ar
plan, just as there was in the stone examples. Which form prevailed in
any particular district was probably determined almost by accident. Thus
in Sardinia the round type was mostly kept for the huts and _nuraghi_,
while the rectangular was reserved for the dolmens and Giants' Graves.
Even here the confusion between the two types is shown by the fact that
near Birori there are two dolmens with a round plan. Again, in
Pantelleria the huts of the Mursia are rectangular, while the _sesi_,
which are tombs, are roughly circular. It is therefore probable that the
round and rectangular types of building were both in use among the
megalithic people before they spread over Europe.

Within their huts these people led a life of the simplest description.
Their weapons and tools, though occasionally of copper, were for the
most part of stone. Flint was the most usual material. In Scandinavia it
was often polished, but elsewhere it was merely flaked. The implements
made from it were of simple types, knives, borers, scrapers, lanceheads,
and more rarely arrowheads. Many of these were quite roughly made, no
more flaking being done than was absolutely necessary to produce the
essential form, and the work being, when possible, confined to one face
of the flint.

In the Mediterranean obsidian, a volcanic rock, occasionally took the
place of flint, especially in Sardinia and Pantelleria. Axes or celts
were often made of flint in Scandinavia and North Germany, but elsewhere
other stones, such as jade, jadeite, and diorite were commonly used.

We can only guess at the way in which the megalithic people were
clothed. No doubt the skins of the animals they domesticated and of
those they hunted provided them with some form of covering, at any rate
in countries where it was needed. Possibly they spun wool or flax into a
thread, for at Halsaflieni two objects were found which look like
spindle-whorls, and others occur on sites which are almost certainly to
be attributed to the megalithic people. There is, however, nothing to
show that they wove the thread into stuffs.

The love of personal decoration was highly developed among them, and all
branches of nature were called upon to minister to their desire for
ornament. Shells, pierced and strung separately or in masses, were
perhaps their favourite adornment, but close on these follow beads and
pendants of almost every conceivable substance, bone, horn, stone, clay,
nuts, beans, copper, and