(The Menga Dolmen in Spain is Colossal! No Neolithic humn tribe could have built in their dreams let along in reality.)
The general public is dimly aware of the fact that there are very ancient megalithic sites built before the Great Pyramid. However, only Stonehenge comes to mind instantly and most people would be hard pressed to name another. At this point in time megaliths are largely a forgotten part of ancient history shrouded behind a strange yet alluring mist.
Stonehenge has long been a major tourist attraction in Great Britain and also the subconscious icon of the Age of Megaliths. Only the very curious and those with an abiding interest in ancient history know that there are many thousands across northern and southern Europe. Few however among those folks even realize they span the globe and their numbers range between 75,000-100,000 sites worldwide.
These large, heavy stone monuments stand in mute testimony to an epoch that seems to lie just beyond our reach, defying our every attempt to understand them. I use the term megaliths as if I can assume we know the actual definition of those terms. In reality, I should start this discussion at the most basic level. We need to begin by defining what the term megalith means.
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary a megalith is simply “a very large usually rough stone used in prehistoric cultures as a monument or building block.”
Here we can exclude the quarried, cut-stone blocks used in Egypt, Peru and Mexico to build pyramids, walls, temples, et al. In fact the term is often misapplied to these sites and artifacts.
The next things that need defining are the various types of megaliths, and megalithic structures, found around the world. We shall start with the simplest, the standing stones also called menhir. These, as the name implies, are just single stones with a portion sunk underground for support; while most of the stone extends above ground looking like a crude, unfinished obelisk. (Below insert, left image)
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(Full Blown Size to Get the Full Reality)
They can range in size from 30’ feet tall to a few feet in height as shown above right. Since menhir dot the landscape in many countries of Western Europe, they are more well-known, studied and written about there. However, In fact they can be found around the globe. The image on the right is of a group of standing stones formed into a circle in the Senegal-Gambia region of North Africa.
Menhir often stand alone, but they are also found in rows and forming circles. The large circular site located in Msoura, Morocco is punctuated by a very tall menhir. (1) In Brittany we find the long, dramatic rows of standing stones at Carnac, a very extensive site with many immense megaliths to ponder. (2)
The menhir present us with a very simple, uncomplicated form. We have only a single megalithic stone to analyze unlike the Great Pyramid with its complex architecture and millions of building blocks. However, we soon find we are faced with some extraordinary challenges, even mysteries when considering all that was involved in raising the menhir.
As with the standing stone at shown above with a man standing alongside it for proportion (in the above insert on the left) its sheer size immediately evokes a tough question: how did ancient people drag that to the site then lift and erect it in place in the upright, vertical position? (Hint, they never did it)
We shall tackle that problem shortly. However, at this point we need to continue our survey of the different types of megalithic structures found worldwide.
The next megalith is the dolmen.
These are also fairly simple structures as well, architecturally speaking. Again, referring to the definition in the Merriam Webster dictionary, a dolmen is “a prehistoric monument of two or more upright stones supporting a horizontal stone slab.”
In fact while many people, especially Europeans, who are aware of dolmen associate these megaliths with Western Europe, the majority of this type of megalith are located in South Korea. However, the most unusual and most sophisticated are found in the western Caucasus Mountains of Russia.
Many of these have perfectly circular holes drilled out of the portal (front, vertical slab) and designs carved in relief. We shall examine these in a later chapter.
Dolmen present a more complicated and varied architecture to analyze yet are still fairly rudimentary structures. However, they too pose many challenges. For example, how were the often massive stone slabs lifted on top of the legs? This is a serious problem at sites like Menga in Andalucia, Spain. Here we find an enormous megalith weighing 200 tons that was somehow lifted on top of the supports, which are also massive.
That kind of load is considered very heavy even given our modern equipment today. We have mobile cranes that can lift that much but haven’t had them for all that many years. To claim that prehistoric people could achieve -- what it has taken thousands of years of technological development to achieve-- is therefore an extraordinary claim.
We are going to approach the assertions of modern academics (historians and archaeologists) with that attitude. It was astronomer Carl Sagan who once said, “Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence.” Indeed, he was correct even though academia continually applies it to alternative historians, like myself; we shall soon see that they are going to have to chew on those words themselves.
