Megaliths

The monumental nature of Neolithic funerary rites is analysed by archaeologists in relation to its alleged links with the management of land by agro-pastoral communities. This article examines the social dynamics in the Neolithic of Western France, with a particular focus on how human populations mastered oceanic geographical and environmental characteristics. Numerous excavations during the
last fifteen years have significantly transformed the chronology. The evolution of the Mesolithic has been completely renewed and there is now a lack of reliable data between 5300 and 5000 BC (Mesolithic / Neolithic transition). Obviously dependent on a pioneer movement, the Late Bandkeramik of the Paris Basin and Villeneuve-Saint-Germain are well documented in villages that now cover the whole Breton peninsula up to the Loire river. Its early dates when compared to the Parisian Basin model could be due to bias within the calibration curve. South of the Loire, our knowledge of the Early Neolithic in the Centre-Atlantic
region, which is Mediterranean in origin, remains embryonic and centred on the chronological interval 4700-4500 BC. The analysis of social organization shows a clear difference between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic; it also applies to the technical traditions that are subject to an abrupt break. The issue of transmission of arrowhead technology between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic is no longer relevant, because of the revision of the chronology. Two technical domains are likely to have been inherited from the indigenous coastal communities: fisheries
and navigation. Their degree of respective control may have conditioned the socioeconomic foundations of the first agro-pastoral societies in Western France. The successive steps of the transmission of knowledge during the Atlantic Neolithic are discussed. It points to asset control and power in a few hands, which is best ‘embodied’ in the central tomb of the Tumulus Saint-Michel, dated around 4700-4600 BC. We do not know the economic foundations that ensure the ustainabilityof this social structure; their maritime dimension should not be overlooked.

Excavations were carried out in 1999 on the location of Stela 2 at the ancient site of Aksum in northern Ethiopia.
These excavations have permitted the documentation of the foundation of this stela, which was transported to Rome in 1937. Preparations were also made for the stela’s return to the site in 2005 and its re-erection in 2008 at the exact location where it stood in the 3rd or 4th century AD.
The excavations also made it possible to re-examine our perception of the three giant stelae on the site, from their conception and erection to their destruction.

V članku je predstavljen kratek povzetek predavanja. V prostoru okoli nas se prepletajo vidni del (narava, prostor), nevidni del (energije, kačje črte) ter naša preteklost. Prostor je sestavljen tudi iz svetih mest v naravi, megalitov, tičnic, tročanov, staroselske arhitekture in nesnovne dediščina. Vse to potrjuje, da živimo na enem izmed najbolj čarobnih delov sveta, imenovanem Slovenija.

This article introduces the enigmatic site at Huligemmanna Kolla, near Pattadakal, which has a famous sepulchral temple associated with the penultimate Early Chalukyan King Vikramaditya II. This site offers an important insight into the commemorative culture in the Malaprabha Valley - which seems to have continued from the megalith-building period into Early Chalukyan times, but there are more questions than answers!

Although here in DuPage we are very far from the Pacific, this class will help you become literate with regards to the cultures and histories of Pacific island societies. Each person living in the Pacific is part of an ongoing story of movement, settlement, and adaptation to island environments that has produced remarkable histories of cultural accomplishment and political struggle. Although relatively small in population, the Pacific islands span one-third of the globe, encompass about one fourth of the world’s languages, and include some of its most unique ecological zones. The Pacific has been an object of western world interest and fantasy since the earliest days of exploration, and continues to generate all kinds of exotic images, whether of paradise, of “disappearing” cultures, or threatened ecologies.

In this course, we will be concerned both with the experience of indigenous communities and with representations of the Pacific generated inside and outside the region. Pacific prehistory of travel began with Pleistocene movement of Homo sapiens sapiens, continued with Lapita colonization which gave way to the far-flung voyages of Polynesian navigators. Pacific indigenous settlement was then followed by waves of European explorers, missionaries, and colonizers. These movements have produced dramatic, and often tragic, stories of cultural encounter and transformation. The experience of Pacific communities, past and present, has much to teach us about living in communities that contend with global flows of people, culture, and capital. Today island travelers continue to move through national capitals and metropolitan centers from Honolulu to Los Angeles and Auckland, fashioning new forms and identities that extend the boundaries of the Pacific.

