After farming spread across Europe, Neolithic people began to raise enormous stones. Megalith means "great stone" in Greek. They built circles, rows and tombs. At Newgrange in Ireland, about 3200 BC, a passage tomb lines up so that sunlight at dawn on the winter solstice shines down its long passage into the chamber.
The most famous megalithic monument is Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in England. It was built in stages, from a circular ditch and bank about 3000 BC to the great stones about 2500 BC, with changes until about 1500 BC.
Key idea
Why it works
Looking closely: Stonehenge. Upright stones stand in a ring, some still capped by flat stones laid across their tops. Inside stand five giant pairs, each with its own top stone: trilithons, "three stones." The builders treated stone like timber. They shaped knobs (tenons) on the uprights to fit hollows (mortises) under the lintels, and fitted the lintels end to end with tongue-and-groove joints, the way a carpenter joins wood. The lintels are even shaped to follow the curve of the circle.
Worked example: Who built it?
- The great stones went up about 2500 BC.
- Druids were priests of the Iron Age Celts, first described in Greek and Roman writings many centuries later.
- So Stonehenge stood for well over a thousand years before there were Druids.
Answer: The Druids did not build it; it is far older than they are.
Common mistake
Why was it built? The main ideas are a ceremonial site, a burial place (cremated remains were buried there) and a marker of the solstices. These are not exclusive, and scholars still debate the balance.