Megalithic period. Megalithic cultures

Megalithic temples of Malta Malta is famous throughout the world for the fact that the most ancient man-made buildings on Earth are located here. These are megalithic temples. Before every visitor leaving the building of the international airport in Malta, there appears a rather

§ 35. Ceremonial centers and megalithic structures

§ 35. Ceremonial centers and megalithic structures Some megalithic complexes, such as, for example, at Karnak or Ashdown, in Berkshire (800 megaliths on an area of ​​​​250 and 500 m, the arrangement of which resembles a parallelogram), were undoubtedly important

One of the features of the Neolithic is that the people of that time, living in adobe-wattle and wattle houses, dugouts or even caves, created giant monuments and mausoleums for the dead, colossal architectural structures.

Megaliths (from the Greek “megas” - large and “lithos” - stone, i.e. large stones), structures made of large blocks of roughly processed stone. These include dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs, stone boxes, and covered galleries. Megaliths are distributed throughout the world except Australia, mainly in coastal areas. The purpose of megaliths cannot always be determined. For the most part they served for burials or were associated with the funeral cult. The mechanism of their construction has not yet been studied; for primitive technology, their construction was a very difficult task and required the unification of large masses of people.

Huge stone buildings erected by primitive man are found in Syria, Palestine, North Africa, Spain, southern Scandinavia Denmark, on the coast of France and England, Iran, India, and Southeast Asia. We find them in the Caucasus, Crimea, and Siberia. Megaliths are diverse. Some of them are individual vertical stone pillars, long and narrow, sometimes roughly processed. These are menhirs. The largest menhir is located in Lochmarian in Brittany. It is truly enormous - about 21 m long, weighing close to 300 tons. Menhirs, as a rule, are associated with necropolises; they apparently played a large role in the cult of the dead.

Menhirs are found not only in the form of individual monuments, sometimes they are collected in groups. The most famous row of stones is at Carnac in Brittany. It stretches for 3900 m and consists of 2813 menhirs.

Some megaliths form circular stone fences, on top of which lie huge slabs (cromlechs). Another group of megaliths are burial houses made of stone slabs with a flat roof (dolmens). According to their purpose, dolmens were monumental tombs of the prehistoric era. They usually contain several burials.

Stonehenge, one of the largest megalithic structures, is located on a spacious plain in the outskirts of Salisbury, three kilometers west of Amesbury.

Stonehenge is so ancient that its history was forgotten already in ancient times. Neither Greek nor Roman authors write anything about him. Probably, the Romans were not impressed by these stones at all, because they saw the ancient Egyptian pyramids, and they themselves built majestic temples. Today it is no longer possible to establish who was the first biographer of Stonehenge. By the 12th century, all information about its origin had disappeared into myth.

Fig No. 1. Stonehenge

The meaning and purpose of Stonehenge remains a mystery to this day. Many hypotheses have been put forward on this score, from the most primitive to the completely incredible, to support which a variety of, often unimaginably abstruse, arguments were used.

Inigo Jones, an English architect of the 17th century, compared this structure with examples of ancient architecture and argued that it was a Roman temple. And these days, the idea has been expressed more than once that aliens had a hand in these stones, who once created a landing pad here for their earthly expeditions.

English scientists Hawkens and White proved that Stonehenge can be used as an astronomical observatory, which makes it possible to determine with amazing accuracy the azimuths of all the most important positions of the Sun and Moon and predict the dates of eclipses. The arrangement of stones made it possible in the distant past to predict the ebb and flow of tides, and the location of individual elements of the complex corresponded to the rising and setting points of the ten main stars 12 thousand years ago. Finally, all the proportions of Stonehenge fit into the ratio of the numbers 9, 11 and 60, two of which are already known from the phenomenon of Indian “flying” stones... What does the number 60 add? It turns out that it makes it possible to obtain two series of numbers that reflect the distribution of planets in the solar system! And, if you believe the complex, there should be more of them than is known to modern science: not 10, but 12. One is at a distance of 50 astronomical units from the Sun with a diameter of 1800 km, the second is about 60 with a diameter of 1700 km.

