Megalith

From the Greek megas 'large' and lithos 'stone', the term for a large stone and also for structures or arrangements of large stones (menhirs, stone circles, and alignments). The term is especially used for the monuments of northern and western Europe from the Mesolithic period, such as Stonehenge and Carnac in France of the late Neolithic culture of western Europe. Such a stone was sometimes free-standing, sometimes part of a structure. The term could also refer to a large tomb which used megaliths to create passages and chambers in which burials of one or more people could be placed, such as the passage graves of Brittany. Some authorities have used the term in a still wider sense to cover monuments built of Cyclopean masonry such as the Maltese Temples, the Nuraghi of Sardinia and the Navetas of Minorca. Various types of megalithic monuments have also been found in parts of Asia, Oceania, and Africa. The migration theories based on megalithic monuments are now discounted. It is now accepted that the practice of erecting these monuments arose independently in different times and places and for different reasons.

Meaning literally large stone (from the Greek megas, ‘large’, and lithos, ‘stone’), the term megalith is generally applied to monuments made of large stone slabs including chamber tombs, menhirs, It is CUStOmary to include also in a general category of megaliths monuments of similar type built not with large stone slabs, but with drystone walling and corbelled vaults, such as the passage graves of Brittany and other areas. Some authorities have used the term in a still wider sense to cover monuments built of Cyclopean masonry such as the Maltese Temples, the nuraghi of Sardinia and the navetas of Minorca. It has even been used on occasion to cover monuments not built of stones at all, such as rock-cut tombs; these were included because they were thought to be closely associated with megalithic tombs, as part of a ‘megalithic complex’.