RUDE STONE MONUMENTS IN ALL COUNTRIES
Their Age and Uses
James Fergusson, D.C.L., F.R.S. 1872
John Murray · London · 1872 · First Edition
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 518
“In Peru, however, if anywhere, we might expect to find something remarkable in this line; but the monuments of Tia Huanaco are as far removed as possible from that category.”
TIWANAKU — OUTSIDE THE RUDE-STONE TRADITION
Fergusson introduces Tia Huanaco — modern Tiwanaku in Bolivia — within his “Peru” section, reflecting the broader Andean geographical terminology of his period. He immediately separates the site from the rough megalithic monuments that are the subject of his book. The following page reveals why.
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 519
“The doorways which led into this enclosure are hewn out of a single block of stone, and are more carefully cut and polished than anything else to be found anywhere out of Egypt, and there only in the best days of her great Pharaohs.”
TIWANAKU — MONOLITHIC STONEWORK RIVALING EGYPT
Fergusson distinguishes Tia Huanaco from the rude-stone tradition, recognizing a level of architectural precision comparable to the most impressive Pharaonic stonework.
Modern Note: Archaeology has confirmed the extraordinary scale of Tiwanaku’s stonework. At nearby Puma Punku, sandstone blocks reach approximately 130 tonnes, while precisely worked monolithic gateways and other dressed-stone architecture characterize the wider ceremonial complex.
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 415
“though stones 15 feet and 20 feet high are used in the Maltese monuments, they are shaped and, it may be said, hewn with metal tools, and they are used constructively with smaller stones, so as to form walls and roofs”
“The Maltese monuments however stand alone… none of the three have any very clear affinity with any known monuments on the continent of either Europe or Africa.”
MALTA — MONUMENTAL STONEWORK
Malta’s megalithic temples, built between approximately 3600 and 2500 BCE, rank among the world's earliest surviving freestanding stone buildings. Their builders erected massive limestone blocks into sophisticated architectural complexes centuries before Stonehenge's principal stone phase and the Egyptian pyramids.
Modern Note: Malta’s megalithic temples are now dated to the Neolithic, before metal tools were used on the islands; Fergusson’s suggestion of metal tools is therefore obsolete.
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 417
“The greatest depth internally from the entrance to the apse of the principal pair is 90 feet; the greatest width across both 130 feet.”
“this was ornamented with spirals and geometric figures neatly and sharply cut. In the inner chamber was a stone, near the entrance, on which was a bas-relief of a serpent”
MALTA — THE GIANTS’ TOWER AT GOZO
Dating to approximately 3600–3200 BCE, Gozo’s Ġgantija temples are among the world’s oldest surviving monumental stone structures. Their name reflects a Maltese tradition that giants built them. Fergusson described a carved serpent there, an unusual animal motif among Malta’s prehistoric temple geometry.
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 420
“A is the entrance into a small square apartment in which the altar or table stands, shown more completely in the next woodcut (No. 181), from a photograph, which also renders much more clear the peculiar style of ornamenting with innumerable ‘pit markings,’ peculiar to these Maltese monuments.”
MALTA — MONUMENTAL CONSTRUCTION AT MNAJDRA
Mnajdra’s carefully fitted limestone uprights and lintels demonstrate sophisticated Neolithic construction. Its distinctive pit-marked surfaces reveal deliberate stoneworking and precision.
Modern Note: Individual stones in Malta’s temple complexes can approach 20 tonnes, illustrating the scale of the construction shown here.
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 464
“The origin of the stone tables or dolmens is not so clearly made out.” “One, described by Major Austen, measured 30 feet 4 inches by 10 feet in breadth”
KHASI — WHERE THE EXPLANATION BREAKS DOWN
Fergusson believed the Khasi tradition readily explained the region’s great upright menhirs, which were still being erected in his own century. But when he turns to the enormous horizontal stones of the Khasi trilithons, that confidence disappears.
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 481
“consists of a solid shaft of wrought iron, standing 22 feet 6 inches out of the ground and is 5 feet 6 inches in circumference at about 5 feet from its base.”
INDIA — THE IRON PILLAR OF DELHI
Fergusson turns from monuments of stone to an extraordinary monument in iron. The form recalls the ancient pillar and obelisk tradition explored elsewhere in ancient cultures. In Traditions of Freemasonry, the Enoch tradition similarly preserves two commemorative pillars: one of brass and one of granite — intended to preserve knowledge against future destruction.
