Ahu Tongariki - megaliths in Rapa Nui, Pacific
Ahu Tongariki - megaliths in Rapa Nui. Photo: Rivi from Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

One of the most fascinating groups of archaeological monuments are prehistoric structures made of stones or soil - megaliths, cairns and petroforms. One of the keys to their popularity is that they are widespread in Western Europe, the birthplace of modern science. One can imagine that as children, numerous great thinkers were fascinated by these exotic exceptions to the simple rural life: legendary stones erected by an ancient unknown people without any known practical use. Through the ages, people have loved to strain their minds to find a sensible explanation to the many riddles posed by megaliths.

Even today, we can admit with some pleasure, there are thousands of mysteries left for us. Numerous unknown and forgotten megaliths can be found in regions where megaliths have not been reported so far.

 

Criteria

Deer stone in Uushigiin Uver
Deer stone in Uushigiin Uver, Mongolia.
Lamoix in Flickr / CC-BY-SA-2.0

The author admits that this group of interesting monuments has vague borders of criteria, often overlapping with others e.g. megalithic monuments can be cult sites, ancient burials and monuments of rock art. But there is something clearly distinctive about megalithic monuments - a feeling of mysterious ancient times, cultures with long forgotten and very different sets of values. Too often we don't have even a clue why people made these monuments.

Megaliths as defined in this website are structures made of large stones by ancient cultures, without any mortar or cement. In general, this does not include structures built by developed and well expressed cultures like the Romans or Maya but rather the more ancient cultures.

Cairns are man-made piles of stones of diverse purpose and meaning.

Petroforms are ancient, human-made patterns of rocks or soil on open ground.

Although most megaliths in the world belong to Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages, there are exceptions to this rule: such as the Iron Age stone ships in Sweden or medieval turf labyrinths and mazes, as well as dolmens, menhirs and the other megalithic structures of the several islands of Indonesia, which are in active use up to this day. In this group there are also some monuments made without stones, such as the Northern European labyrinths made of peaty soil.

Very often ancient tombs are also megaliths. These consist of stone ships, dolmens and passage graves. Many megalithic monuments represent sites of ancient cults or even contemporary cults. Often megaliths are ancient fortifications. In addition, there are many fascinating monuments with unknown meanings or functions.

Often stones forming a megalithic monument also bear engravings. Most often these are simple cupmarks but one can also find more complex drawings. Thus there is not a clear division between megaliths and rock art either.

 

Classification

Megaliths and petroforms include very diverse monuments. Initially the term "megalith" was applied to Western European monuments and a classification system developed with multiple local variations. However, the numerous and diverse megaliths outside Europe make this classification much harder.

One way to classify them is to divide megalithic structures into two major classes - polylithic type (a structure consisting of many stones) and monolithic type (a single stone). Unfortunately, this division is much less straightforward than it sounds. For example, there can be different groups of separate standing stones or a standing stone can have a cap of another stone on top (like moai in Rapa Nui do).

Another way is to list all the diverse forms of megaliths. Some of the most popular in Western Europe are:

  • Menhirs - single, large standing stones
  • Dolmens - chambers made of large stone slabs - mostly tombs, which most likely were covered with earth
  • Cairns - ancient, manmade piles of rocks
  • Passage graves - tombs with a larger room accessible through narrow passage
  • Gallery graves - tombs where the width of burial room and passage to it do not differ
  • Stone circles - stones set in circular or eliptical form
  • Henges - earthwork rings
  • Stone rows - rows of upright stones
  • Stone ships - burial with stone setting in the form of ship
  • Stones with cupmarks and ringmarks
  • Stone or soil labyrinths

and so forth.

Although these monuments can be found outside Europe as well, in other areas of the world there are other kinds of megalithic monuments. Some examples are:

  • Ahu and also some marae - sacred sites of Polynesians - cleared areas with stones marking borders, whole stone platforms
  • Megalithic stone walls - walls made of massive, precisely shaped stone blocks in several areas of world
  • Medicine wheels - stone settings in a form of enormous spiked wheel, found in North America
  • Inukshuks - vertical stone settings, sometimes resembling human statues, in Arctic North America
  • Kenong stones (watu kenong) - cylindrical stones in Sunda Islands, Indonesia

as well as many others.

Outstanding megalithic monuments and petroforms

Europe

Some of the best known megaliths are located in Europe:

Stonehenge
Stonehenge, United Kingdom. Photo by
Hardo, Flickr, CC-BY-SA-2.0

Asia

Africa

Oceania

North America

South America





Some Internet resources


Creative Commons Non-Commercial Share Alike 3.0 4 May 2010 Gatis Pāvils

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