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 built in the Neolithic, Eneolithic and Bronze Age. Previously it was believed that they all represent 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 this or that form and what do they mean? Where can you 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 constructions of this type of megalith. This term was officially introduced into scientific terminology in 1867, at the suggestion of the English specialist A. Herbert. The word "megalith" is Greek, translated into Russian means "big stone".
There is no exact and exhaustive definition of what megaliths are yet. Today under thisthe concept refers to ancient structures made of stone blocks, slabs or simple blocks of various sizes without the use of any cementing or binding compounds and solutions. The simplest type of megalithic structures, consisting of just one block, are menhirs.
Main features of megalithic structures
In different eras, different peoples erected huge structures from large stones, blocks and slabs. The temple in Baalbek 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. All of them are made of stones, blocks and slabs of gigantic size, the weight of which can range from several tens of kilograms to hundreds of tons.
2. Ancient megalithic structures were built from rocks that were strong and resistant to destruction: limestone, andesite, bas alt, diorite and others.
3. No cement was used in the construction, neither in mortar nor for making 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 rocks.
5. Quite often preservedlater civilizations used fragments of megalithic structures as the foundation for their own buildings, which is clearly seen in the buildings on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
When were they created?
Most of the megalithic objects located in Great Britain, Ireland and other countries of Western Europe date back to the 5th-4th millennium BC. e. The most ancient megalithic structures located on the territory of our country belong to the IV-II millennia BC.
Types of megalithic structures
The whole variety of megalithic structures can be conditionally divided into two large groups:
- funeral;
- non-funeral:
- profane;
- sacred.
If everything is more or less clear with funerary megaliths, then scientists are making hypotheses about the purpose of profane structures, such as various giant wall and road layouts, combat 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 are single, vertically installed stele stones up to 20 meters high;
- cromlech - the union of several menhirs around the largest one, forming a semicircle or circle;
- dolmens - the most common type of megaliths in Europe, representone or more large stone slabs laid on top of other blocks or boulders;
- covered gallery - one of the varieties of dolmens interconnected;
- trilith - a stone structure consisting of two or more vertical and one, laid on top of them horizontally, stones;
- taula - a stone structure in the form of the Russian letter "T";
- cairn, also known as "gurii" or "tur" - an underground or ground structure, laid out in the form of a cone of many stones;
- stone rows are vertically and parallel 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's take a closer look at some of them.
Dolmen
Translated from Breton into Russian 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". During the construction of such structures, ancient people did not adhere to any single scheme, therefore there are many options for dolmens that carry various 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. howAs a rule, such a term is applied not 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 triliths.
Cairn
Another kind of megalithic buildings is the cairn, or tour. This is a cone-shaped mound of stones, although in Ireland this name means a structure of only five stones. They can be located both on the surface of the earth and under it. In scientific circles, a cairn most often means underground megalithic structures: labyrinths, galleries and burial chambers.
Mengirs
The oldest and simplest type of megalithic structures - menhirs. These are single, vertically massive boulders or stones. Menhirs differ from ordinary, natural stone blocks by their surface with traces of processing and by the fact that their vertical size is always larger than the horizontal one. They can either stand alone or be part of complex megalithic complexes.
In the Caucasus, menhirs were shaped like fish and called vishap. On the Iberian Peninsula, on the territory of modern France, in the Crimea and the Black Sea region, quite a lot of anthropomorphic Magalites - stone women have been preserved.
Post-megalithic menhirs are also runic stones and stone crosses created much later.
Cromlech
Several menhirs set in a semicircle orcircles and covered with stone slabs on top are called cromlechs. The most famous example is Stonehenge.
However, in addition to round ones, there are cromlechs and rectangular ones, as, for example, in Morbihan or Khakassia. On the island of M alta, the cromlech temple complexes are built in the form of "petals". To create such megalithic structures, not only stone was used, but also wood, which was confirmed by finds obtained during archaeological work in the English county of Norfolk.
Flying Stones of Lapland
The most common megalithic structures in Russia, strange as it may sound, are seids - huge boulders set on small stands. Sometimes the main block is decorated with one or more small stones, folded into a "pyramid". This type of megalith 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 tens of kilograms to several tons, depending on the rock from which they were made. In addition to the Russian North, quite a lot of megaliths of this type are found in the taiga regions of Finland, northern and central Norway, and the mountains of Sweden.
Seids can be single, group and massive, including from a dozen to several hundred megaliths.
