REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH
The burial monumentality associated with the Neolithic is very much a global phenomenon. This desire to bury the dead in an artificial cave covered with an earthen or cairn mound occurs over at least six millennia. Indeed, there are even places around the world where such burial traditions still exist today, using construction methods identical to those applied during the emergence of the Neolithic.
Megaliths are usually classified into two types: burial monuments and landscape monuments. Both monument types tend to use locally available stone as the main building material, although of course there are exceptions to this. Architecturally, most megalithic structures comprise five main elements: mound, entrance, passage, chamber, and the landscape in which they stand. As Megaliths of the World shows, monuments come in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes occupy diverse landscape locations. By far, the largest and most diverse group occupy what is known as the Atlantic façade – from the core areas of the Iberian Peninsula to western and southern France, Brittany, Ireland, the British mainland, and north-western Europe.
Megaliths of the World, published as a mammoth two-volume set and organised into 72 chapters, draws together a large number of researchers from around the world, who report mainly on the fieldwork undertaken in and around megalithic monuments. In many respects, these results reflect the current thinking on non-intrusive and intrusive methods and the results they yield.
Excavating Lincolnshire