EUROPEAN MEGALITHIC CULTURE

There are a number of areas in Europe with megalithic monuments from the Neolithic periods. The earliest of these constructions, found in Brittany and the Iberian Peninsula, are reckoned to date to around 4800 BC. Contrary to 19th and early 20th scholarly opinion, there never was a unified Megalithic culture. Most archaeologists today see a number of places were different types of megalithic structures were built independently of each other (Southern Spain, Portugal, Brittany, Atlantic Britain, Scandinavia and Northern Germany).
Originally consisting of fairly simple structures like Dolmens, megalithic design later includes the stone rows of Brittany and the hundreds of stone circles of the British Isles, of which Stonehenge is the most famous. Many of these constructions have been shown to have significant astronomical alignments, though the function of these still remains mysterious – a fact that has not prevented endless theorising. Whilst a number of intriguing and distinctive artistic symbols have been discovered, it is virtually certain that no proper form of writing existed.

Contents

Types of megaliths

Other structures

Distribution and development

Modern myths

Timeline

References

External links

Types of megaliths

The most common type of megalithic construction in Europe is the dolmen – a chamber consisting of upright stones (orthostats) with one or more large flat capstones forming a roof. Many of these, though by no means all, contain human remains, and it is debatable whether use for burial site was their primary function. Though generally known as dolmens, many local names exist, such as ''anta'' in Portugal, ''stazzone'' in Sardinia, ''hunnebed'' in Holland, ''Hünengrab'' in Germany, ''dys'' in Denmark, and ''cromlech'' in Wales.
Another type of megalithic monument that occurs throughout the culture area is the single standing stone, or menhir. Some of these have been shown to have an astronomical function as a marker or foresight, and in some areas long and complex alignments of such stones exist – most famously at Carnac in Brittany.
In the British Isles the best-known type of megalithic construction is the stone circle, of which there are hundreds of examples, including Stonehenge and Avebury. These too display clear evidence of astronomical alignments, both solar and lunar. Stonehenge, for example, is famous for its solstice alignment (though whether this was originally intended to mark the winter solstice, rather than the summer, is open to question). Examples of stone circles, though rare, are also found in Continental Europe.

Other structures

Associated with the megalithic constructions across Europe there are often large earthworks of various designs – ditches and banks, broad terraces, circular enclosures known as henges, and frequently artificial mounds such as Silbury Hill in England and Monte d’Accoddi in Sardinia. Sometimes, as at Glastonbury Tor in England, it is theorised that a natural hill has been artificially sculpted to form a maze or spiral pattern in the turf.
Spirals were evidently an important motif for the megalith builders, and have been found carved into megalithic structures all over Europe – along with other symbols such as lozenges, eye-patterns, zigzags in various configurations, and cup and ring marks. Whilst clearly not a written script in the modern sense of the term, these symbols no doubt conveyed meaning to their creators, and are remarkably consistent across the whole of Western Europe.

Distribution and development

The distribution of megalithic constructions strongly indicates that this culture was spread by seafarers. With the earliest sites found on the Atlantic seaboards of Brittany and Portugal dating to about 4800 BC, the techniques of building and other cultural traits gradually spread to other coastal areas, thence inland via the major river systems. Archaeologists usually distinguish five geographical regions within the megalithic culture that display certain local characteristics in addition to sharing in the general continent-wide trends. These are the ''North West Group'' (north Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Denmark), ''Far West Group'' (British Isles), ''Centre West Group'' (north-west France), ''South West Group'' (Iberia), and ''Mediterranean Group'' (Malta, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearics, and surrounding coasts). Megalithic constructions of a later time, are in Thrace and Kuban too.
As the possible people who created the megalithic culture have left, the term «koni [[1]]» from which survive in river names and other geographical features all over the world. For instance in England, near Stonehenge we find de River Kennet, named after the cynetes, in Spain and Italy we find the term «conio». It has recently been argued, however, that the spread of Indo-European languages in Europe coincided with the introduction of agriculture during the Neolithic period (see Anatolian hypothesis). The megalithic culture remained at the Neolithic stage until the so-called Bell-beaker explosion from around 2500 BC, which ushered in the Chalcolithic period – an early phase of the Bronze Age. It was this era that witnessed the full flowering of megalithic design in such areas as the British Isles with their stone circles, and Brittany with its alignments.
The findings at Northeastern Africa Nabta Playa ,etc.of very similar Cultural aspects at an approximately immediate time,and genetic traces of northern and eastern African E3b haplogroups in Population minorities along the Atlantic coasts,raise the questions again of the Cultural origins or spread of ideas trough early navigation or/and small groups of men along the Mediterranean and Atlantic Coasts of Europe.
Berber or Amazigh similarities with some Basque and Celtic words,expressions,have never been explained and downplayed as mere coincidences,or borrowings from a much later colonial,commercial exchange.