This thesis explores a specific form of representation from the Syrian Bronze Age: aniconic standing-stones, lacking inscriptions or decorations. These have been mainly studied from the point of view of texts which mention cult activity associated with them, but there has been heretofore no integrated analysis of archaeological finds, analysing architecture and associated material culture in comparison to texts. I will interpret litholatry (the cult of standing-stones) from the point of view of the influence of semi-nomadic pastoralists from the Syrian desert frontier on the culture of urban societies, and of the negotiation of urban/tribal identities of city kings through ritual.

When did mankind start building monuments? It is an interesting question, one that interests architects and archaeologists alike. This popular article in a magazine discusses the Indian megaliths as the earliest examples of monumental constructions in the subcontinent, and explores possible continuity with later monument building traditions.

I recently had the opportunity to review Alex Gibson’s thought provoking volume, 'Enclosing the Neolithic: Recent studies in Britain and Europe'. That review, to which the reader is directed for further commentary, identified as a weakness the uneven spread of regional case studies, and in particular the omission of studies from the West Country, Wales and North West England, which are so important in understanding the Irish Sea Zone. The aim of this paper is to address this with regard to the material from the North West of England, and in particular Cumbria. This paper is therefore meant to be read in conjunction with Gibson’s edited volume.

Reflections about establishment and architecture of dolmens with corridor and anteroom of the limestone plateau of Hortus (Herault, France)

Among the most imposing dolmens of Hérault’s megalithism, those of Lamalou, Capucin and Feuilles are situated on Hortus limestone plateau, in the Languedoc’s scrubland area. Their massive architecture distances itself by the systematic presence of an anteroom, bounded by pillars of entrance, whose function is difficult to define. However, the anteroom contributes unmistakably to the monumentalisation of these dolmens in the same way as important tumulus which encloses them. The studied graves form a homogeneous group both by their geographical situation within a specific territory and by their architecture. The succession and the demarcation of spaces are appreciably identical even if materials are differently used. A more global approach of dolmens with anteroom of Languedoc shows differences of management of the internal space with regard to their geocultural context.

Last few years' research in the state of Odisha has brought to light several megalithic sites of ethnic community and most of them belong to Austro-Asiatic group of family. Their megalithic structure is as that of other ethnic communities that follow megalithism in the present day in central eastern part of India. During the course of our research, we have noticed many changes that have occurred on their funeral rituals, beliefs and cultural tradition. Different factors were responsible for their changes. However, in this paper, we have given some observation on changing tradition and beliefs, its responsible factors; problem and prospect in future research on living megalithic tradition.

Megaliths feature commonly in the folklore of indigenous peoples all over their range of occurrence. At several places in South India, the authorship of megaliths is attributed to a now extinct race of dwarves, who were endowed with superhuman strength to heft the large stones into position, and who subsequently were annihilated in a rain of fire. We have tracked this legend at several megalithic sites and present a comprehensive list of sites in this paper, as well as the local names attributed to this dwarf race. We demonstrate that the appellation "Pandu" often associated with megaliths refer to this dwarf race, and not the Pandavas of Mahabharata, or the Pandyan dynasty, as often assumed. We also conjecture if a cultural memory of an extinct dwarf hominin species could form the basis of this legend.

In Ile-de-France (the region south of Paris), the giant Gargantua throws stones and heavy rocks i.e.megaliths (menhir and dolmens). Examining the routes from megalith to megalith we observe that they often follow an azimut multiple of 10° and that they cross at sacred places known for ancient cults, belonging to a regular pattern derived from a thirty-six sided polygon centered by the puy de Dôme. Secondary centers appear: Montlhery, Montjavoult. These megaliths are not erected at random , but according to a sacred geometry similar to that of Woodhenge and easily realized without instruments.

PANTELLERIA. THE SESE DI FRESCO EXCAVATION AND FINDS
FROM DESTROYED SESES AT MURSIA. - The sese Di Fresco I  excavations, an emispheric tomb with four chamber which one, found still closed, is a tholos dome, suggest for the first time the pantellerian megalithism ritual. Each chamber contained one or two burials amongst the so-called Sicilian “banchetto funebre” typical equipment: seashells, Ovis vel capra bones, beads, flint and obsidian implements, ware. The pottery from this sese and from other seses, now destroyed, dated in Early and Middle Bronze age, suggest links with RTV, Capo Graziano, Thapsos - Milazzese, Tarxien cemetery and Borg in-Nadur pottery styles. The Mursia surviving seses also prove the existence of an unknown megalithic cemetery. The monuments seem to line up with an ancient route, now ruined but once going to a spring and then to the village.

