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Types of Megalithic Monuments of the Irish Sea and North Channel Coastlands: A Study in Distributions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

Extract

The megalithic cult of southern and western Europe appears to have been largely seaborne. It was spread in western Britain, too, by a people who used the northern sections of the Atlantic route. This paper deals with the distributions of different types of megalith in the Irish Sea basin and in its northward extension. It describes the burial and ceremonial monuments of the lands which front on to a mainly land-locked sea. The routeways of the Irish Sea were used to diffuse the megalithic cult over a long period, and the better favoured coastlands attracted large colonies of megalith builders (see fig. i) comparable in size to those of any section of the Atlantic route. The controlling geographical features such as tidal currents and their influence on routeways; or diffusion in relation to areas of lighter soil, or patches of bare rock, or wind-swept coastlands (i.e. the less densely forested areas); are of vital importance, and will be discussed elsewhere.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1945

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References

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page 128 note 2 Rough corbelling is a feature of some late gallery graves in the interior of Northern Ireland, e.g. the Carnagat example shown on fig. 3.

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page 128 note 4 Oliver Davies has drawn attention to the close similarity between this megalith and that of Corongianus Coloru in Sardinia. U.J.A., 3rd ser. ii, 1939, p. 165.

page 130 note 1 These stones were set up in their present position early in the nineteenth century. They had previously been enclosed within a cairn near by, and the stones are reported to have been set up edgewise and roofed by larger slabs. They are of local red sandstone and have spiral and cup-and-ring markings.

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