Modern myths

Being an ancient and little-understood civilisation, the megalithic culture has attracted numerous myths over the centuries. The undoubted astronomical function of many of the structures has in recent times engendered speculation about ley-lines and mysterious earth-energies, whilst the monuments themselves have been appropriated by many different New Age groups for their own purposes. Some, such as the Rollright Stones in England, have even been purchased by Neopagans [2]. There have also been theories connecting the megalithic culture with the legend of Atlantis.

Timeline

★ ''Circa'' 4800 BC: Constructions in Brittany (Barnenez) and Iberia (Évora and Mourâo). Emergence of the Neolithic period, the age of agriculture.

★ ''Circa'' 4000 BC: Constructions in Brittany (Carnac), Iberia (Lisbon), France (central and southern), Corsica, England and Wales.

★ ''Circa'' 3700 BC: Constructions in Ireland (Knockiveagh and elsewhere).

★ ''Circa'' 3600 BC: Constructions in England (Maumbury Rings and Godmanchester), and Malta (Ġgantija and Mnajdra temples).

★ ''Circa'' 3500 BC: Constructions in Iberia (Málaga and Guadiana), Ireland (south-west), France (Arles and the north), Sardinia, Sicily, Malta (and elsewhere in the Mediterranean), Belgium (north-east) and Germany (central and south-west).

★ ''Circa'' 3400 BC: Constructions in Ireland (Newgrange), Netherlands (north-east), Germany (northern) Sweden and Denmark.

★ ''Circa'' 3200 BC: Constructions in Malta (Ħaġar Qim and Tarxien temples)

★ ''Circa'' 3000 BC: Constructions in France (Saumer, Dordogne, Languedoc, Biscay, and the Mediterranean coast), Iberia (Los Millares), Sicily, Belgium (Ardennes), and Orkney, as well as the first henges (circular earthworks) in Britain.

★ ''Circa'' 2800 BC: Climax of the megalithic Funnel-beaker Culture in Denmark, and the construction of the henge at Stonehenge.

★ ''Circa'' 2500 BC: Constructions in Brittany (Le Menec, Kermario and elsewhere), Italy (Otranto), Sardinia, and Scotland (north-east), plus the climax of the megalithic Bell-beaker Culture in Iberia, Germany, Ireland, and Britain (stone circle at Stonehenge). With the bell-beakers the Neolithic period gave way to the Chalcolithic, the age of copper.

★ ''Circa'' 2400 BC: The megalithic Bell-beaker Culture was dominant in Britain, and hundreds of smaller stone circles were built in the British Isles at this time.

★ ''Circa'' 2000 BC: Constructions in Brittany (Er Grah), Italy (Bari), Sardinia (northern), and Scotland (Callanish).

★ ''Circa'' 1800 BC: Constructions in Italy (Giovinazzo).

★ ''Circa'' 1500 BC: Constructions in Iberia (Alter Pedroso and Medons da Mourela).

★ ''Circa'' 1400 BC: Non-megalithic Burial of the Egtved Girl in Denmark, whose body is today one of the most well-preserved examples of its kind.

★ ''Circa'' 1200 BC: Last vestiges of the megalithic tradition in the Mediterranean and elsewhere come to an end during the general population upheaval known to ancient history as the Invasions of the Sea Peoples.

References

★ Barraclough, Geoffrey ''The Times Atlas of World History'' (Times Books, 1978)

★ Renfrew, Colin ''Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins'' (Jonathan Cape, 1987)

★ Service, Alastair & Bradbery, Jean ''Megaliths and their Mysteries: The Standing Stones of Old Europe'' (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979)

★

★ Spanuth, Jürgen '',Atlantis of the North'' (Sidgwick and Jackson, 1979)

External links

★ Megalithic Economics

★ Le portal du Megalithisme du Sud da France: photos and maps of French megaliths (in French)

★ Megalithic Europe

★ Los Millares (on this megalithic town of Spain - in Spanish)