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The myth of long-distance megalith transport

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

R. S. Thorpe  and
O. Williams-Thorpe
R. S. Thorpe
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
O. Williams-Thorpe
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
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Extract

The megalithic monuments of western Europe have long been a celebrated proof of the engineering achievements possible in an early farming society. With the engineering skills to raise up the stones went the capability to move them to the site, with Stonehenge the best-known example of an apparent long-distance transport, incorporating Welsh bluestones and sarsens that perhaps originate in the Avebury region to the north. Following their recent challenge to the belief that the builders of Stonehenge did carry its bluestones from west Wales, the authors look critically at the larger pattern of megalithic manoeuvring.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 65 , Issue 246 , March 1991 , pp. 64 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1991

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