und north of Adrianople. The second
consists of a few dolmens which still remain in the Crimea, and the
third lies in the Caucasus in two divisions, one to the south-east and
the other to the south-west of the town of Ekaterinodar. These last are
made of slabby rock, and thus have a finished appearance. A dolmen near
Tzarskaya has a small semicircular hole at the bottom of one of its
end-slabs, while another in the valley of Pehada has sides consisting of
single blocks, placed so as to slant inwards considerably, and a
circular hole in the centre of the slab which closes one of its ends.
In Asia megalithic monuments are not infrequent. We first find them in
Syria, they have been reported from Persia, and in Central and South
India they exist in large numbers. Corridor-tombs occur in Japan, but
they are late in date, and there is no evidence to show whether they
are connected with those of India or not.
Syria is comparatively rich in megalithic monuments, but it is
remarkable that almost all of them lie to the east of the Jordan. Thus
while there are hundreds of dolmens in the country of Pera and in Ammon
and Moab, very few have been found in Galilee, and only one in Judaea,
despite careful search. There is, however, a circle of stones west of
Tiberias, and an enclosure of menhirs between Tyre and Sidon. According
to Perrot and Chipiez some of the Moabite monuments are very similar in
type to the Giants' Tombs of Sardinia. Others are simple dolmens. In a
good example at Ala Safat (Fig. 22) the floor of the tomb is formed by a
single flat slab of stone. The great cover-slab rests on two long
blocks, one on either side, placed on edge. The narrow ends are closed
up with smaller slabs, one of which, that which faces north, has a small
hole pierced in it. A similar closure slab with a hole is also found in
certain rock-tombs quite close to this dolmen. Apparently none of these
dolmens have been systematically excavated, and nothing is known of
their date.
[Illustration: FIG. 22. Dolmen with holed stone at Ala Safat. (After de
Luynes.)]
Menhirs, too, are not wanting in Syria. Perrot and Chipiez figure an
example from Gebel-Mousa in Moab which is quite unworked, except for a
shallow furrow across the centre of the face. In many cases the menhir
is surrounded by one or more rows of stones. Thus at Der Ghuzaleh a
menhir about 3 feet in height is set in the centre of what when complete
must have been a rectangle. In other
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