Evening star., 1933-09-09
ANCIENT BUILDERS
HAD HIGH IDEALS
Mysterious Stone Circles in
! Britain Were Intended
: to Endure.
BY JAMES WALDO FAwCETT.

BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.
Scattered over Great Britain, and
visited by many American travellers,
are monumental stone relics OF race
of men about whom almost nothing
definite or tangible Is knoWn-a lost
race of great builders.
The ruins of their rude stone struc-
lures at Avebury and Stonehenge nave
been the subject of vast speculation
on the part of archaeologists and lay
men alike, but no one can tell who
they were, whence they came, whittier
they went. or how they were able to
set erect such massive stones. They
and their architecture constitute one
of the most fascinating of mysteries.
One of the especially curious factors
of the problem is that of the amazing
dissemination of megalithic remains.
They are found not only in England
but also in Ireland, across the north
ern coast of the continent, down the
western coast, and along both the Eu-
ropean and the African coasts OF the
Mediterranean Sea, and are known
even in India and Japan.
May Be Work of Nomads.
Some writer's have suggested that
they must have been the work of a
wandering people who built their mon
umentS in the course of prodlglouS
migration, lasting tens of centuries. An
alternative theory is that 1t was merely
the idea of such monumental cOnStruc-
ton that Travelled and that the build
ers were not one single people on the
march, but many different peoples in
stead To this second hypothesis, how
ever, the objection is made that the
technique of construction always is the
fla tiNp haiNO that nf
identic plan, an identic architect or
designer.
Avebury and Stonehenge, it is gen.
orally agreed, belong to the same pc
riod. Their creators were Neolithic
men, and the date of their pilgrimage
in the earth has been estimated at
from 1000 to $4,000 years ago.
A large population. a numerous
company of builders, living in a set
tied condition of peace, united in the
observance of widely recognized cult,
and accustomed to combine for COM
mon action under the direction OF some
recognized authority" Hadrian Allcroft
says, must have been necessary for
even one such gigantic task, but in
England alone there are literally scores
of stone circles and huge artificial
mounds and other structures attributed
to the same race.
H. J. Massingham. in "Downland
Man" declares: The people Who built
Avebury could not have been either
savages or primitives." He believes the
settlement was the capital of Eng
land" in remote antiquity. and that its
inhabitants were a cultivated popula-
ton whose standards of life were ad-
vanced and high.
On the Avebury site today there are
the remains of two circles of stones
surrounded bv a larger circle and
moat. or ditch. and covering altogether
nearly 80 acres. or five times the area
of st. Pet RS in Rome. Two avenues
of stones, each 1l2 miles long. still
may be discerned west and south of
IAN enormous mound Of chalk covered
with turf" l30 feet in elevation, known
as Silbury Hill, quite evidently con-
structed according to plan" and hav-
ing definite relation to the circles
themselves.
The two inner rings were composed
of IL stones within 80. corresponding,
Mr.. Massingham observes. to the
months of the year and to the days
of the calendar month. The Hill has
been considered 1.-The largest prehis-
toric artificial mound in Europe"
Stonehenge, to the south of Sails
bury Plain, near the town of AmeS-
bury. and within sight of the spire Of
Salisbury Cathedral. originally appears
to have consisted of an outer circle
Of about 80 worked upright stones with
intels which formed a continuous ar
cnitrave approximately 97i2 feet in
circumference, and an inner circle. or
horseshoe, of worked trilithons. 16 to
2ll2 feet in height Inside these rings
were IL or more bluestones, about
7Ia feet high, and a so-called ALTAR"
stone measuring 16 feet by 4. The
whole building" says T. Eric Peet in
"Rough Stone Monuments" 'is sur
rounded by a rampant of earth several
feet high, forming circle about 300
feet in diameter. An avenue still
1900 feet in length bordered by two
walls of earth, leads up to the ram
of this avenue, and nearly at its eX-
tremity. stands an upright stone known
as the Friar's Heel"
Implements Excavated.
Excavations made on this site in 1901
brought to light more than 100 stone
implements, including flint axes, ham
named being some which weighed 64
pounds. Investigation disclosed that
the bluestones, brought from distant
Wales, had been shaped on the spot,
whereas the sarsens, quarried nearby,
had been merely finished there.
What purpose the structures served
has been the subject of long and va
ried debate. Some have thought them
temples but there is not scrap of
evidence to support that idea. Others
have suggested the possibility that they
were sanctuaries of the dead, but again
there is no evidence. 1t seems more
likely that they were communal meet
ing places or dwelling places.
However, it is clear that such edi-
fees must have been extremely costly
They represented vast investment of
labor and time. 1t follows that they
were erected for some important pur-
pose, not merely for casual use.
Some of the stones still in position
weigh 80 tons each. To raise them on
end in conformity with a predeter-
mined plan, to set them In exactly the
right position. REQUIRED DurDOSeful