Megalithic Monuments

Megalithic Monuments, structures of large, roughly dressed stones erected as sepulchral monuments or as memorials of notable events. Found in all parts of the world, megalithic monuments in western Europe date from prehistoric times, beginning in the 5th millennium bc. Those of India date from the first centuries of the Christian era, and those on Easter Island probably are contemporary with the medieval period in Europe. Megalithic monuments are still being built in parts of Indonesia and in Assam, India. The areas of greatest abundance of megalithic monuments include the following groups: the British Isles, western France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and the islands of the western Mediterranean; Scandinavia; North Africa; Crimea, the Caucasus, and the Middle East; the Iranian uplands; Japan and Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), and Assam and the Deccan Plateau in India; and also the islands of the South Pacific Ocean, particularly Easter Island.

European megalithic monuments usually are divided into four classes: the menhir, or monolith, a single standing stone often of great size; the stone circle, consisting of many monoliths, as at Stonehenge in England; the row of monoliths, as at Carnac in France; and the burial chamber, or chamber tomb, usually walled with monoliths and roofed by capstones or false vaults. Chamber tombs are sometimes called dolmens (see Dolmen). They are the most widespread type of megalithic monument in western Europe; more than 50,000 examples are extant. The majority of the burial chambers were originally within earth mounds or barrows, many of which have since been denuded. Three types of burial chamber may be distinguished: the dolmen, or single chamber tomb; the passage grave, in which the chamber is approached by a passage; and the gallery grave, or allée couverte, a long, rectangular chamber. The interiors of the walls and roofs of some tombs are decorated with geometrical or naturalistic designs.

Megaliths found in the Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian islands frequently have walls and platforms built of unworked rock, and in general consist of cyclopean masonry erected without the use of cement. In only three instances do these megaliths vary from unworked stone: the trilithon at the town of Mua on Tongatapu Island, which is built of two uprights supporting a crosspiece; the gigantic statues surmounting the ahu, or burial platforms, on Easter Island, carved in compressed volcanic ash; and the alignments at Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, consisting of groups of cone-shaped coral pillars known as Lat'te, constructed of layers of coral cemented together.