Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

40 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race
early dolmen-builders were in the neolithic stage of culture, their
weapons were of polished stone. But in the tumuli not only stone,
but also bronze, and even iron, instruments are found—at first
evidently importations, but afterwards of local manufacture.
Origin of the Megalithic People
Prehistoric Tumulus at New Grange
[55]
Photograph by R. Welch, Belfast
The language originally spoken by this people can only be
conjectured by the traces of it left in that of their conquerors,
the Celts. 31 But a map of the distribution or their monuments
irresistibly suggests the idea that their builders were of North
African origin; that they were not at first accustomed to traverse
the sea for any great distance; that they migrated westwards along
North Africa, crossed into Europe where the Mediterranean at
Gibraltar narrows to a strait of a few miles in width, and thence
spread over the western regions of Europe, including the British
Islands, while on the eastward they penetrated by Arabia into
Asia. It must, however, be borne in mind that while originally,
no doubt, a distinct race, the Megalithic People came in the end
to represent, not a race, but a culture. The human remains found
in these sepulchres, with their wide divergence in the shape of
31 See p. 78.