European Megalithic Culture
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The European Megalithic Culture was a prehistoric (and preliterate) civilisation based primarily in Western Europe, that has left a legacy of large stone monuments, or megaliths, scattered widely across the continent. The earliest of these constructions, found in Brittany and the Iberian Peninsula, are reckoned to date to around 4800 BC, thus predating the Egyptian pyramids by some two millennia.
Originally consisting of communal tombs and other fairly simple structures, megalithic design later evolved to include the stone rows of Brittany and the hundreds of stone circles of the British Isles, of which the most famous is Stonehenge. 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 this early culture had no proper form of writing, and consequently we are almost totally reliant on archaeology to unearth its history.
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[edit] 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 traces of human remains, and it is debatable whether use as a burial site was ever their primary function. Though generally known as dolmens, many local names also exist, such as anta in Portugal, stazzone in Sardinia, hunebed in Holland, dysser 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 most well-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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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, 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 – a preliminary 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.
Because of many well-preserved burials in Northern Europe from this period, such as that of the Egtved Girl in Denmark, we even know something of the clothing styles worn by these people. Most such garments were made of wool, but bronze personal adorments, such as bracelets, were common.
[edit] 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 [1]. There have also been theories connecting the megalithic culture with the legend of Atlantis.
[edit] Timeline
- Circa 4800 BC: Constructions in Brittany (Barnenez) and Iberia (Évora and Mourdo). 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 3600 BC: Constructions in England (Maumbury Rings and Godmanchester).
- 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), Holland (north-east), Germany (northern) and Denmark.
- 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: 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.
[edit] 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)