The original meaning and purpose of Stonehenge remains the subject of fierce debate to this day. There is something inexplicable and attractive about the whole atmosphere of Stonehenge. The likelihood of ever unraveling the mystery is negligible, but for those who are once and for all enchanted by the beauty of this historical monument and the amazing atmosphere of the surrounding landscape, this no longer matters.

Who built the megaliths? The ancient manuscript "Book of Conquests" mentions three waves of early newcomers - the Fomorians, the sons of Portolan and the Nemedians. The first were “gloomy sea giants”, and they also built towers. Maybe they are? The Fomorians acquired their building skills in Africa. Two other peoples came from Europe and brought with them the art of politics." After them, the "fir bolg" people appeared - hardworking, skilled farmers. "Fir bolg" translates as "leather bags" - they sailed to Ireland on them. also the Tuatha de Danani, the Milesians, the Dravidians from India... This is all that could be extracted from the ancient legends that survived despite the attempts of the Romans to impose their ideas about the past on the local tribes.

In the past of Stonehenge, several stages of construction are clearly distinguishable, some separated from each other by a distance of more than one millennium. At the earliest stage, which dates back to about 3100 BC, a ditch and an internal rampart arose in the shape of a circle with a diameter of 97.5 m. Outside this circle was the so-called Heel Stone.

“Friar's Heelstone” - “the heel of a running monk”, and inside there are holes located in a circle at an equal distance from each other with traces of corpse burning. Later, in the space inside the ditch, the so-called blue stones (hewn blocks of greenish dolerite) were installed in two concentric circles -blue tint). But then they were rearranged again, and around 1800 BC Stonehenge acquired the appearance familiar to us today: a majestic stone ring arose, formed by huge hewn blocks of gray sandstone up to 8.5 m high, covered with slabs on top made of stone. Inside this ring there was another horseshoe-shaped structure, made up of larger blocks, grouped in pairs and covered with a third - the so-called trilithons. It seems that the blue stones during the existence of Stonehenge were more than once rearranged by different generations of builders from place to place. Now some of them form, as it were, a small independent horseshoe inside a large horseshoe of gray sandstone blocks, while others are located in a circle inside a large stone ring.

A legitimate question arises: how did our prehistoric ancestors manage to drag heavy boulders over such a huge distance, and, in fact, why? There are a great many answers. Or rather, not even answers, but rather assumptions.

According to an ancient Celtic legend, Stonehenge was created by the wizard Merlin. It was he, the great magician, who personally transported bulky blocks of stone from Ireland and the extreme south of England to the town of Stonehenge, north of the town of Salisbury, in the county of Wiltshire, and erected there a sanctuary that has survived centuries - the most famous in the British Isles, and throughout the world , megalith.

Stonehenge, let us remind you, is a double circular fence made of large stones installed vertically. Archaeologists call this fence a cromlech. And it was built, in their opinion, between the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC - in five long stages.

Back in 1136, the English chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth testified that “these stones were brought from afar.” You and I, relying on the data of modern geology, can completely agree with him on one thing: part of the blocks for the construction of the megalith were indeed somehow delivered from the west, but not from the quarries closest to Stonehenge. In addition, 80 tons of menhirs, or processed stone blocks, which were then installed in a vertical position, were brought from the southern regions of Wales, located in the western part of England (in particular, from Pembrokeshire). And this was already at the second stage of construction, that is, in the second half of the 3rd millennium. From the Prezelian quarries, in southwest Wales, the so-called blue stones were transported to Stonehenge by water - at least, this is what the famous English archaeologist, Professor Richard Atkinson suggests. And more precisely - along the sea and rivers into the interior of the country. And finally - the final section of the route, which several centuries later, in 1265, received a name that has survived to this day, albeit with a slightly different meaning: “avenue”. And here it’s really time to admire the strength and long-suffering of the ancients.

The skill of the stonemasons is no less admirable. After all, most of the roofing slabs of the famous dolmen, as megalithic structures such as Stonehenge are also called, weigh several tons, and the weight of many supports is about several centners. But it was still necessary to find suitable blocks, transport them to the site of future construction and install them in a strictly defined order. In short, the construction of Stonehenge, in modern terms, was tantamount to a feat of labor.

