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Rh form the transition to the custom which became prevalent in the Christian era of interring the dead in church-yards.

In order that the Danish memorials may appear in their true light and connection, it will be of importance to enquire in what regions of other countries similar monuments of antiquity have been observed. Without such a general examination it would scarcely be possible to derive satisfactory historical conclusions from the enquiry.

We first turn then towards the South. Stone chambers, or cromlechs, or low barrows, encircled with stones, which completely accord with the cromlechs of our stone-period, occur in Pomerania, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Hanover, in fact in the whole of the north of Germany, in England, Ireland, Holland, (particularly in the northern part,) and in the west and south of France. Their contents are everywhere the same. Where they have not previously been opened there occur skeletons with objects of stone and amber; or one meets with stone implements and fragments of vessels of clay, just as in Denmark. Thus in France cromlechs of the stone-period, which contained skeletons and implements of flint, have been found, not only on the western coast, but also singly in the middle of the country, even in the southern part itself, in the neighbourhood of the Pyrenees and of Marseilles. They occur also in Portugal and in Spain, while, as far as is known, they never have been discovered in the interior parts of Europe, in the south of Germany, Italy, Austria, or the east of Europe. They are very distinct from the tombs of the pagan era of those countries, both in their structure and their simple funereal contents.