allee_ is often merely cut out in the
surface of the ground and has no roof at all. It is sometimes paved
with slabs and divided into two partitions by an upright with a hole in
its centre. Tombs of this kind often contain from forty to eighty
skeletons, some of which are in the contracted position. The skulls are
in some cases trepanned, i.e. small round pieces of the bone have been
cut out of them; such pieces are sometimes found separate in the graves.
No objects of metal occur in these North French tombs.
There are many fine examples in Brittany of the corridor-tomb with
distinct chamber. The best known lies on the island of Gavr'inis
(Morbihan). It is covered by a tumulus nearly 200 feet in diameter. The
circular chamber, 6 feet in height, is roofed by a huge block measuring
13 feet by 10. The corridor which leads out to the edge of the mound is
40 feet in length. Twenty-two of the upright blocks used in this tomb
are almost entirely covered with engraved designs. These are massed
together with very little order, the main object having been apparently
to cover the whole surface of the stone with ornament. The designs
consist of spirals, concentric circles and semicircles, chevrons, rows
of strokes, and triangles, and bear a considerable resemblance to those
of Lough Crew and New Grange in Ireland.
Another tomb in the same district, that of Mane-er-Hroeck, was intact
when discovered in 1863. It contained within its chamber a hoard of 101
axes of fibrolite and jadeite, 50 pebbles of a kind of turquoise known
as _callais_, pieces of pottery, flints, and a peculiarly fine celt of
jadeite together with a flat ring-shaped club-head of the same stone.
The tomb was concealed by a huge oval mound more than 100 yards in
length. The famous Mont S. Michel is an artificial mound containing a
central megalithic chamber and several smaller cists, some of which held
cremated bodies.
[Illustration: FIG. 11. Chambered mound at Fontenay-le-Marmion,
Normandy. (After Montelius, _Orient und Europa_.)]
A very remarkable mound in Calvados (Fig. 11) was found to contain no
less than twelve circular corbelled chambers, each with a separate
entrance passage. The megalithic tombs of Brittany all belong to the
late neolithic period, and contain tools and arrow-heads of flint, small
ornaments of gold, _callais_, and pottery which includes among its forms
the bell-shaped cup.
In Central and South France the _allees couve
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