Megalith

[4] While "megalith" is often used to describe a single piece of stone, it also can be used to denote one or more rocks hewn in definite shapes for special purposes.

[6] The most common type of megalithic construction in Europe is the portal tomb—a chamber consisting of upright stones (orthostats) with one or more large flat capstones forming a roof.

Local names for portal tombs exist in multiple locations, such as anta in Galicia and Portugal, stazzone in Sardinia, hunebed in the Netherlands, Hünengrab in Germany, dysse in Denmark, and cromlech in Wales.

Prominent examples include the sites of Brú na Bóinne and Carrowmore in Ireland, Maes Howe in Orkney, and Gavrinis in France.

[citation needed] In some areas, long and complex "alignments" of such stones exist, the largest known example being located at Carnac in Brittany, France.

[citation needed] In parts of Britain and Ireland a relatively common type of megalithic construction is the stone circle, of which examples include Stonehenge, Avebury, Ring of Brodgar and Beltany.

The earliest megalithic tombs in Sardinia are the circular graves of the so-called Arzachena culture, also found in Corsica, southern France and eastern Spain.

In the dolmen of Cava dei Servi, archaeologists found numerous human bone fragments and some splinters of Castelluccian ceramics (Early Bronze Age) which confirmed the burial purpose of the artefact.

That they often have antechambers or forecourts is thought to imply a desire on the part of the builders to emphasize a special ritual or physical separation of the dead from the living.

The organization and effort required to erect these large stones suggest that the societies concerned placed great emphasis on the proper treatment of their dead.

Hearths and deposits of pottery and animal bone found by archaeologists around some tombs also implies that some form of burial feast or sacrificial rites took place there.

Further examples of megalithic tombs include the stalled cairn at Midhowe in Orkney and the passage grave at Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey.

In association with the megalithic constructions across Europe, there are often large earthworks of various designs—ditches and banks (like the Dorset Cursus), broad terraces, circular enclosures known as henges, and frequently artificial mounds such as Silbury Hill in England and Monte d'Accoddi in Sardinia (the prehistoric step pyramid).

[29] In the Sidamo Province, the megalithic monoliths of the stelae-building cultural tradition were utilized as tombstones in cemeteries (e.g., Arussi, Konso, Sedene, Tiya, Tuto Felo), and have engraved anthropomorphic features (e.g., swords, masks), phallic form, and some of that served as markers of territory.

[29] In 2nd millennium BCE, Namoratunga (Monolith Circles) megaliths were constructed as burials the eastern Turkana region of northwestern Kenya.

[29] Namoratunga, a group of megaliths dated 300 BC, was used by Cushitic-speaking people as an alignment with star systems tuned to a lunar calendar of 354 days.

They are also found in the Liaoning, Shandong, and Zhejiang in China, the East Coast of Taiwan, Kyūshū and Shikoku in Japan, Đồng Nai Province in Vietnam and South Asia.

These megalithic burials date to the early part of the Mumun pottery period (c. 1500–850 BC) and are distributed, with a few exceptions, north of the Han River.

The interment area of southern megaliths has an underground burial chamber made of earth or lined with thin stone slabs.

[41][42] Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi houses ancient megalith relics such as ancestral stone statues, mostly located in the Bada, Besoa and Napu valleys.

[49][50] At a number of sites in southeastern Turkey, ceremonial complexes with large T-shaped megalithic orthostats, dating from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN, c. 9600–7000 cal BC), have been discovered.

[53] Many of the standing stones are richly ornamented with carved reliefs of "[b]ears, boars, snakes, foxes, wildcats, aurochs, gazelle, quadruped reptiles, birds, spiders, insects, quadrupeds, scorpions" and other animals; in addition, some of the stones are carved in low profile with stylized human features (arms, hands, loincloths, but no heads).

[60] Dolmens and standing stones have been found in large areas in other parts of West Asia starting at the Turkish border in the north of Syria close to Aleppo, southwards down to Yemen.

This phenomenon can also be traced through many passages from the Old Testament, such as those related to Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, who poured oil over a stone that he erected after his famous dream in which angels climbed to heaven (Genesis 28:10–22).

Megalithic building then shifted to constructing networks of artificial islands on the coast that supported a multitude of common, royal and religious structures.

Megaliths were used for a variety of purposes ranging from serving as boundary markers of territory, being reminder of past events, to being part of the society's religion.

The archaeologist Euan Mackie wrote, "Likewise it cannot be doubted that important regional cultures existed in the Neolithic period and can be defined by different kinds of stone circles and local pottery styles (Ruggles & Barclay 2000: figure 1).

In some contemporary megalith building cultures, such as in Sumba, Indonesia, great emphasis is placed on the social status of moving heavy stones without the relief of rollers.

It can be months or years before the stones are actually transported to the gravesite, which is done traditionally by hand, using a wooden sled and rollers with the help of many members of the family's clan.

Once on site, the stones were traditionally assembled and mortared with a mix of water buffalo dung and ash, but are now more commonly cemented together.