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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, the Baltic area).
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.
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.
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.
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, 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).
As the people who created the megalithic culture have left no decipherable records, their linguistic affiliation remains completely obscure. 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). If so, the megalith builders would have spoken an early dialect of Indo-European, some terms from which may survive in river names and other geographical features across Western Europe. 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.
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 [1]. There have also been theories connecting the megalithic culture with the legend of Atlantis.