During the construction of Stonehenge, two types of stones were used: strong boulders - the so-called aeolian pillars - from Avebury sandstone, from which trilithes were made - the same dolmens, or vertical stone blocks with transverse stone slabs on top, forming the outer circle of the entire structure; and softer dolerites that are part of ore and coal beds. Dolerite is a basalt-like igneous rock with a bluish-gray hue. Hence its other name - blue stone. Two-meter-high dolerites form the inner circle of the megalithic structure. Although the blue stones of Stonehenge are not very high, archaeologists believe that they contain the secret meaning of the entire structure.

The first thing that archaeologists unanimously agreed on was the geological origin of dolerites: their homeland is the Preselian Mountains. But as to why the ancient ancestors of the Celts needed to move dolerite boulders, scientists have differing opinions. The main controversy was caused by this question: did people from the New Stone Age actually drag the blocks with their own hands to the site of the megalith construction, or did the stones mix on their own - as the glaciers shifted in the Quaternary period, that is, long before the appearance of man? The controversy was only recently put to an end. At an international conference, glaciologists announced the results of their many years of research, which boiled down to the fact that there had never been any major glacial movements in the Stonehenge area.

So archaeologists could already conduct excavations in full confidence that the movement of megalithic blocks was a consequence of enormous human activity. But many other questions related to “how” and “why” have not yet been answered.

From the Prezelian Mountains to Stonehenge in a straight line - two hundred and twenty kilometers. But, as you know, the direct path is not always the shortest. So in our case: taking into account the exorbitant weight of the “cargo,” we had to choose not the shortest, but the most convenient path.

In addition, it was necessary to build appropriate vehicles. It is known that in the new Stone Age people knew how to hollow out canoes from tree trunks; they were the main means of transport. Indeed, recently archaeologists discovered the remains of an ancient trimaran, which consisted of three seven-meter-long dugout canoes, fastened with crossbars. Such a trimaran could easily be controlled by six people using poles. As for the four-ton stone blocks, the same six oarsmen were able to load them onto the trimaran using levers. The sea route along the gentle coast of Wales was the most convenient, and there were plenty of secluded bays in case of bad weather.

However, part of the journey had to be covered overland. And here hundreds of pairs of hands were required. The first step was to transfer the “load” onto a sled and pull it along tree trunks cleared of branches, laid across the path, like rollers. Each block was dragged by at least two dozen people.

And one more important detail: in order to avoid autumn and spring storms, the stones were transported from the beginning of May to the end of August. This required not only a huge number of workers, but also skill, since the only tools in those distant times were wooden poles, stone axes and levers, not counting wooden rollers and canoes. In addition, belts - leather, linen or hemp - served as an indispensable aid. The wheel was not yet known. People also have not yet learned to tame horses. This means that there were no carts - they appeared much later, in the Bronze Age. Meanwhile, people of the New Stone Age already widely used bulls as draft power. And the people themselves were united into a well-organized community.

The people who went to mine stone were certainly guided by some great impulse: the stone miners knew that if they returned not empty-handed, then honor and glory awaited them, since they too were making their contribution to the construction of the sanctuary. And this, in turn, meant that they were fulfilling a sacred mission. For young men, for example, such a trip was a kind of test preceding their initiation into men.

It is not difficult to guess that the path of the stone miners was long and difficult. And it was no coincidence that some of them died along the way. The waterway was especially dangerous - mainly due to storms, headwinds and currents. Moreover, the canoes moved forward very slowly: after all, they were controlled, as we remember, with the help of poles or primitive rows. However, the land route also required enormous effort. This is understandable: moving multi-ton blocks of stone on land is much more difficult than on water.

In the fall, the blue stones were finally delivered along the river to a place located three kilometers from Stonehenge, and the stone miners returned home. And the “cargo” remained on the shore until the next summer: the stones were installed invariably on the day of the summer solstice. It was then, in fact, that the long “sacred path” ended.