Aihole is known for its temples and temple complexes built by the Early Chalukyas. The megalithic monuments on Meguti Hill, south of the Jain temple are well known, too. In this paper, we study a unique dolmen located among the temples of the Galaganatha group and make a case that this protohistoric monument was modified by the temple builders. We also explore the possibility that many of the early temples were memorial, or even sepulchral, in purpose. The Galaganatha group of temples, as well as the Ramalingeshwara group to the south of it, occupies the northern portion of a ridge that runs nearly parallel to, and west of Meguti Hill. In a clear similarity to Meguti Hill, the portion of the ridge to the south of these temple-groups is strewn with megaliths. We argue that the early sacred landscape of the Aihole region was memorial, maybe even sepulchral in nature.

Reassessment of the studies about the São Gens 1
dolmen (Nisa) and the human remains collected in site,
focusing particularly on the bones presently found in the
Geological Museum of Lisbon. These include two fragments
of an adult and the incomplete skeleton of a non-adult
individual from High Middle Ages, dead between
the ages of 12 and 15.
The funerary deposition recalls several cases of reuse
at later moments unrelated with the Megalithic era,
but where the mythical past represented by the dolmen
cannot be forgotten.

In a park in Northern Berlin is standing a dolmen. It is not of Neolithic origin, but was later build in this place. Rumor tells there would be a Nazi archaeology background, the monument build by the Ahnenerbe or the Hitlerjugend. With a focus on local history, the origin of the monument could be discovered: the enormous capstone was bought in the early 1930 years to serve on some smaller standing stones as memorial for the fallen German soldiers of WWI. This memorial was changed into a contemporaneous artwork which today is destroyed. But the dolen, erected in the nearby park, is szanding till today and serves as ritual place of worship for neo-pagan groups, meeting point for teenagers, or highlight for walkers, joggers, and strollers. The place is worth a visit by interested historians and archaeologists. Finally, it is the only dolmen in the town of Berlin - even with its artificial background.

During the months of June, July and August of 2015, our fieldschool staff and students excavated a wedge tomb on Roughan Hill. The tomb in question was CL017-180002, a very dilapidated wedge tomb missing its capstone and one of its side-stones. The excavation aimed to address questions and theories set out in a paper by this author, our academic director and Thor McVeigh (Jones et al. 2015).
Prior to the excavation, relatively little was visible. The site had only been discovered during an intensive survey in the 1990s (Jones et al. 1996, Site E). A surrounding mound and some possible kerb remnant were also noted during that survey.
Removal of the sod revealed a substantial circular stone cairn, approximately 7 m in diameter, surrounding the chamber (Fig. 1). Where surviving, the outer edge was neatly kerbed with large slabs up to 1 m in length. A second inner kerb-line, most obvious to the rear of the chamber and around 4 m in diameter, was concealed within the cairn (Fig. 2). In terms of sequence, the chamber must have been built first and then the cairn would seem to have been added in two stages; however, it is not clear how much time, if any, there was between these stages.
The chamber was approximately 2 m long and 1 m wide and orientated to the west-southwest. While one side-stone was missing, judging from the front blocking stone and the size of rear of the chamber, the tomb was wider to the front than the rear. The alignment of a possible pinning stone, for the missing side-stone and similar to the stone pinning the extant side-stone, would support this supposition. It would appear that, internally, the chamber was c. 0.9 m wide at the rear and c. 1.1 m wide at the front. The extant side-stone and the front blocking-stone were carefully knapped into shape and the side-stone rose noticeably toward the front of the chamber (Fig 3); at the rear it was c. 0.5 m high and at the front 0.75 m high.
The entire contents of the chamber, the area to the front of the chamber and a section through the cairn, to the northeast of the chamber, were excavated. A substantial amount of cremated and unburnt human bone was retrieved. The majority of the bone came from within the chamber, where it was retrieved from within a layer of soil underlying a layer of stone. There were few notable concentrations that could be interpreted as individual
ii
deposits; rather, the bone appeared mixed throughout the layer of soil. The bone is currently being analysed by Osteoarchaeologist Dr Linda Lynch and Zooarchaeologist Dr Fiona Beglane.
There were no obvious grave goods within the chamber; however, some partially articulated sheep/goat bones, retrieved from under the front of the sidestone, may represent the remains of an offering.
An unburnt, and at least partially articulated, adult was uncovered within the stones stacked up against the north-northwestern outside of the chamber. It sat largely within the voids among the stones; however, some elements that had fallen to the base of the cairn were suspended within soil.
Several lithics were retrieved from and around the cairn. These were mostly debitage and cannot be stratigraphically tied to the burial depositions within the tomb. The assemblage does include one particularly fine flint blade and several other stuck lithics that are not of a local geology. These are being analysed by lithics specialist Dr Killian Driscoll.
Once, the osteological and zooarchaeological analyses are complete a comprehensive program of radiocarbon dating, aDNA and isotope analyses are planned. Two petrous bones have already been forwarded for aDNA analyses and the initial results are promising. The aDNA work is being carried out by Lara Cassidy and Professor Dan Bradley at Trinity College Dublin, and the isotope analysis is being carried out by Dr Rick Schulting’s team at the School of Archaeology, Oxford University. It is intended to get all radiocarbon dates through Queen’s University Belfast.

