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Chap. X.
ALGERIA.—CIRCLE NEAR BONA.
405

worked flint implements, and lastly a medal of the Empress Faustina.[1] All the three ages were consequently represented in the one tomb, and yet it certainly belongs to the second century. None of the others give such distinct evidence of their age, but M. Bertrand, who is a strong advocate for the prehistoric age of French dolmens, sums up his impressions of M. Féraud's discoveries in the following words: "Ceux de la province de Constantine ne pouvaient, à en juger par les objets qui y ont été trouvés, être de beaucoup antérieur a l'ère chrétienne; quelques-uns même seraient postérieurs."[2]

In addition to what he found inside the tombs, M. Féraud discovered a Latin inscription in the cap-stone of a dolmen near Sidi Kacem. The letters are too much worn to enable the sense of the inscription to be made out, but quite sufficient remains to prove that it is in Latin, and, from the form of the letters, of a late type.[3]

Rude Stone Monuments 0431.png

174.
Circle near Bona.

Monsieur Leternoux found hewn stones and even columnar shafts of Roman workmanship among the materials out of which the bazinas at the foot of the Aures chain had been constructed, and he gives a drawing of a cippus of late Roman workmanship, bearing an inscription in Berber character, which he identifies with those on two upright stones of rude form, one of which forms parts of a circle near Bona.[4]

In addition to these there are numerous instances among the plates which form the volume of the 'Exploration scientifique de l'Algérie' where the rude-stone monuments are so mixed up with those of late Roman and early Christian character that it seems impossible to doubt that they are contemporary. As no text, however, has yet been published to accompany these plates, it is most unsafe


  1. 'Revue archéologique,' viii. p. 527.
  2. Ibid. l. s. c.
  3. 'Mémoires, &c., de Constantine,' 1864, p. 122, pl. xxx.
  4. Flower, in Norwich volume, pp. 202-206.