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NOTES ON THE STONE MONUMENTS IN THE ISLE OF MAN.
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NOTES ON THE STONE MONUMENTS IN THE ISLE OF MAN.
The earliest traces of man met with in our district show him to have been then in the of civilisation. The transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze stage of culture must have been gradual in the Isle of Man. That the earlier people were not exterminated by these first. At the south end of the Isle of Man, next to the Calf Island, is a group of low rounded hills -which stand out rather prominently from being nearly completely separated off from the remainder of the land by the narrow neck of low-lying country which runs from Port Erin on the west to Port St. Mary on the east. This commanding situation probably rendered it a favourable habitation in early times-possibly it was a last refuge in the Isle of Man of the preceltic race-and on the higher parts of the hills, still uncultivated, we can trace the lines of ancient boundary fences dividing the moorland into small plots, we can find the remains of at least three prehistoric villages or clusters of huts, and near the highest summit, known as the Meayll Hill, is the remarkable stone circle we are about to describe, an ancient burial place probably common to the neighbouring villages. These remains seem to show that the people who inhabited the ancient villages on the Meayll and who erected and used the stone circle, were in the last days of the Neolithic or the beginning of the Bronze Age, living in small communities of 4 to 16 families, that they occupied the locality over a lengthened period, and were there when the later Celtic population settled in Man.
If the stone monuments in the Isle of Man are not remarkable for their dimensions or their state of preservation, they have at least an interest wanting in similar remains in Wales, Cornwall, or other districts where these monuments are not uncom mon. Within the historic period it has been overrun by Norsemen, themselves builders of structures of a similar character, although presenting certain distinct features of their own. Had their monuments, then, as well as the earlier ones of their predecessors, been left in any moderate state of preservation, the assignment of each class to their respective builders would have been in most cases comparatively easy; but in their present condition of almost complete destruction, the attempt to distinguish one from the other with certainty is almost hopeless.
It is true that the work of rifling and destruction, especially of the earliest examples, may have taken place centuries ago, even by the Scandinavian invaders themselves, in their search for gold and other treasure. On the Continent, as in the north-western districts of France, the Northmen appear to have ransacked every grave that promised such booty; but in many instances they have left behind them, as of little value, articles of great importance to the archaeologist of the present day. If the same spoliation was practised by the Scandinavians in Man. The term "Druidic circle," and "altar," he introduces us to a distinction between the complete circle and the semi-lunar forms, which, he says, have been supposed to have been respectively dedicated to the sun and moon. Of the cromlech proper there does not appear to be any example in the Isle of Man.
In the island especially it is difficult to say when the practice of burying in kistvaens ceased, as those opened at Cronk ny Keeillane and elsewhere are apparently Christian. The form, however, of such a grave is so simple and natural, that it is difficult to conceive that it is merely a kind of copy of the cromlech, or even much later.
The two kinds of chambers were probably contemporaneous; the larger and more costly cromlech, with its covering tumulus, being only adopted for persons of distinction; for when we consider the enormous amount of labour that must have been spent in raising the covering stones, sometimes thirty feet long, and almost always of enormous thickness, on the top of supporters projecting six or more feet from the surface of the ground, and the additional labour of covering the whole with a huge mound of earth or stones, and how much of this toil might have been saved by merely sinking the slabs within the ground, it is evident that such a costly practice owes its origin to some tradition of the remotest antiquity, which may, perhaps, be traced in the rock-caves of the East, or even the Pyramids themselves, which look very much like simple tumuli over the remains of the dead.
