VI—Some Rock-cut Tombs and Habitation Caves in Mallorca

Abstract

It has been claimed that in its general form the type of burial cave which is the principal subject of this paper is in some way linked with the longbarrows of Britain; that is to say they must have had a common origin, and both must have been built by people dominated by some very powerful tradition—the cult of the dead. So far as western Europe is concerned, it is here assumed that the original home of this cult, or at any rate of many of its attributes, is to be sought for in or around the eastern Mediterranean, and that a great deal, if not all, of its influence reached Britain by way of Spain, or by the more direct route on which lie the Aries group of caves and those of the Marne. Therefore, in view of the central position of the Balearic Islands in the western basin of the Mediterranean, there is at least a possibility that the monuments of megalithic type to be found in them may bear a definite, even if remote, relation to those of Britain.