The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

50
THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
deposits, amber coasts and pearl fisheries, and he has produced maps which appear at
first sight very convincing. A careful examination of his megalith map shows that
he has copied that of Fergusson, pubhshed in 1872,* and which represents far less
accurately the distribution of these monuments than does that published by Colonel
A. Lane-Fox in 1869.^ Neither of these maps, however, gives us a really reUable
summary of the facts. Much work has been done on this subject since these maps
were produced, many fresh areas have been added, and two at least have been deducted ;
but no one has recently attempted to make a map of the European megaUths, or those of
any country except Holland." The French anthropologists have made a list of the
dolmens in France, and pubhshed a summary giving the number noted in each
department," a catalogue of the British megaliths is in process of formation.
Wherever it has been possible to test it with sufficient accuracy, we find that
Perry's contention is substantially true, and that there is a definite relation between
many areas rich in megaUthic structures and deposits of metal which are known to
have been worked in early days ;
the megalithic areas of the Baltic coincide fairly well
with the coasts producing amber. Nevertheless there are many spots, rich in metals,
and which are known or suspected to have been worked in early days, where megaliths,
have not hitherto been noted, and on the other hand, dolmens and other such structures
occur, sometimes with great frequency, in areas devoid of metals or other precious
commodities. The problem is not quite so simple as it would appear from Perry's
account.
StiU, looking at the matter broadly in the light of information available at present,
it does seem that, in western Europe at any rate, the megalithic monuments cluster
thickest in or around those regions which produced gold, copper, tin and amber, and
which were readily accessible to maritime traffic, and that they coincide very closely
with the fines of trade which I described in the last chapter. The exceptions, too,
are not destructive to the hypothesis. In the British Isles we find that the megaliths
in the main coincide with the metalliferous areas, though in some cases more closely
with lead ores than with the metals previously mentioned. As lead does not seem to
* Fergusson (1872) map, p. 533.
'» Aberg (1916) 22, 23, map ii.
9 Lane-Fox (1869) 66. " D&helette (1908-1914) i. 384-386 ; Mortillet (1901) 32.