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Rh composing the chambers always turned inwards. Moreover, cup-marks and other incised markings, when observed on capstones are almost invariably on their under-side.

No chronological sequence has been detected in their construction; nor can their special forms in different countries be said to indicate contemporaneity. The irregular manner in which they are distributed along the seashores of Europe and Africa has given rise to the theory that they were erected by a wandering race called "the people of the dolmens," but of the whence and whither of these peripatetic dolmen builders we have no knowledge.

From these general considerations, together with the accumulative results of recent researches, there can be little doubt that the megalithic monuments of Europe are chiefly remains of the abodes and memorials of the dead. 

CHAPTER IX

INHABITED SITES AND PROTECTIVE WORKS

is no exception to the law of the organic world which forces all animals to instinctively protect themselves from their natural enemies. We have already seen that during the Palæolithic period caves and rock-shelters were