On the day of the ceremony, before sunrise, the last stage was completed: a solemn procession headed towards Stonehenge along a special threshold - the “Avenue”. This road, fourteen meters wide, was bordered on both sides by ditches and embankments. It stretched upward in an arc, making it easier to climb the sacred hill, and led strictly to the east - to where the sun rises.

Some stones at Stonehenge form straight rows pointing towards the rising and setting of the sun and moon. This was probably of vital importance for the ancients: they had to know exactly the days when they should worship the spirits of their departed ancestors.

As we already know, dolerites transported to Stonehenge were used in the construction of the first fence - it was erected around 2500 BC. By that time, Stonehenge was already considered an ancient monument. Five centuries earlier, the sanctuary was surrounded by a moat, fencing it on the outside with an earthen rampart about a hundred meters wide.

During the third phase of construction - around 2000 BC. - Huge trilithons were installed at Stonehenge. At the same time, 30-ton aeolian pillars were delivered to the construction site - they had to be dragged thirty kilometers from Stonehenge.

The most ambitious stage of construction began with the delivery of blue menhirs. By that time, the dolerite belt, never completed, had been destroyed, probably to make way for a much more magnificent structure, the construction of which required much more effort.

So, in just four hundred years, the blue stones disappeared completely. However, around 2000 BC. they ended up in the same place. And today it is precisely by these that we can judge what Stonehenge was like in its original form.

However, not all archaeologists believe that dolerites, as a building material, disappeared for four hundred years. Their traces were found in other monumental structures of the time: for example, on Mount Silbury, the highest artificial hill of the New Stone Age, rising 40 kilometers north of Stonehenge. At its top, a fragment of dolerite was discovered, which, apparently, was once part of a cromlech.

Although we do not have complete knowledge of that distant era, we nevertheless have every reason to assume that the cromlechs are, among other things, cultural monuments of the Left Stone Age, when man had just begun to engage in productive activities. It was during that period that man had his first experience in agriculture and animal husbandry. At the same time, people began to get used to a sedentary lifestyle and build settlements.

So, whatever the true reasons that prompted the Stone Age people to build the Stonehenge cromlech, in our minds it will forever remain the most remarkable megalithic monument.

The design principles by which Stonehenge was created cannot be called either primitive or random, for the arrangement of the stones clearly reveals an understanding of the laws of perspective. From any angle, in any lighting, these stone pillars stand out clearly against the sky. In this regard, the idea has been repeatedly expressed that the builders of Stonehenge had extraordinary knowledge of mathematics

Nowadays, Stonehenge turns into an object of mass pilgrimage for tourists at the time of the summer solstice, since the main axis of the entire structure points to the northeast, exactly where the sun rises on the longest days, and this fact seems to strengthen speculation about the mystical significance of the monument.

Megaliths stone buildings made from giant blocks, created without the use of binding mortars. These structures represent one of the greatest mysteries of antiquity, which has not yet been solved.

There are several types of megaliths: dolmens, menhirs and cromlechs. The antiquity of these structures, as well as their scale, involuntarily make one wonder who created these structures and why, what kind of civilization was it? The problem is that the oldest megaliths are more than 7,000 years old, and this is a layer of history that is shrouded in fog for science. Ignoring the ancient legends about the Flood led the scientific world to bewilderment, turned a blind eye to obvious facts and led to numerous contradictions in historical science. However, many scientists are aware of this and publicly speak about the need to revise the history of mankind.

Megalithic temples

It is believed that most megaliths are megalithic temples and religious buildings. The most famous megaliths are, of course, associated with Stonehenge and Karnak. Some structures look primitive, while others are quite sophisticated. It must, however, be borne in mind that these structures can be called temples conditionally, since it has not been proven that they were actually intended for religious purposes. But there is evidence of unusual properties of at least some of the mysterious structures. Thus, the well-known Stonehenge contains stones that at certain times emit a powerful electrical impulse. No one yet knows where the energy for the impulses comes from, but one thing is clear that this is not a simple pile of stones; they are located in a given, precise order. In the mentioned megaliths, researchers have established striking patterns described by rows of stones: starting from the radii of the orbits of solar system bodies, and ending with mathematical functions.

