Abstract :
Throughout Portugal, Spain and western France, almost all of the hundreds of Neolithic dolmens face easterly, in a direction where the sun rises at some time of the year, or else where the sun has risen and is climbing in the sky. Dolmens that face westerly are very rare, and dolmens that face northerly are unknown. In Province, however, all the dolmens face westerly, as do those of the Balearic Islands; and in Languedoc and as far west as the Girona region of Catalunya, we find a mixture of eastern and western orientations. The paper suggests a reason for this: that in general dolmens faced the sun when rising or climbing, but that in Fontvieille near Aries the people followed the opposite, westerly custom, and the influence of Fontvieille spread throughout Province and to the Balearics (regions where it had no competition) and also through Languedoc and beyond where it was in competition with the normal custom.
