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
It would be easy to adduce fifty other arguments of this sort. Many
more must indeed occur to any one who will give himself the trouble
to think of the matter; but to those who are accustomed to such
investigations the two most convincing probably are, first, that there
is no evidence whatever of progress in the design of Avebury. It was
built and finished as first designed. The second is, that in it there
is a total absence of ornament. In India, we have temples as big as
Avebury; but their history is written on their faces. The first step in
the process is generally that a small shrine, with a narrow enclosure
and small gateway, becomes from some cause or other, sacred or rich,
and a second enclosure is added to contain halls for the reception of
pilgrims or the ceremonial display on festal occasions. But no god in
that pantheon can live alone. New shrines are added for other deities,
with new halls, new residences for priests, and more accommodation for
all the thousand and one requisites of a great idol establishment. This
requires a third or fourth new enclosure, up even to a seventh, as at
Seringham. But in all this there is progress: 200 or 300 years are
required, and each century--sometimes each decade--leaves its easily
recognised mark as the work progresses. In like manner, the great
temple at Karnac, though covering only one-third the area of Avebury,
took the Egyptians three centuries to build, and every step of its
progress can be easily traced. The works of the earlier Thotmes differ
essentially from those of Manepthah and Rameses, and theirs again from
those of Seshonk; and these again differ essentially from the little
shrine of Osortasen, which was the germ of the whole.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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