Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/306

* MEGAXICHTHYS. 276 MEGAIONYX. lichthys are found in the Carboniferous rocks of Europe. MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS (from Gk. Iidyas. iiicgus, great + Xi(?os, lilhos, stone). Gigantic monuments, the materials of wliieli in the earliest stages of industrial development were huge undressed stones, and also associated with tunuili. Megalithic monuments arc found in both hemispheres, and in the jirogress of culture they marked the crude beginnings of larger cooper- ative ellort as well as of engineering and of mas- sive architecture. The most instructive limit as to the manner in which the stones were set on end is furnislicd by omf of the Xorthern trilies of Hindustan visited'by Vurml>rand. These people are in a region where megalithic monuments have had a long history. A slab weighing several tons rests on a number of stout poles laid parallel and just far enough apart to allow men to walk between them. The ends of these poles are lashed to end bars and a firm gridiron frame is made beneath the slab. The whole mass is then lifted by as many men as can get into the framework, and carried to the proper place, one man beating time for their steps. The point of destination reached, the framework is laid flat, the hole dug, and the gridiron set upright by lifting with the hands aided by shear poles, sliding props, guy ropes, and all other labor-saving devices known to them. As the angle between the grid- iron and the earth increases, the labor of erection decreases, until the slab is let down carefully into its resting place. Jlegalithic monuments really belong to two classes, monolithic and polylithie. The former is a simple great slab or boulder stood on end; the latter consists of several blocks put together to form a chamber. The dilTerences between the two classes is not great, and there are mi.xed ex- amples where both exist side by side. Monoliths receive different names in the coun- tries where they are found, and often the same name applies to quite different things in different countries. They receive names alsij from the manner of grouping. The single great stone, weighing perluips hundreds of tons, set on end, is a menhir: if a number of these stand in rows, they become an avenue or an aligniiu'nt : and a stone circle is a number of menhirs arranged about a centre. The final development of this simple beginning is seen in the Egyptian obelisk, in the memorial column or shaft, or in the gigantic statue. The enormous size of many of the rude monoliths is a Tiiattcr of surprise. The largest one. in Brittany, at T.ochmariaquer. weighs ^A7 tons. Thousands have been counted in Brittanv and other jiortions of France. See Plate of Mk(ai.itiiic Moniments. The polylithie monument also receives ilifferent names from its associations. If a number of stones are built into a memorial pile, or over the dead, it is a 'cairn;' a tumulus containing a dead person is in Ireland a 'galgal;' and if a passage- way I)e formed on one side alliiwing reent ranee to a vault, it l)ecomes a ehainbered 'barrow;' a stone box in a barrow to Imld linerary urns and relics is a 'cistvaen.' The lypii iil compo-iite mon- ument of great stones behmging to this class is the dolmen (locally termed 'quoit'), a slab of stone laid on the top of two or more upright slabs, forming a burial chamber from which the earth has been removed by the elements. The word 'cromlech' was at one time used to denote a dolmen, as it was originally covered with a tumulus and surrounded by a circle of standing stones. The term is out of use now in England, but the French apjdy it to one of the former ele- ments of the complete dolmen, the .stone circle. The essential part of all is the stone box or capsule, whether luider ground, above ground, or covered with a tunuilus. The areas of greatest abundance of megalithic monuments, beginning in Asia, are to be found in Burma, Assam, and the Deccan; the Persian up- lands; Asia Minor, the Crimea, Syria, Palestine, and Arabia ; across Xorthern Africa to the At- lantic, and in some of the islands of the Mediter- ranean : in Spain, Portugal, Western France, and Belgium ; in the British Isles and Scandinavia. Kxamjiles of huge monuments are found in Northeastern Asia also, and around the Pacific from New Zealaiul to Peru and Easter Ishinds, the great wooden totem posts of the North Pacific containing freqviently the same motive. Stonehenge. (ju Salisbury Plain, near Ames- bury, county of Wills, Southern England, is one of the most important among the megalithic monuments of the world, since it not only is composed of immense pieces, but combines in itself a number of types. In the centre lies a great slab, 1.5 feet in length. Just otitside of this are two oval rings, the larger one made up of five pairs of trilithons, which increase in height toward the west. The smaller oval, containing nineteen monoliths, is tapering in form: outside these ovals and inclosing them is a circle of standing stones, nut massive in size; outside of all is the most interesting feature of Stonehenge, a circle ."iOO feet in circumference, made up of immense standing stones, varying in height from 18 to 22 feet, some of them six feet in diameter. On the top of them are blocks of similar size joining them and forming a scries of doorways or trilithons. On the outside of this circle is a ditch and avenue, in which is a crondech, called the 'Friar's Heel.' Not the least interesting feature about these remains is the veneration and folk-lore that has gathered around them. No doubt the belief that the ghosts of the dead hover about them aided in the i)reservation of many of them. Their author- ship has puzzled the antiq irics as well as the folk, by whom they were attributed to the Druids, "the Celts, and other historic jieoples. Consult: ;Me:idows-Taylor. "Descriiitions of Cairns, Crondechs, and Kistvaens," in Transac- tin)!.'! of the Koijiit Irixh Acarlrnui ( lH(i2-65) : Betranil, "De la' distribution des dohnens sur la surface de la France," in h'rnie Archco- loiiiquc. vol. X. (Paris. 18G4) : Clarke, "Stone Monuments of the Khasi Hills," in ./(lunml of the A)ithro])olofiicnl Itislitulc. iii. (London, 1873) ; Broea, "Les peoples blonds et les monu- ments mi'galithi(|ucs," in /.'< rue </' lii/Z/n./io/oflic, V. (Paris, 1S7(!) ; Bertholon, "Notice sur I'indus- trie megalithi(pie en Tunisie," in liiillctin de la Sorii'lc dWiithroiioloijic (E,vons, 1888); Fftid- hei-be, "Dolmens d'.Xfrique," in Ilullrtin dc la SocitU^' dWnthrnpnloriie de Parh. Ixix,, 1«. (PariO. MEGALON'YX (NcoLat.. from Ok. /liyat, megas. great -f «to|, oiii/.r, claw). .' cNtinct, edentate mammal, allied to Megatherium, found in the Pleistocene deposits of Kentucky and Ten- nessee. See Meoathebium.