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
Be this as it may, there are at least two points which we may assume
negatively with regard to these dolmens. The first is, that they do not
mark battle-fields: they have none of the appearance of such monuments.
The second is, that as there is no capital or fertile country in their
neighbourhood, they are not a royal cemetery; they are not, indeed,
claimed, even in the remotest manner, by any of the royal races of
Ireland. They are, so far as we can see, the sepulchres of a foreign
colony settled on this spot. Whether this is probable or not must,
of course, depend on a comparison of these monuments with those in
the countries from which they are supposed to have come. But, in the
meanwhile, it may be assumed, as an hypothesis which at least accounts
for the phenomena as we find them in Ireland, even when judged of by
their own internal evidence alone.
* * * * *
One of the most interesting of the Irish dolmens is that known as the
Giant's Grave, near Drumbo, about four miles south from Belfast. The
interest attached to this monument does not, however, arise so much
from the grandeur of the structure itself, though it may be considered
a first-class example and very tolerably perfect, but from its standing
solitary in the centre of the largest circle in these islands,
Avebury only excepted. The circle is about 580 feet in diameter, and
consequently more than six acres in extent, and is formed, not as at
Avebury or Arbor Low, by a ditch dug inside, and the earth so gained
being used to form a rampart, but by the top of a hill being levelled
and the earth removed in so doing being thrown up so as to form a
circular amphitheatre. Although, consequently, the rampart is not so
high outside as at Avebury, the whole surface internally having been
lowered, the internal effect is very much grander.[259]
What, then, was the object of this great earthwork with one solitary
dolmen in the centre? Was it simply the converse of such a mound as
that at New Grange? Was it that, instead of heaping the earth over the
sepulchral chamber, they cleared it away and arranged it round it, so
as to give it dignity? Or was it that funereal games or ceremonies were
celebrated round the tomb, and that the amphitheatre was prepared to
give dignity to their performance? These are questions that can only
be answered when more of these circles are known and compared with one
another, and the whole subject submitted to a more careful examination
than has yet been the case. My impression is that it is the grave of
a chief, and of him only, and that it is among the most modern of its
class.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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