Megaliths in Europe began to be built in the northwest of modern France in the second half of the 5th millennium BC, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. From there, their construction technologies spread along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts to other parts of the continent. This is evidenced by a comparison of the data of radiocarbon analysis of bones and coal, preserved under megaliths and in burials
In Europe today there are about 35 thousand megaliths. These include freestanding stones, as well as circles, rows and megalithic tombs built from them. The ancient inhabitants of the continent built most of them near the coasts in the Neolithic and Copper Ages. Megaliths are found on the Atlantic coast - from Sweden and Denmark to northern Spain and Portugal; in the Mediterranean - in southern Spain and France, in Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia; in Switzerland and northern Italy.
In the 19th – 20th centuries, researchers made several assumptions about the origin of the megaliths. As one of the versions, it is believed that they began to be built by some one people, and then the technology spread across the continent. Among the possible sources of the appearance of megaliths, the researchers named the Middle East and the Mediterranean. According to one hypothesis, the technology of building megaliths was brought with them by representatives of the priestly elite or missionaries who moved from the Mediterranean to the British Isles and the territory of modern Spain and Portugal. Later, the method of radiocarbon analysis appeared, which made it possible to date the remains of people and animals, as well as charcoal, preserved in cultural layers under megaliths and in burials. The results of the first dating did not support the theory of a single origin of technology. Then there was an assumption about several centers for the emergence of technologies for the construction of megaliths, the researchers named Portugal, Andalusia, Brittany, south-west of England as probable places. This hypothesis is still the main one in the scientific literature. However, over the past decades, the method of radiocarbon dating has improved markedly. In addition, a lot of new data has appeared that can be studied for the correctness of the first or second hypothesis.which can be examined for the correctness of the first or second hypothesis.which can be examined for the correctness of the first or second hypothesis.
The historian B. Schulz Paulsson from the University of Gothenburg took up this task. He analyzed and compared radiocarbon data from 2,410 European megaliths, premegalithic structures and structures created with megaliths at the same time. The data has been collected from the 1960s to the present.
It turned out that the oldest megaliths, which were small closed structures or dolmens (structures resembling a table in shape), were built in the second half of the 5th millennium BC. They met in the northwest and southwest of France, in Spain, the Channel Islands, Sardinia and Corsica. The oldest of these, apparently, was the Passy necropolis in the Paris Basin. This is the only complex in Europe where pre-megalithic structures and transitional to megalithic structures have been preserved. The oldest person buried here died in the years 5061–4858. A little later, megalithic burials appeared on the territory of modern Brittany, on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Spain. In the first half of the 4th millennium BC, megaliths appear in western Europe - on the British Isles,other parts of modern France and Spain. Finally, in the second half of the 4th millennium, megalithic technologies reach Scandinavia and monumental structures appear in the territories of modern Sweden and Denmark.
Map of the distribution of megalith construction technologies according to the author of the article.
Paulsson believes that his results support the hypothesis of a single center for the emergence of megalithic technologies. The oldest megalithic structures appeared in the north-west of modern France, and the technologies for their construction spread along the sea routes along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts in three main steps.
Several years ago, archaeologists found another megalithic structure not far from Stonehenge, the same age as it. At first, the researchers thought they had found more than 90 standing stones underground. But a year later it turned out that the underground boulders were holes for wooden posts. Apparently, the monument was not completed, and then completely destroyed. The pillars were pulled out of the ground and used to expand other elements of the complex.
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Ekaterina Rusakova