Like the
cave-men, they used knives and arrows of flint; but they made their
axes of a very hard stone which they had learned to polish. This is
why we call their epoch the Polished Stone Age. They are much later
than the cave-men, for they know neither the mammoth nor the
rhinoceros, but still are acquainted with the elk and the reindeer.[2]
=Megalithic Monuments.=--Megalith is the name given to a monument
formed of enormous blocks of rough stone. Sometimes the rock is bare,
sometimes covered with a mass of earth. The buried monument is called
a _Tumulus_ on account of its resemblance to a hill. When it is
opened, one finds within a chamber of rock, sometimes paved with
flag-stones. The monuments whose stone is above ground are of various
sorts. The _Dolmen_, or table of rock, is formed of a long stone laid
flat over other stones set in the ground. The _Cromlech_, or
stone-circle, consists of massive rocks arranged in a circle. The
_Menhir_ is a block of stone standing on its end. Frequently several
menhirs are ranged in line. At Carnac in Brittany four thousand
menhirs in eleven rows are still standing.
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