Haifa; or, Life in modern PalestineOliphant, Laurence
History
Haifa; or, Life in modern Palestine
Oliphant, Laurence
Palestine -- Description and travel
The most remarkable point about Syrian dolmens is, that while they have
been found in numbers to the east of the Jordan, not one has been
discovered in Judea or Samaria, and only two or three in Galilee; and
those are doubtful specimens. Indeed, it is only of late years that they
have attracted the notice of explorers east of the Jordan; but since
attention has been specially directed to the subject, we have constantly
been having new discoveries. Six years ago I found one of the first at a
spot not more than twenty miles from the hitherto unknown field I had
now come upon. That dolmen stood alone, and being previously unaware of
their existence in this part of the world, I examined it with the
greatest interest. Since then Captain Conder, during his hurried survey
in Moab, has found above seven hundred in that part of the country, and
the result has been that the controversy as to the purpose for which
they were designed has been reopened with renewed vigor.
The dolmen, which usually consists of three perpendicular stones forming
three sides of a small chamber, with a single huge covering slab as its
roof, is found in almost every part of the world except America, though
I saw a notice in a paper the other day of one having been discovered in
Missouri. There are stone monuments in Central America, I believe,
somewhat resembling them, but I am not aware that the point has been
satisfactorily determined, and it is of the highest interest that it
should be, as it would establish the existence of general contact
between the universal families of that ancient stock which preceded both
the Aryan and Semitic races, and which belonged, therefore, to the
illiterate and prehistoric age of the use of bronze and of flint.
Dolmens have been found in almost every country in Europe. They are
numerous in the British Isles, France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Prussia,
and the south of Russia. I have myself found them in the mountains of
Circassia, and they exist in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, in great
numbers in Algeria and the north coast of Africa, in Asia Minor and
India, and we have recently heard of them in Japan! Wherever they exist
are generally to be found menhirs, or single monolithic stones, and
stone circles, such as Stonehenge in England, or long rows of standing
stones, such as those to be found at Carnac in Brittany, or smaller
stone circles, such as are common to the east of the Jordan. Those found
in Syria are generally placed in a position commanding an extensive view
and in close proximity to water. They are either “free standing,” that
is, quite alone and isolated, or they are covered by cairns of stones;
or they are, as the majority were in this instance, perched upon piles
of stones.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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