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
The arguments adduced in the preceding pages will probably be deemed
sufficient to make out a strong case to show that these great circles
were erected, at all events, after the departure of the Romans, and if
this is so, it confines the field for discussion within very narrow
limits. Either they must have been erected by the Romanized Britons
before they were so completely Christianized as to be entirely weaned
from their Pagan habits, or they were the works of the Saxons or
Danes. We shall be in a better position to judge how far it is likely
that the latter were the authors, when we have examined the rude
stone monuments of Scandinavia or Friesland, from which countries
the Northmen descended on our shores. When this is done, we shall
probably come to the conclusion that, as they erected Dolmens as
burying-places for their dead, and Menhirs or Bauta Stones and circles
in their battle-fields, there is no improbability of their having done
so also here. The question, however, is, did they erect these great
100-metre circles? These are unique, so far as I know; a class quite by
themselves, and so similar, whether found in Cumberland or Derbyshire,
or in Wilts or Somersetshire, that, with the probable exception of the
Orkney group, they must be the work of one people, and also nearly of
the same age. If, in fact, they do not mark the battle-fields to which
I have attempted to ascribe them, they must mark something nearly
approximating to them in date, and as nearly analogous in intention and
purpose.
SMALLER CIRCLES.
[Illustration: 39. Rose Hill Tumulus. From the 'Archæologia,' vol. x.]
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