124 CEANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. V. CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OP BRITAIN. 125
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have been of a semicircular, or other less regular, form. That in the isle of Moines, Brittany, is
campanular, whilst the large enclosure at Kerlescant (Carnac) presents an almost quadrangular
outline *. In Britain none remain which deviate materially from the circular form : they are
usually surrounded by an earthwork, foss and vallum, of which the latter is on the outside. They
are found in all parts of the country from the ScUly Isles to the Orkneys. The more important
are those of Boscawen and Dance Maine, Cornwall, Scorhill and the Grey Wethers, Devon, in
the district of the Damnonii; Stanton Drew and Stonehenge, in that of the Belgce; Abury and
Eollrich, in that of the Dohmii; Buarth Arthur, Caermarthen, in that of the Ditnetm; Arbor
Lowe, Derbyshire, in that of the Coritani; Shap, Westmoreland, and Salkeld (" Long Meg "),
Cumberland, in that of the Brigantea. In the far north, are the two very remarkable circles of
Classernish, Lewis, and Stennis, Mainland; in which are to be recognized the consecrated sites of
the remote groups of the Sehudes and Oixades. In Ireland there are few, if any, stone circles
remaining which are worthy of being compared with those of Britain f. The stones of these
sacred cn-cles have generally been selected with some regard to symmetry, and are often of
great size, Qfteen feet and upwards in height. Many ai-e natural boulders, nearly all rough and
unhewn, though some have been hammer-dressed. They are arranged at regular intervals
around areas, the diameter of which varies from sisty feet, as at Buarth-Arthur, to 366 feet at
Stennis, and 1200 feet as in the great circle at Abury. The more usual diameter is about 100
feet, as in the cu-cles of the Grey Wethers, RoUi-ich, and Stonehenge. The stones forming them
were often complete numbers, having some astronomical significance—as 12, 30, 60, 100—in
which there may be a reference to the lunar year and its divisions, the zodiacal signs, the twelve
months of thirty days and thirty nights, and the Druidical ssecula of thirty years {. The circles of
nineteen stones may refer to the Metonic cycle. The two inner circles at Abury, the lesser
circle at Stennis, and one at Stanton Drew, each consisted of twelve, the outer circles at Abury,
the outer circles of uprights and transoms at Stonehenge, the large circle at Stanton Drew and
the circle at Ai-bor Lowe, each of thirty, those of RoUiich and Stennis of sixty, and the large
enclosing circle of Abury of a himdred, stones §. Pour circles at Boscawen and adjacent places
in Cornwall have each been formed of nineteen stones |1.
Some of the sacred cii-cles were approached by avenues formed of parallel rows of stones,
which may rightly be compared to the dromi of sphinxes in the temples of Egypt, and the
avenues of columns, and other sacred ways which formed the approaches to many temples in
ra
in the capitularies of Carloman and Charlemagne. The power
of this emperor hardly extended over Brittany, whence perhaps
the preservation of such remains in that country. The seventh
head of the Indiculus, Be Ms quaifadunt super petras, seems
to refer to pagan offerings on rude altars, perhaps cromlechs.
The laws of Edgar and Canute, in the tenth and eleventh centuries,
show the same pagan veneration in England for stones,
which were even resorted to as places of sanctuary.
* Deane,Archieologia,vol.xxv.pp.2I2, 217; vol.xxvii.p. 1.
The discovery of a number of gold tores within one of these
megalithic areas in Brittany, (referred to ante, note || p. 79)
confirms their identification as sacred places in which the spoils
of the enemy had been deposited.
t Stone circles, &c., perhaps religious, are named or figured
as existing in Ireland by Stukeley (Itin. Cur. vol. ii. plates
80, 89), in Goagh's Camden pp. 377, 398, 419, and by Mr.
Wilde, Catalogue Museum, Royal Irish Academy, 1858, p. 129.
The large " Giant's ring" near Belfast, consisting of a strong
perihohis of earth with a cromlech in the centre, doubtless
formed a sacred enclosure.
^ In the pyramidal temples of Babylonia, the planetary
spheres were indicated in the seven stages of the building by
the colours appropriated to the seven luminaries by the -Sabieans
; those of the Sun and Moon being coated with gold
and silver. Eawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i. lib. i. c. 98, notes ;
vol. ii. p. 583.
§ The accuracy of these numbers may, in one or two cases,
be doubtful.