The discussion on the mutual relations of various elements within the Funnel Beaker culture has been on for almost half a century now. It currently involves the third generation of researchers, and it is quite likely that the next generations will still have something more to add to this exchange of views (K. Jażdżewski 1970a, p. 49). Half a century has passed since that publication and now we can only assent to the Professor and risk the statement that in the next 50 years this problem will continue to be valid. This paper is intended as an attempt to sketch answer the fundamental question defined by Jażdżewski (1970a, p. 49): The essential question is whether the northern, western and southern elements balance within the Funnel Beaker culture, or whether one of
them is dominant, prime and decisive for further development. In other words, I intend to predominantly focus on the geo-cultural significance of the communities of the Funnel Beaker culture. In parallel with the essential part of the analysis, I will make an attempt to illustrate the threads of the contemporary discourse which directly relate to Jażdżewski’s thoughts.

Megalithic monuments are seen as memorials, which receive the souls of ancestors and in the same time they are commited to healing practices, mainly relating to conception, suggesting that they are seen as a facility associated with the reincarnation of souls. These archaic beliefs are associated not only with dolmens and menhirs, in most cases they are associated with natural rock formations, characterized by something unusual and impressive. Significantly, in many places
around the world similar rock monuments, apart of their relationship with the Beyond are associated with health related practices and practices related to fertility.

Architectures and funerary practices from the second half of the forth and the beginning of the third millennium B.C. are quite different from those in use during the previous middle Neolithic period, in many places in occidental Europe. In Western France this general trend will be expressed in very diff erent ways, if we observe regions situated north or south of the Loire River. New megalithic architectures were built on top of the soil in Brittany, or buried in the Paris Basin. No such thing in more southern regions, were the individual “burials” could even have been one of the more common practice, for a time at least. Comparisons between domestic and funerary architectures, at north, or between individual and collective burials, at south, will highlight new perspectives in the status, the composition or the disposition of funerary goods.

In the context of this issue, some extremely interesting sites from the island of Euboea, Greece, which are called «dragon houses», should be mentioned. These are Megalithic structures that
apparently overlap the earlier rock sites of open-air sanctuaries, and despite the controversy over their
exact dating, they undoubtedly had a cultic purpose and preceded the classical Greek Temple. They are
covered in the technique of corbeled vault by adding orthostats about 2 meters long. The expensive and
labor-intensive technique of construction, unattainable for the later population, provoked in folklore the legend that they were built by Dragons, from which comes the name «drakospita» from Greek - a dragon house, which corresponds to the legends from mountain Strandzha in Bulgaria where the folklore name of some Thracian dolmens is «Zmeiovi kashti» which mean the same - a Dragon house.
I can confirm that on the Balkans and especially in Bulgaria certain folklore reminiscences lead us to some very specific locations most often related with the pagan religion. The presence of architectural
elements at such places is quite rare, on the other hand they hold the signs and characteristics of open air sanctuaries.

Every year archaeologists are discovering more and more about the enigmatic monuments we call megalithic tombs and instead of a single, simple answer to the question of what the megalithic tombs meant to those who built them, there is a multitude of answers, each one more intriguing than the next. In Temples of Stone, Dr. Jones brings together these varied strands of interpretation in a fascinating account that sheds light on topics ranging from our ancestor's belief systems and rituals (including the use of symbols, sound, colour and even hallucinatory visions), to our ancestor's deliberate manipulations of the world around them.

In 'Temples of Stone', the world of the megaliths and the megalith builders is brought to life in a fully illustrated, popular format. All the key sites in Ireland are discussed and over one hundred ‘Sites Worth Visiting’ are listed in the final chapter, with photographs, maps and detailed directions.