Temples of Malta

There is a place not as famous as Stonehenge, but which has significantly more ancient megaliths in Malta. Malta is known for its resorts, but few people have heard about the ancient temples of Malta. The megalithic temples of Malta, even according to official scientific estimates, were built 5.5-7 thousand years ago.

Giant people

The biggest challenge for science is to explain how megalithic structures were built. After all, construction from stone blocks, the weight of which is tens of tons, and the length of 8 m, is problematic even with modern technology. In the case of Malta, we are dealing with complexes of structures. Obviously, the builders did not experience any serious difficulties on the technological side. They had the means of delivering these blocks, the necessary processing tools, and the necessary skills. Their knowledge, apparently, was qualitatively different from modern ones, since they used energies that modern science can only guess about. And it is no coincidence that serious scientists, even before the discoveries in the Borjomi Gorge, came to the conclusion that people are giants. about which numerous legends speak are not fiction. It is the giants who are the builders of these mysterious buildings, the purpose of which may never be fully understood by us.

Megalithic culture is:

See what megalithic culture is in other dictionaries:

Culture of Los Millares— Vessel from the Los Millares culture with a typical eye-shaped motif. South-eastern Spain, Chalcolithic Los Millares, Los Millares is the name of the archaeological site of the Copper Age, which gave its name to the archaeological culture of the same name. Located in… Wikipedia

Culture of Vila Nova de São Pedro— Not to be confused with Villanova Culture. Cultural map of Vila Nova de São Pedro and surrounding regions ... Wikipedia

Torre culture— Main types of structures in Sardinia and Corsica ... Wikipedia

Thalayot ​​culture— Talayot ​​in Mallorca Talaiot in Son Serra, Mallorca The main entrance to the settlement of Ses Paisses, Mallorca ... Wikipedia

Megalithic culture— Megalithic burial in Brittany Similar burial in Burren, Ireland Megaliths. XV century Inca culture. Science and culture. Architecture and fine arts Architecture. The history of architecture in Latin America is divided into 3 periods: ancient, ... Encyclopedic reference book “Latin America”

Pre-Talaiot culture— Ship-shaped dwelling in Mallorca. Ship-shaped tombs called naveta date back to the same time. Reconstruction of the Balearic goat Myotragus balearicus Late tomb in Mallorca D ... Wikipedia

Asturian culture- originated in Spain after 5000. BC. According to its characteristics, it was epi-Paleolithic, that is, it preserved the remnants of the Paleolithic surrounded by Mesolithic cultures. Dating is based on stratification, except in England, where the megaliths are Neolithic. Megalithic monuments are especially numerous and varied in Brittany. Also, a large number of megaliths are found on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, in Portugal, parts of France, on the west coast of England, in Ireland, Denmark, on the southern coast of Sweden and in Israel. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was widely believed that all megaliths belonged to one global megalithic culture, but modern research and dating methods refute this assumption.

Types of megalithic structures:

menhir - a single vertical stone
cromlech - a group of menhirs forming a circle or semicircle
dolmen - a structure made of a huge stone placed on several other stones
taula - a stone structure in the shape of the letter “T”
trilith - a structure made of a block of stone mounted on two vertical stones
seid - including a stone structure
cairn - a stone mound with one or more rooms
indoor gallery
boat grave
Well, now to the essence of the question:

1. Megaliths are primarily astronomical structures. That is, structures for environmental control purposes. With their help, our ancestors determined the time for agricultural work, livestock breeding cycles, weddings and other rhythms of life in harmony with nature.

2. Megaliths are structures created by the collective labor of free people. This is their main difference from the pyramids and other gigantic and meaningless structures of so-called civilizations.

Most of the megaliths in Russia and Ukraine were discovered by boys. Official science has never looked for megaliths and always shows complete helplessness in studying them. The Euro-centricity of our social sciences and the sacred belief in the progressiveness of slave-owning societies always leads to a dead end when meeting megaliths.

