Ritual landscape

The term emerged in the early 1980s in British archaeology and was contrasted with more conventional studies of monument sites concerned with dating, classification, and political divisions.

[1][2] In Britain, many ritual landscapes were gradually built around the two earliest classes of Neolithic communal monuments: long barrows and causewayed enclosures.

[3] For instance, the Avebury ritual site featured a giant, flat-topped barrow called Silbury Hill, which is considered the largest artificial mound in prehistoric Europe.

This is demonstrated in the case of Tibet, the verticality of the environment dominated the constructions of the ritual landscape and features therein such as structures and tombs, which were built to resemble the mountains.

[6] In Britain and Ireland, ritual landscapes went out of use relatively abruptly around 1500 BC and were replaced by smaller-scale shrines, which were often located near rivers, marshes, and springs.