ are
fortified dwellings, perhaps only used in time of danger (Fig. 15).
[Illustration: Fig. 15. Section and plan of the Talayot of Sa Aquila,
Majorca. (After Cartailhac.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 16. Nau d'Es Tudons, plan and section.
(After Cartailhac.)]
The _naus_ or _navetas_ are so named from their resemblance to ships.
The construction is similar to that of the _talayots_. The outer wall
has a considerable batter. The famous Nau d'Es Tudons is about 36 feet
in length. The façade is slightly concave. A low door (_a_) gives access
through a narrow slab-roofed passage (_b_) to a long rectangular chamber
(_c_), the method of whose roofing is uncertain. All the _naus_ are
built with their façades to the south or south-east, with the exception
of that of Benigaus Nou, the inner end of which is cut in the rock,
while the outer part is built up of blocks as usual. The abnormal
orientation was here clearly determined by the desire to make use of the
face of rock in the construction. The _naus_ seem to have been tombs, as
human remains have been found in them.
Rock-tombs also occur in the islands. The most remarkable are those of
S. Vincent in Majorca. One of these has a kind of open antechamber cut
in the rock, and is exactly similar in plan to the Grotte des Fées in
France (cf. Fig. 12).
Prehistoric villages surrounded by great stone walls can still be traced
in the Balearic Isles. The houses were of two types, built either above
ground or below. The first are square or rectangular with rounded
corners, the base course occasionally consisting of orthostatic slabs.
The subterranean dwellings are faced with stone and roofed with flat
slabs supported by columns. In each village was one building of a
different type. It stood above ground and was semicircular in plan. In
its centre stood a horizontal slab laid across the top of an upright,
forming a T-shaped structure which helped to support the roof-slabs, but
which may also have had some religious significance. The stones which
composed it were always carefully worked, and the lower was let into a
socket on the under side of the upper.