Sources: www.objectiv-x.ru, universal_ru_de.academic.ru, earth-chronicles.ru, iskatel.info, www.liveinternet.ru

On the surface of the globe, with the exception of Australia, there are many mysterious and ancient buildings. Modern research has shown that they were erected in the Neolithic, Eneolithic and Eneolithic periods. Previously, it was believed that they all represented one common culture, but today more and more scientists are questioning this theory.

So, who and why were such megalithic structures created? Why do they have one shape or another and what do they mean? Where can you see these monuments of ancient culture?

Before considering and studying megalithic structures, you need to understand what elements they may consist of. Today it is generally accepted that the smallest unit of construction of this type is a 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 and translated into Russian means “big stone”.

An accurate and comprehensive definition of what megaliths are does not yet exist. Today, this 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 or 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 strong and resistant to destruction rocks: limestone, andesite, basalt, diorite and others.

3. No cement was used during construction - neither in the mortar for fastening, nor for the manufacture of blocks.

4. In most buildings, the surface of the blocks from which they are made is carefully processed, and the blocks themselves are tightly fitted to each other. The accuracy is such that it is impossible to insert a knife blade between two megalithic blocks of volcanic rock.

5. Quite often, later civilizations used the preserved fragments of megalithic buildings as foundations for their own buildings, which is clearly visible in the buildings in Jerusalem.

When were they created?

Most megalithic sites located in Great Britain, Ireland and other Western European countries date back to the 5th-4th millennia BC. e. The most ancient megalithic structures located on the territory of our country date back to the 4th -2nd millennia BC.

The entire variety of megalithic buildings 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 layouts of walls and roads, military 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?

The most common types of megaliths are:

• menhirs - single, vertically installed stelae stones up to 20 meters high;
• cromlech - a union of several menhirs around the largest, forming a semicircle or circle;
• dolmens - the most common type of megaliths in Europe, are one or more large stone slabs laid on other blocks or boulders;
• covered gallery - one of the types of dolmens connected to each other;
• trilith - a stone structure consisting of two or more vertical stones and one laid horizontally on top of them;
• taula - a stone structure in the shape of the Russian letter “T”;
• cairn, also known as “gury” or “tour” - an underground or above-ground structure, laid out in the form of a cone of many stones;
• stone rows are vertically and parallelly installed blocks of stone;
• seid - a stone boulder or block installed by one or another people in a special place, usually on a hill, for holding various mystical ceremonies.

Only the most famous types of megalithic structures are listed here. Let's take a closer look at some of them.

Translated from Breton into Russian it means “stone table”.

As a rule, it consists of three stones, one of which lies on two vertically installed ones in the shape of the letter “P”. When constructing such structures, ancient people did not adhere to any single scheme, so there are many options for dolmens with different 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

Scientists consider trilith to be one of the subspecies of dolmen, consisting of three stones. As a rule, this 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 trilithons.

Another type of megalithic building is the cairn, or tour. This is a cone-shaped mound of stones, although in Ireland this name refers to 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 megalithic structures located underground: labyrinths, galleries and burial chambers.

The oldest and simplest type of megalithic structures are menhirs. These are single, vertically mounted massive boulders or stones. Menhirs differ from ordinary natural stone blocks in their surface with traces of processing and in the fact that their vertical size is always larger than the horizontal. They can be either free-standing or part of complex megalithic complexes.

In the Caucasus, menhirs were shaped like fish and called vishap. 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.

Rune stones and stone crosses created much later are also post-megalithic menhirs.

Cromlech

Several menhirs, installed in the form of a semicircle or circle and covered with stone slabs on top, are called cromlechs. The most famous example is Stonehenge.

However, in addition to round ones, there are also rectangular cromlechs, as, for example, in Morbihan or Khakassia. On the island of Malta, cromlech temple complexes are built in the shape of “petals”. To create such megalithic structures, not only stone, but also wood was used, 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 mounted on small stands. Sometimes the main block is decorated with one or more small stones arranged in a “pyramid”. This type of megalith is widespread from the shores of Lakes Onega and Lake Ladoga to the coast of the Barents Sea, that is, throughout all parts of Russia.

On 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 or massive, including from ten to several hundred megaliths.