Megalithic monuments are encountered outside of Europe--in India, and
on the African coast. No one knows what people possessed the power to
quarry such masses and then transport and erect them. For a long time
it was believed that the people were the ancient Gauls, or Celts,
whence the name Celtic Monuments. But why are like remains found in
Africa and in India?

When one of these tumuli still intact is opened, one always sees a
skeleton, often several, either sitting or reclining; these monuments,
therefore, were used as tombs. Arms, vases, and ornaments are placed
at the side of the dead. In the oldest of these tombs the weapons are
axes of polished stone; the ornaments are shells, pearls, necklaces of
bone or ivory; the vases are very simple, without handle or neck,
decorated only with lines or with points. Calcined bones of animals
lie about on the ground, the relics of a funeral repast laid in the
tomb by the friends of the dead. Amidst these bones we no longer find
those of the reindeer, a fact which proves that these monuments were
constructed after the disappearance of this animal from western
Europe, and therefore at a time subsequent to that of the lake
villages.


THE AGE OF BRONZE

=Bronze Age.=--As soon as men learned to smelt metals, they preferred
these to stone in the manufacture of weapons. The metal first to be
used was copper, easier to extract because found free, and easier to
manipulate since it is malleable without the application of heat. Pure
copper, however, was not employed, as weapons made of it were too
fragile; but a little tin was mixed with it to give it more