Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and UsesFergusson, James
History
Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and Uses
Fergusson, James
Megalithic monuments
contain only flint and stone, and consequently were there before
Stonehenge was built. Nor is it by any means the case that the nearest
it were those which contained bronze or iron, it is generally quite the
contrary; with all his knowledge, even Sir R. Colt Hoare never could
venture to predict from the locality whether the interment would be
found to belong to one class or to another, nor can we now.
One of the most direct proofs that this argument is untenable is found
in the fact, that the builders of Stonehenge had so little respect for
the graves of their predecessors, that they actually destroyed two
barrows in making the vallum round the monument. Sir R. C. Hoare found
an interment in one, and from this he adds, "we may fairly infer that
this sepulchral barrow existed on the plain, I will not venture to say
before the construction of Stonehenge, but probably before the ditch
was thrown up."[121]
It seems needless, however, to pursue the argument further. Any one who
studies carefully the Ordnance Survey sheet must, I think, perceive
that there is no connexion between the earthen and the stone monuments.
Or if this fail to convince him, if he will ride from Stonehenge over
Westdown to Chidbury camp,[122] he can hardly fail to come to the
conclusion that Stonehenge came to the barrows, not the barrows to
Stonehenge.
One other indication drawn from the barrows has been thought to throw
some light on the subject. In one of those (No. 16) near Stonehenge,
about 300 yards off, were found chippings of the same blue stones
which form the inner circle of the monuments; but there was nothing
else in this barrow to indicate its age except a spear-head of brass
in fine preservation, and a pin of the same metal, which seemed to
indicate that it belonged to the bronze age. In another (No. 22)
a pair of ivory tweezers were found. From this discovery it was
inferred, and not without some show of reason, that the barrows were
more modern than Stonehenge; and if we are to believe that all barrows
are pre-Christian, as some would try to persuade us, there is an end
of the argument. But is this so? We have just seen that the Bartlow
hills were certainly Roman. We know that the Saxons buried in hows
in the country, down at least to Hubba the Dane,[123] who was slain
in 878, and in Denmark, as we shall presently see, to a much later
period; and we do not know when the Ancient Britons ceased to use
this mode of interment. Whoever they were that built Stonehenge,
they were not Christians; or, at all events, it is certainly not a
Christian building, and we have no reason to assume that those men
who were employed on its erection, and who had for thousands of years
been burying in barrows, changed their mode of sepulture before their
conversion to Christianity. It is infinitely more probable that they
continued the practice very long afterwards; and till we can fix
some time when we feel sure that sepulture in barrows had ceased,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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