On the surface of the globe, with the exception of Australia, there are many mysterious and ancient buildings. Modern studies have shown that they were erected in the Neolithic, Eneolithic and Bronze Age. It was previously thought that they all represented one common culture, but today more and more scientists are questioning this theory.
So, by whom and why were such megalithic structures created? Why do they have one form or another and what do they mean? Where can I see these monuments of ancient culture?
What are megaliths?
Before considering and studying megalithic structures, you need to understand what elements they can consist of. Today it is considered to be the smallest unit of structures of this type of megalith. This term was officially introduced into scientific terminology in 1867, with the filing of the English specialist A. Herbert. The word "megalith" is Greek, translated into Russian means "big stone".
An exact and comprehensive definition of what megaliths is does not yet exist. Today, this concept refers to ancient structures made of stone blocks, slabs or simple blocks of various sizes without the use of any cementing or cementing compounds and mortars. The simplest type of megalithic structures, consisting of only one block, is menhirs.
Main features of megalithic structures
In different eras, different peoples erected huge structures of large stones, blocks and plates. The Baalbek Temple and the Egyptian pyramids are also megaliths, it’s just not customary to call them that. Thus, megalithic structures are various structures created by different ancient civilizations and consisting of large stones or slabs.
However, all structures considered megaliths have a number of features that unite them:
1. They are all made of stones, blocks and slabs of gigantic sizes, the weight of which can range from several tens of kilograms to hundreds of tons.
2. Ancient megalithic structures were built from strong and resistant to destruction of rocks: limestone, andesite, basalt, diorite and others.
3. During the construction, cement was not used - neither in the solution for fixing, nor for the manufacture of blocks.
4. In most buildings, the surface of the blocks from which they are composed is carefully processed, and the blocks themselves are tightly fitted to each other. The accuracy is such that a knife blade cannot be inserted between two megalithic blocks of volcanic rock.
5. Quite often preserved fragments of megalithic structures were used by later civilizations as the foundation for their own buildings, which is clearly visible in the buildings on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
When were they created?
Most megalithic objects located in Great Britain, Ireland and other countries of Western Europe date back to V – IV millennia BC. e. The most ancient megalithic structures located on the territory of our country date back to the 4th – 2nd millennia BC.
Types of megalithic structures
The whole variety of megalithic buildings can conditionally be divided into two large groups:
- funerary;
- not funerary:
- profane;
- sacred.
If everything is more or less clear with funeral megaliths, then scientists are building hypotheses about the purpose of profane structures, such as various giant laying of walls and roads, military and residential towers.
There is no accurate and reliable information about how ancient people used sacred megalithic structures: menhirs, cromlechs and others.
What are they like?
The most common types of megaliths are:
- menhirs - single, vertically mounted stele stones up to 20 meters high;
- cromlech - the union of several menhirs around the largest, forming a semicircle or circle;
- dolmens - the most common type of megaliths in Europe, are one or more large stone slabs laid on other blocks or boulders;
- a covered gallery is one of the varieties of dolmens interconnected;
- trilite - a stone structure consisting of two or more vertical and one stones laid horizontally on top of them;
- taula - a stone structure in the form of the Russian letter "T";
- cairn, also known as "guriy" or "tour" - an underground or ground structure, laid out in the form of a cone of many stones;
- stone rows are vertically and parallelly mounted blocks of stone;
- seid - a stone boulder or block, installed by one or another people in a special place, usually on a hill, for various mystical ceremonies.
Only the most famous types of megalithic structures are listed here. Let us dwell in more detail on some of them.
Dolmen
Translated from Breton into Russian, it means "stone table".
As a rule, it consists of three stones, one of which lies on two vertically installed, in the form of the letter "P". The ancient people in the construction of such structures did not adhere to any single scheme, so there are a lot of options for dolmens that have different functions. The most famous megalithic structures of this type are located on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Africa and Europe, in India, Scandinavia, and the Caucasus.
Trilith
One of the subspecies of the dolmen, consisting of three stones, scientists consider trilith. As a rule, this term does not apply to separately located megaliths, but to monuments that are components of more complex structures. For example, in such a famous megalithic complex as Stonehenge, the central part consists of five trilites.
Cairn
Another kind of megalithic buildings is cairn, or tour. This is a cone-shaped embankment of stones, although in Ireland by this name they mean the design of only five stones. They can be located both on the surface of the earth and under it. In scientific circles, cairo most often means megalithic structures located underground: labyrinths, galleries and burial chambers.
Menhirs
The oldest and simplest form of megalithic structures is menhirs. These are single, upright massive boulders or stones. Menhirs differ from ordinary, natural stone blocks by a surface with traces of processing and the fact that their vertical size is always larger than horizontal. They can be either separate, or be part of complex megalithic complexes.
In the Caucasus, menhirs were shaped like fish and called vishap. On the Iberian Peninsula, in the territory of modern France, in the Crimea and the Black Sea region, quite a lot of anthropomorphic magalites - stone women - have survived.
Post-megalithic menhirs are runic stones and stone crosses created much later.
Cromlech
Several menhirs installed in the form of a semicircle or circle and covered with stone slabs above are called cromlechs. The most famous example is Stonehenge.
However, besides round ones, cromlechs and rectangular ones are found, as, for example, in Morbian or Khakassia. On the island of Malta, cromlech temple complexes are built in the shape of "petals." To create such megalithic structures, not only stone, but also wood was used, which was confirmed by finds obtained during archaeological work in the English county of Norfolk.
Lapland's Flying Stones
Strange as it may sound, the most common megalithic structures in Russia are seids - huge boulders mounted on small supports. Sometimes the main block is decorated with one or several small stones stacked in a "pyramid". This type of megaliths is widespread from the shores of Onega and Ladoga lakes up to the coast of the Barents Sea, that is, throughout the north of the European part of Russia.
On the
Kola Peninsula and in Karelia, there are seids ranging in size from several tens of centimeters to six meters and weighing from ten kilograms to several tons, depending on the rock from which they were made. In addition to the Russian North, quite a few megaliths of this species are found in the taiga regions of Finland, northern and central Norway, and the mountains of Sweden.
Seids can be single, group and mass, including from a dozen to several hundred megaliths.