the megalithic monument, and in many
cases is proved to be the work of the same people. In the early
neolithic period in Sicily, called by Orsi the Sicanian Period,
rock-hewn tombs seem not to have been used. It is only at the beginning
of the metal age that they begin to appear. In this period, the
so-called First Siculan, the tomb-chamber was almost always circular or
elliptical, entered by a small door or window in the face of the rock.
The dead were often seated round the wall of the chamber, evidently
engaged in a funerary feast, as is clear from the great vase set in
their midst with small cups for ladling out the liquid. A single tomb
often contained many bodies, especially in cases where the banquet
arrangement was not observed; one chamber held more than a hundred
skeletons, and it has been suggested that the bodies were only laid in
the tomb after the flesh had been removed from the bones, either
artificially or as the result of a temporary burial elsewhere. Such a
custom is not unknown in other parts of the megalithic area. With these
bodies were found large quantities of painted pottery, a few implements
of copper and many of flint. Among the ornaments which the dead
carried--for they seem to have been buried in complete costume--were
several axe-shaped pendants of polished stone, precisely similar to
those of Sardinia, Malta, and France. The most important cemeteries of
this period are those of Castelluccio, Melilli, and Monteracello. Near
this last site was also found a round hut based on a course of
orthostatic slabs of typically megalithic appearance.

In the full bronze age, called the Second Siculan Period, burial in
rock-tombs still remained the rule. The tomb-form had developed
considerably. The circular type was still usual, though beside it a
rectangular form was fast coming into favour. The main chamber often had
side-niches, and was usually preceded by a corridor which sometimes
passed through an antechamber. Occasionally we find an elaborate
open-air court outside the facade of the tomb, built very much after the
megalithic style. Large vertical surfaces of rock were carefully sought
after for tombs, and the almost inaccessible cliffs of Pantalica and
Cassibile are literally honeycombed with them. Where such surfaces of
rock were unobtainable a vertical shaft was sunk in the level rock and a
chamber was opened off the bottom of it. The tradition of the banquet of
the dead is still kept up, but