Though early in my presentation of the Age of Megaliths, I feel compelled to dispel one obvious myth that our academics have spun at this point.
That is the notion that the megaliths are naught but ancient tombs or are always associated with tombs or burial sites. This is simply and patently untrue. Menhir are not tombs, which is very obvious. When we examine the diversity of dolmen found globally it is plain that many were not used as tombs or burial sites either.
That is clear because they have two or three legs spaced apart, which means they were always open to the elements and exposed to carrion animals. Tombs are normally enclosed to prevent any such depredation.
Dolmen in South Korea, called a tomb, clearly a misnomer.
That point aside for now, we turn to on the issue of how they were built -- and whether or not prehistoric tribes had the capability of building them – a very separate issue. In fact, the issue of purpose is a moot point; speculation at best since we have no written records from which we can confirm one or another theory.
Now, there is one more megalithic structure that we are going to add and that is the trilithon, found at Stonehenge for example. A trilithon is simply two horizontal supports, rather tall, on top of which a cross member is placed. We find these in various locations including on the Pacific island of Tonga. It is essentially a dolmen with a different configuration.
Both of the aforementioned trilithons are comprised of quite large megaliths. The building blocks at Stonehenge range from 10 to 60 tons. The fact they were quarried many miles distant and allegedly dragged across hilly terrain, which is another serious problem we shall grapple with shortly.
The Tonga trilithon blocks are in the range of 8 to 30 tons. They were quarried, near the sea, some distance away bringing the transport problem to the fore again. In addition, lifting and dropping that cross member into the slots, represents a major construction challenge that must be taken into account. We shall examine Tonga fully in a later chapter.
In fact, there are many other types of structures that are lumped into the megalithic category. And the terms megalith and megalithic are often used very loosely. I am trying to correct that in this and the following chapter.
To achieve that I am going to confine the discussion to those presented above in the opening chapters of this work.
Given the simple structure of the menhir we shall start examining the age of megaliths by analyzing a very large and formidable example. The Carfantin Champ-Dolent menhir, the first shown above, which is estimated to be 30’ tall and to weigh approximately 100 tons.
We are told that Neolithic people found this huge stone, some distance away, and moved it the site where it still stands today many thousands of years later.
Located in Brittany very near the north coast, this menhir has been registered as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1889. This huge standing stone is located 2 kilometers south of Dol-de-Bretagne in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine. A small picnic area has been provided for visitors, and the monolith sits among the fields, near the D795 road. There is a picnic area for those of you serious enough to inspect it in person and enjoy your visit while doing so.
The menhir has an oval in shape, a fact we shall soon see makes the challenge of moving it more problematic. Now, we have another issue to deal with off the top, or rather the bottom as it were. Clearly, those who erected it first excavated and dug a hole, deep enough to support its massive weight and height. However, just how deep we do not know.
As the case may be, we have to add some feet to its length to account for that fact. That issue taken into consideration, our initial problem is simple logistics, getting the megalith to the site in order to erect it. A 100-ton load is very formidable. We only have a Neolithic team to do the job. That means we can only allot them ropes, perhaps logs for rollers, wooden levers, and their brute strength to lift and transport it.
I insert here a modern piece of machinery capable of handling such a load. These days a truck rated to a 100-ton capacity is considered an earthmover. The Caterpillar 777 was introduced in 1974 and it was rated to haul up to 100 tons. The 777 has a diesel engine that is capable of putting out 870 horsepower (650 kW).
Why do I include this fact?
Researchers, writers and academics addressing the topic never seem to bring in the underlying historical realities as if they did not exist or matter. The truth is they do matter -- and how long it took civilization to develop machinery that could lift very heavy loads -- has to be a major part of the ongoing discussion of megaliths.
That seems a rather obvious yardstick that gives us a current, real-world perspective. In fact, it makes it so obvious that no Neolithic people lifted and moved a 100-ton standing stone, let alone the 250-ton blocks that are part of the Menga Dolmen...there is no point in continuing this analysis.
A complete moron can see the obvious truth...
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