Information AboutMegalith |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MEGALITH | |
| megalithic monuments | |
| earth mysteries | |
| stones | |
|
A megalith is a large Stone which has been used to construct a structure or monument either alone or with other stones. '''''Megalithic''''' means made of such stones, but uses an interlocking system without the use of mortar or cement. The word ''megalith'' comes from the Ancient Greek '''' ''megas'' meaning ''great'', and '''' ''lithos'' meaning ''stone''. Many megaliths are thought to have a purpose in determining important astronomical events such as the Solstice and Equinox dates. DESCRIPTION OF MEGALITHS The term "''megalith''" denotes item(s) consisting of rock(s) hewn in definite shapes for special purposes. Glossary . McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Glossary . labyrinth.net.au. Glossary . wordnet.princeton.edu. It can be used to describe buildings built by people from many parts of the world living in many different periods. A variety of large stones are seen as megaliths, with the widely known megaliths not being sepulchral.Rochester's history ~ an illustrated timeline. glossary of cemetery terms The construction of these structures took place as late as the Neolithic Age and continued to the Bronze Age or the Iron Age .Johnson, W. (1908). Page 67. Nabta Playa megalith]] Nabta Playa was once a large lake in the Nubia n Desert, located 500 miles south of modern day Cairo .1 By the 5th Millennium BC the peoples in Nabta Playa had fashioned the world's earliest known Astronomical device, 1000 years older than, but comparable to, Stonehenge .2 Research shows it to be a prehistoric Calendar that accurately marks the Summer Solstice . Findings indicate that the region was occupied only seasonally, likely only in the Summer when the local lake filled with water for grazing Cattle .3 The presence among the population of the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts from Morroco,Portugal to Scandinavia or even Ireland (in areas beyond the phoenician,carthaginian or roman rule)of male lineages connected to the People of maediterranean North Africa,with the Y-chromosome haplotype E3b in different subclades,confirms the earlier suspictions of scholars about the spread along the navigation routes of the African origins of ideas,cults,know-how,and even members of this obscure Culture of the Prehistory of human kind. Western European megaliths )]] See Also: European Megalithic Culture In Western Europe and the Mediterranean , megaliths are generally constructions erected during the Neolithic or late Stone Age and Chalcolithic or Copper Age (4500 - 1500 B.C.E). Perhaps the most famous megalithic structure is Stonehenge in England , although many others are known throughout the world. The French Comte De Caylus was the first to describe the Carnac Stones . Legrand D'Aussy introduced the terms '' Menhir '' and '' Dolmen '', both taken from the Breton Language , into antiquarian terminology. He interpreted megaliths as gallic tombs. In Britain, the Antiquarian s Aubrey and Stukeley conducted early research into megaliths. In 1805 , Jacques Cambry published a book called ''Monuments celtiques, ou recherches sur le culte des Pierres, précédées d'une notice sur les Celtes et sur les Druides, et suivies d'Etymologie celtiques'', where he proposed a Celt ic stone cult. This completely unfounded connection between Druids and megaliths has haunted the public imagination since. In Belgium there is a megalithic site at Wéris, a little town situated in the Ardennes . In the Netherlands megalithic structures can be found in the north-east of the current, mostly in the province of Drenthe . Knowth is a Passage Grave of the Brú Na Bóinne neolithic complex in Ireland, dating from c.3500-3000BC. It contains more than a third of the total number of examples of Megalithic Art in all Western Europe, with over 200 decorated stones found during excavations. Most archaeologists agree the Megaliths of Western Europe were spread by a homogenous culture that used the Western Mediterranean and the Atlantic Seaboard to spread. British Archaeologist Sir Barrington Cunliffe has written extensively and mapped the extent of this culture. Recent genetic tests confirm that a small percentage of males in each town where a megalith is located bear an extremely rare marker on Y-Chromosome Haplogroup I , subclade M26. Some have posited this marker tracks the spread of the megalithic cultural elite, as its far-flung and otherwise random distribution is otherwise inexplicable. (Gatto, et. al., 2007) Megalithic graves See Also: Megalithic tomb Many megalithic monuments were burial mounds which were often re-used by different generations. The Chambered Cairn is a common type of collective tomb. Some of these are Passage Grave s generally built of drystone walling and/or megaliths often with a round burial chamber in a round mound with a straight passage leading out. Gallery Grave s have a long megalithic chamber with parallel sides often in a long mound with an entrance at one end. Modern megaliths There are even some modern megalithic structures. The Coral Castle is an unusual stone structure created in the 1920 s in Homestead, Florida by Edward Leedskalnin .Or the famous midwestern U.S. Carhenge . ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION Megaliths were used for a variety of purposes. The purpose of megaliths range from serving as boundary markers of territory to being a society's reminder of past events to being part of the society's religion.Goblet d'Alviella,, et. al. (1892). Page 22-23. Amongst the Indigenous Peoples of India , Malaysia , Polynesia , North Africa , North America , and South America , the worship of these stones are a possibility.Goblet d'Alviella,, et. al. (1892). Page 23. In the early 20th century, some scholars believed that all megaliths belonged to one global "Megalithic culture"Gérald Gaillard,, ''The Routledge Dictionary of Anthropologists''. Routledge, 2004. 394 pages. Page 48. ISBN 0415228255 ( Hyperdiffusionism , e. g. 'the Manchester school'Lancaster Brown, P. (1976). Page 267. by Grafton Elliot Smith and William James Perry ), but this has long been disproved by modern dating methods. Types of megalithic structures The types of megalithic structures can be divided into two categories, the "''Polylithic type''" and the "''Monolithic type''".Keane, A. H. (1896). Page 124. Different megalithic structures include: Examples of megaliths Other megaliths include:
GALLERY |
|
|