Page:Rude Stone Monuments.djvu/329

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Chap. VII.
DOLMENS.
303

that these dolmens generally belong to the mythic period of the Stone age, and that only a few of them extend down to thesemi-historic age of bronze, it is in vain to expect that they would gather any traditions or record any names that might connect them with persons known in history. We are, therefore, wholly without assistance from history or tradition to guide us either in classifying them or in any attempt to ascertain their age, while the indications which enable us to connect them with our own, or with one another, are few and far between.

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106.
Dolmen at Herrestrup.

Among the few that give any sure indications of their age, one of the most interesting is at Herrestrup, in Zeeland, which has recently been disinterred from the tumulus that once covered it.[1] On it are engraved some half-dozen representations of ships, such as the Vikings were in the habit of drawing, and which are found in great quantities on the west coast of Gottenburg.[2] According to the best authorities, these representations range from about A.D. 500 to 900,[3] and some may perhaps be more modern. Those in this dolmen do not appear to be either among the most ancient or the most modern, and if we fix on the eighth century as their date, we shall not be very far wrong. That they are also coeval with the monument seems perfectly


  1. 'Annalen for Nord. Aldk.' vi. pl. x.
  2. Holmberg, 'Scandinavien Hallristingar,' p. 3.
  3. Ibid. p. 21. 'Soc. des Ant. du Nord,' ii. pp. 140 et seqq.