In the Indian context, megaliths are essentially funerary and memorial structures erected by different cultures over vast swathes of time, from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, and in later periods too. Megaliths represent some of the oldest monuments in the subcontinent, of which only traces survive today. Though early scholarship attributed the phenomenon of the erection of megalithic structures over the entire range of its occurrence to a single "megalithic culture", today it is seen as a means of interring the dead, or erecting memorials, which was adopted by different cultures during different periods. The early part of the first millennium (and indeed a few centuries prior to that) is an important period in the history of monumental architecture in the subcontinent. During this time, the diminishing practice of erecting megaliths co-existed alongside the construction of some of the earliest religious monuments in stone which would, over a millennium and a half, evolve into the richly diverse traditions of monumental architecture which characterize the subcontinent. In this chapter, the possibility that megalithic construction had some influence on the architecture of later monuments, is explored. Instances where megalithic architecture seems to have inspired later monuments both in techniques as well as purpose is presented with the aid of examples from the Malaprabha Valley and the megalithic site at Mallasandram. Megaliths are not confined to the Indian subcontinent. Megalithic construction is encountered in various parts of the world during different periods. Though very early attempts to explain this by resorting to the "diffusion theories"-which involved the origin of megalithism in one part of the world and its subsequent dispersion, have been discredited, there has been no clear understanding of why cultures widely separated in space and time have been erecting monuments with nearly identical form. Is it possible that the adoption of this cultural trait by cultures in different geographical regions could be the result of the movement of ideas, or even people? In the conclusion, I will present a case for studying megaliths on a wider geographical canvas to better understand this phenomenon, especially considering the impact it seems to have had on later monument-building traditions in India.

- RESUMEN :
Este artículo analiza el sitio arqueológico de Gunung Padang en la isla de Java (Indonesia) como ejemplo de patrimonio megalítico de dimensiones monumentales, encuadrado en la tipología regional de terrazas de tierra y piedra de aspecto piramidal escalonado (punden berundak) de la Edad del Bronce-Hierro indo-malaya (c. 500 a.C.–500 d.C.) y relacionado con otras estructuras megalíticas de tradición austronésica, como las marae polinésicas. Mostraremos cómo Gunang Padang –aclamada por algunos sensacionalistas como el origen de todas las pirámides del mundo– ha inspirado recientes teorías pseudo-arqueológicas, fantásticas especulaciones sin ningún fundamento científico que defienden fechas pleistocénicas y la existencia de una avanzada civilización antigua en el sureste asiático (el continente de Sondalandia) similar a la Atlántida. También veremos cómo se pueden refutar cada una de estas hipótesis que una gran masa de público ha aceptado con los brazos abiertos por su naturaleza novedosa y revolucionaria.
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- ABSTRACT :
This article analyzes the archaeological site of Gunung Padang in Java island (Indonesia) as an example of megalithic heritage of monumental size. It is set in the regional typology of earth and stone terraces with a stepped-pyramid appearance (punden berundak) from the Indo-Malayan Bronze-Iron Age (c. 500 BC–500/1000 AD). It is also related to other megalithic structures of Austronesian tradition, like the Polynesian marae.
Gunung Padang was acclaimed by some sensationalists as the origin of all the world pyramids. We will show how it has inspired recent pseudoarchaeological theories. Those fantastic speculations without any scientific basis defend Pleistocenic dates and the existence of an advanced ancient civilization in South-East Asia (the Sundaland continent) similar to Atlantis. We will also refuse each one of these hypotheses that a big audience has accepted with open arms by its novel and revolutionary nature.

"The megalithic tomb at Montelirio is off the scale in more ways than one. As well as being the largest example of its type known in Spain, the burial goods secreted in its subterranean chambers are unsurpassed in both quantity and quality. Leonardo García Sanjuán reveals what the dead of Montelirio can tell us about Copper Age society."

Gods, deities, symbolism, deposition, cosmology and intentionality are all features of the study of early ritual and cult. Archaeology has great difficulties in providing satisfactory interpretation or recognition of these elusive but important parts of ancient society, and methodologies are often poorly equipped to explore the evidence. This collection of papers explores a wide range of prehistoric and early historic archaeological contexts from Britain, Europe and beyond, where monuments, architectural structures, megaliths, art, caves, ritual activity and symbolic remains offer exciting glimpses into ancient belief systems and cult behaviour. Different theoretical and practical approaches are demonstrated, offering both new directions and considered conclusions to the many problems of studying the archaeology of cult and ritual. Central to the volume is an exploration of early Malta and its intriguing Temple Culture, set in a broad perspective by the discussion and theoretical approaches presented in different geographical and chronological contexts.