Shining a light on some of the most interesting research results on megalithic cultures, as well as their contemporaries, these 16 papers from the European Megalithic Studies Group symposium (Santiago de Compostela, Spain), cover monuments from Germany, moving down the Atlantic Facade across to Ireland and then back to the Western Mediterranean. Issues presented in this volume include temporality and mobility (both at the broad scale and at the local scale), social organisation & settings and external relationships. The methods used to investigate these themes are various: bio-molecular and isotopic analyses, typo-chronology, targeted excavations & radiocarbon dating, material cultural analyses, 3D models, ceremonial & funerary/burial practices (including osteometrics) and large-scale prospection. New methods researching the materiality and symbolism of monuments are also presented; some incorporate the role of the natural world. Alongside them are other contributions focusing on the key characteristic of megalithic monuments the skilful and purposeful arrangement of large blocks of stone and their interpretation. Discoveries include the intriguing return of large & complex ceremonial timber circles in active megalithic areas, presenting a significant contrast to what was considered the main funerary expressions in South Portugal. Ultimately, through the application of new, or differently applied, technologies and ways of thinking, this volume offers a series of studies that remove some of the mystery that surrounds these mementos of another time.
List of Figures and Tables
List of Editors and Main Affiliations
List of Symposium Speakers
List of Volume Contributors (Alphabetical)
List of
Chapter Reviewers
Contributor Biographies
Preface
Chapter 1: Time, mobility and society: new approaches to megalithic
monumentality in western and northern Europe Chris Scarre
Chapter 2: Towards a high-resolution chronology of major megalithic
monuments: Menga and Montelirio (Andalusia, Spain) Leonardo García Sanjuán,
Marta Díaz-Guardamino and Francisco José Sánchez-Díaz
Chapter 3: Dissolving and contrasting. The secondary deposition of human
cremains at Perdigões enclosure (3rd millennium BC, South Portugal) Antonio
Valera, Lucy Shaw Evangelista and Ricardo Godinho
Chapter 4: Para-megalithism: alternative routes to understanding big stones
Jessica Smyth
Chapter 5: Funnel Beaker Culture megaliths in northern Germany. A comparison
of architectural elements between three regions Anja Behrens
Chapter 6: Sardinian megalithic and rock-cut tombs in the context of the
prehistoric western Mediterranean Maria Grazia Melis
Chapter 7: Megaliths: the singularity of each element. Appropriation of
distinct entities versus geometric constructions Luc Laporte
Chapter 8: Current Research on Westphalian Megaliths Kerstin Schierhold
Chapter 9: Preserved and demolished megaliths from the Danish Funnel Beaker
Culture Niels H. Andersen
Chapter 10: Linking megaliths. A computational approach to the study of
movement and mobility in the megalithic complex of Galicia (Northwest of the
Iberian Peninsula) Miguel Carrero-Pazos and Devin A. White
Chapter 11: Multi-method geophysical survey in megalithic landscapes: case
studies from Ireland and Sweden Stephen Davis, Tony Axelsson, Knut Rassmann
and Karl-Göran Sjögren
Chapter 12: Geoglyphs, petroglyphs, and megaliths Richard Bradley
Chapter 13: Building Space. A structural model of space in megalithic
landscapes Felipe Criado-Boado and Jadranka Verdonkschot
Chapter 14: Fathoming megaliths: social proxies and indictors for the study
of the dolmens Gail Higginbottom
Chapter 15: A reappraisal of megalithic orientations from Iberia and beyond:
towards models of interpretation A. César González-García
Chapter 16: Monuments of the dynasties monuments of the people? Megaliths
in Europe Johannes Müller
Gail Higginbottom has a PhD (Arts, Adelaide) and is a postdoctoral researcher (XSCAPE Material Minds 2024) at the Institute of Heritage Sciences (INCIPIT-CSIC, Santiago de Compostela).
Jadranka Verdonkschot has a PhD in Archaeology from the Universities of Amsterdam and Alcalá de Henares and is a postdoctoral researcher for XSCAPE Material Minds at the Institute of Heritage Sciences (INCIPIT-CSIC, Santiago de Compostela).
Chris Scarre has a PhD from the University of Cambridge and is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at Durham University.
A. César González-García has a PhD in Astronomy from the RijkUniversiteit Groningen and is a staff researcher at the Institute of Heritage Sciences (INCIPIT-CSIC, Santiago de Compostela).
Felipe Criado-Boado, Professor of Research, Institute of Heritage Sciences (INCIPIT-CSIC, Santiago de Compostela). He is Honorary Research Associate of McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and Research Professor at the CSIC.
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