cists adapted for more than one body. But during the early Iron Age both these types of graves were discarded, and the people reverted to simple burial, either by inhumation or after cremation. But in the case of great men their graves were covered over with huge earthen mounds, such as those of Thor, Odin and Freya, at Gamla Upsala and the ship barrow at Gokstad.
In the absence of sufficient data for classifying the abodes and memorials of the dead on some scientific basis, our remarks on this phase of the subject must be restricted to brief notes on a few of the more typical monuments found withm the British area.
Cromlechs, or Stone Circles
Of the prehistoric monuments which come under this category of cromlechs, Britain possesses more than any other country in Europe. Although most of them are in a more or less dilapidated condition, archæologists are generally successful in extracting from their extant remains sufficient structural details to give a fair idea of their original forms and dimensions.
Avebury.—The great circle of standing stones at Avebury (Wiltshire) is, or rather was, the largest monument of the kind in Britain, measuring some 1200 feet in diameter. "When perfect," writes the author of Prehistoric Times, "this so-called Druidical monument consisted of a circular ditch and em-