Here the parallel is architectural rather than historical: a monumental shaft fashioned from a different material, built to endure.
Modern Note: The Iron Pillar dates to the Gupta period, probably the reign of Chandragupta II (c. 375–414 CE). More than 1,600 years later it remains standing at Delhi’s Qutb complex. Approximately 7.2 metres high and weighing over three tonnes, it was produced by forge-welding masses of wrought iron — an exceptional achievement of ancient Indian metallurgy. Its remarkable resistance to corrosion remains one of its most studied features.
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 61
“Stonehenge might at first sight seem to have equal claims to precedence, but it is exceptional. It is the only hewn stone monument we possess, the only one where trilithons are found with horizontal architraves, and where the outer circle also possesses these imposts.”
STONEHENGE — THE ENGINEERING OF THE LINTELS
Fergusson highlights Stonehenge among the surrounding monuments because its builders went beyond simply erecting individual monoliths. They raised massive horizontal stones above the ground and integrated them into a carefully designed system of uprights and lintels. An achievement that is even more impressive considering what is now understood about how precisely they joined these stones.
Modern Note: Stonehenge remains the only known stone circle constructed with horizontal lintels. Around 2500 BC, its builders raised enormous worked sarsens and fitted the elevated lintels to the uprights with mortise-and-tenon joints. Exactly how the lintels were raised remains unknown; timber platforms, ramps and levering systems are modern archaeological reconstructions rather than documented methods.
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 363
“If it was one stone, it measured 64 feet in length and 13 feet across its greatest diameter; but I confess I cannot, from the mode in which it has fallen, rid myself of the idea that it was in reality two obelisks, and not one.”
“Whether this was the case or not, it is a remarkable work of art for a rude people, for it certainly has been shaped with care…”
LOCMARIAQUER — THE 280-TON MONOLITH
Fergusson recognized the extraordinary scale of the fallen stone at Locmariaquer, yet its four enormous fragments led him to question whether they could really have belonged to a single monument. Modern archaeology has resolved that question: they are the remains of one immense Neolithic menhir that once stood upright.
Modern Note: The Grand Menhir Brisé is now understood to have been a single monolith approximately 20.6 metres (67.6 ft) long and weighing about 280 tonnes. Quarried several kilometres from Locmariaquer, it was transported, shaped and erected during the fifth millennium BC. How a Neolithic community transported and raised a stone of this scale remains a subject of archaeological reconstruction rather than a documented construction method.
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 435
“It is a bilithon, if such a term is admissible—an upright flat stone, with one across it forming a sort of table.”
MENORCA — THE TAULA OF TREPUCÓ
Fergusson records the distinctive T-shaped monuments of Menorca: a single monumental upright carrying another large stone horizontally across its summit. At Trepucó, the surviving taula rises nearly sixteen feet, its elevated capital resting directly upon the great vertical stone.
Modern Note: The Taula of Trepucó stands approximately 4.8 metres (15.7 ft) high. Its supporting monolith is fitted directly into the underlying rock, while the horizontal capital is simply balanced upon it. Archaeology establishes the structure and its prehistoric context, but the precise procedure by which its builders raised and positioned the capital is not preserved.
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 170
“Only one dolmen in Wales, so far as I know, bears a name; but it is the illustrious one of King Arthur.”
WALES — KING ARTHUR’S QUOIT
Fergusson’s illustration records Arthur’s Quoit on the Gower Peninsula, with a scale drawn directly across its enormous capstone. The stone remains elevated on a group of uprights, preserving one of Britain’s most notable examples of Neolithic megalithic construction.
FERGUSSON’S ACCOUNT — Page 171
“The cap stone is 14 feet 6 inches in length, 7 feet 5 inches in height, and 6 feet 8 inches in breadth even now; but a very large piece has been broken off…”
“when complete it must have weighed between 35 and 40 tons. It rested originally on ten or eleven upright stones…”
WALES — ARTHUR’S QUOIT A 35–40 TON CAPSTONE
At Arthur’s Quoit, the engineering challenge lies above the ground. Raising and positioning such an immense capstone required considerable coordination and an understanding of how its weight could be distributed across multiple supports. Fergusson’s nineteenth-century illustration preserves a valuable record of the monument’s surviving structure.
Modern Note: The monument is now identified as a Neolithic chambered tomb dating to roughly 4,000–3,000 BC. The surviving capstone remains in place above its supporting uprights; Fergusson’s 35–40-ton figure is his estimate for the larger, unbroken stone rather than a modern measured weight.
