Megalith

megalith

Huge, often undressed stone used in various types of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monuments. The most ancient form of megalithic construction is probably the dolmen, a type of burial chamber consisting of several upright supports and a flat roofing slab. Another form is the menhir, a simple upright stone usually placed with others to form a circle, as at Stonehenge and Avebury in England, or a straight alignment, as at Carnac in France. The meaning of megalithic monuments remains largely unknown, but all share certain architectural and technical features suggesting that their creators sought to impose a conspicuously human design on the landscape and imbue it with cultural symbols. See also rock art.

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megalith

a stone of great size, esp one forming part of a prehistoric monument

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megalith [′meg·ə‚lith]

(archeology)

One of a group of large stones arranged in some pattern in a prehistoric monument.

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Megalith 

a structure made of huge blocks of undressed or crudely dressed stone. Megaliths include dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs, cists, and covered galleries. They are found throughout the world, except Australia, primarily in coastal regions. In Europe, megaliths generally date from the Aeneolithic period and the Bronze Age (3,000-2,000 B.C.); those in England, however date from the Neolithic.

It is not always possible to establish the purpose of a particular megalith. For the most part, megaliths were used for burials or were linked with the burial cult. Evidently they were communal structures. Their erection constituted a very complex problem for primitive technology and required the combined efforts of numerous people.

REFERENCES

Artsikhovskii, A. V. Vvedenie v arkheologiiu, 3rd ed. Moscow, 1947.
Niderle, L. Chelovechestvo v doistoricheskie vremena. St. Petersburg, 1898. (Translated from Czech.)
Obermaier, H. Doistoricheskii chelovek. St. Petersburg, 1913. (Translated from German.)