from the side, sometimes by a horizontal passage, and the chamber cut underground and entered from a vertical or sloping shaft placed not directly over the chamber, but immediately to one side of it.  It is unlikely that these two types have a separate origin, for they are clearly determined by geological reasons.  A piece of country where vertical cliffs or faces of rock abounded was suited to the first type, while the other alone was possible when the ground consisted of a flat horizontal surface of rock.  We frequently find the two side by side and containing identically the same type of remains.  In South-East Sicily we have the horizontal entrance in the tombs of the rocky gorge of Pantalica, while the vertical shaft is the rule in the tombs of the Plemmirio, only a few miles distant.

Two curious facts are noticeable with regard to the distribution of the rock-hewn tombs.  In the first place they are all in the vicinity of the Mediterranean, and in the second some occur in the megalithic area, while others do not.  The examples of Egypt, Cyprus, and Crete show that this type of tomb flourished in the Eastern Mediterranean.  Was it from here that the type was introduced into the megalithic area, or did the megalithic people bring with them a tradition of building rock-tombs totally distinct from that which is represented by the tombs of Egypt, Cyprus, and Crete?

The question is difficult to answer.  One thing alone is clear, that in certain places, such as Malta and Sardinia, the megalithic people were not averse to reproducing in the solid rock the forms which they more usually erected with large stones above ground.  The finest instance of this is the Halsaflieni hypogeum in Malta, where the solid rock is hewn out with infinite care to imitate the form and even the details of surface building.

Similarly we have seen that both in Sardinia and in France the same forms of tomb were rendered in great stones or in solid rock almost indifferently.

There can therefore be no doubt that the hewing out of rock was practised by the megalithic people, and that they were no mean exponents of the art.  We have no proof that they brought this art along with them from their original centre of dispersion, though if they did it is curious that they did not carry it into other countries where they penetrated besides those of the Mediterranean.  It may be that early rock-tombs will yet be found in North Africa, but it seems improbable that, had they existed in the British Isles, in North Germany, or in Scandinavia, not a single example should have been found.

On the other hand, if the megalithic people did not bring the idea of the rock-tomb with them we must suppose either that it evolved among them after their migration, or that they adopted it from the Eastern Mediterranean.  The last supposition is particularly unlikely, as it would involve the modification of a burial custom by foreign influence.