II Borlase, Cornwall, p. 191. Cotton, "Stone Circles,
Cromlechs, &c. in Cornwall," 1827. That the number was
nineteen in each circle has been confirmed by the recent observations
of Mr. Edmonds (Archicologia Cambrensis, 3rd Series,
voh iii. 1857, p. 287). The popular name of "Nine Maidens,"
is doubtless an abbreviation of nineteen maidens.
Greece and Syria*. Some of these primeval British avenues are of inconsiderable dimensions,
and rectilinear, as those of Classernish, Merrivale, and ScorhiU t- That of Shap, however, was
of large size, is said to have been of sinuous form and to be still traceable for nearly two miles.
The use of these rude paralleliths, as ceremonial avenues of approach, is nowhere so clearly seen
as in those connected with the great circles at Abury; though even these were insignificant in
comparison with the tenfold avenues of Carnac in Brittany.
The two most important consecrated sites of South Britain are those of Abury and Stonehenge,
both in WUtshire. Each was, probably, at difi'erent periods, the spot where the chiefs
and people met the Druids, for the settlement of disputes and administration of justice, as at the
locus consecratus for the whole of Gaul, in the territory of the Carnutes. The more northern,
Abm-y, was probably in the district of the aboriginal Dobuni, and like all such megalithic
structures both in Gaul and Britain (with one exception), is formed of unhewn stones. The
immense circles, with the associated sacred mount and avenues of approach, one of which at
least was a mUe and a half in length, might aU have been constructed by the imited labour
of multitudes, and by a people not possessed of implements of metal J.
Stonehengij differs from every known structure of this kind, in being formed of hewn and
partially squared stones. The columnar uprights are connected with a continuous transom or
architrave, by a most ingenious and unique system of mortise and tenon joints, wrought in the
solid blocks of silicious gritstone, so hard as still to bafle the skill of the stone-cutter, who can
cleave, but scarcely cut them. Whether they have been cleft and squared by tools of bronze or
of iron is not certain §. Many circumstances lead us to attribute their erection to the period of
bronze and iron transition, which in Britain was most likely connected with the Belgic immigration,
when iron had been brought into use, but when efilcient tools of this metal were as yet
scarcely known in this island ||. Nothing seems more probable than that the conquering Belgse,
who settled in this part of Britain, should establish a consecrated site within their own limits,
such as would be supplied by Stonehenge, which by its novel construction should rival that of
Abm-y, and serve for their own religious and civil rites, as weU as for the meetings of a rude
ampliictyony of confederate and dependent tribes. That the Belga; had established friendly
relations with, if not superiority over, various distant tribes when Stonehenge was erected, may
be inferred from the obelisks of green-stone or syenite, igneous rocks foreign to Wiltshire, which
form its inner circle and oval, and which may have been derived from the country of the Damnonii,
or more probably, as many geologists think, from that of the stiU more remote Ordovices.
* The Mil' sacrm of Eleusis, Mylasa (Strabo, lib. xiv. c. 2.
§ 23) and Paphos (lb. lib. xiv. c. 6. § 3) along which the
sacred things were carried at the great annual festivals, were
paved roads of seven and twelve miles in length. The avenues
leading to several of the temples of the Smi, or Baal of Syria,
as at Gerasa, were of considerable length, and formed of parallel
rows of columns. That at Palmyra is stUl to be traced between
one and two miles. Kude vi(S saercs flanked by rocks and
flagstones lead from the villages of Thibet to the Buddhist
temples. Hooker, Himalayan Journals, 1854, i. 229, 317.
t Forthetwo last, see Rowe's Dartmoor, 1848, p. 72, 156, &c.
J For details and a plan of Abuiy, see Description of Skull
fromKennet (platel l .p.2). Stukeley's notion that the ground
plan of the whole was intended for a sacred hierogram of a serpent
transmitted through a circle, must, we think, be rejected.
§ Stones as hard as these " Sarsens" seem to have been cut
by the ancient Egyptians, and certainly by the Mexicans, with
bronze tools. The irregular form and size of the mortises and
tenons justify the conjecture of Wilham Smith, the geologist,
that they have been formed by friction with stones and sand.
II "Nulla copia ferramentorum." Csesar, lib. v. c. 42. The
barrows surrounding Stonehenge have all been explored, and
have produced no objects of iron, but implements and weapons
of stone aud bronze only. In two or three barrows close to the
circle, chippings of the stones have been found, showing that
thev had been hewn on the spot before these barrows were
formed. Chippings of every variety of stone used in the structure
are found together, in digging about the foundations of the
circles and triliths, proving, contrary to a common opinion,
that the whole was a contemporaneous work.
S