The Megalithic Phenomenon

Some authors though that the megalithic phenomenon had started in Portugal before it went to the other mediterranean countries and to the north of Europe, however, recente studies have shown that this phenomenon arose spontaneously in various regions of the globe. These megalithic monuments go all the way from south Sweden, to Corsica and Sardinia, going to the Brithish islands and Irland, back again to Denmark, France, Spain and Portugal, but there are also monuments like these, found along the African coasts, Asia and America. In Europe there are more or less 50.000 dolmens and menhirs, that have escaped to the destruction by the hand of man, either to make walls for houses or walls to enclose the fields for agriculture of each farmer and ruined by pillaging and looting, but the biggest threa of all, was bu christian hands, trying to clean these ancient pagan sites which were still in use by many cultures of Europe, even after thousands of years. We know for a fact that the number of megaliths in the christianized countries was twice that which is today.

The megalithic extension goes from Dhaka in the Asian continent, where we can find a big concentration of these monuments, more or less 2.200 dolmens, also in Pendjab, oriental Pakistan and Ceylon, in Africa, na extension covering the Maghreb region and the northern parts of Algeria and Tunisia and to the south, Ethiopia, and of course coming to Europe.

These monuments are surprising by their greatness and the perfection of its execution, despite the great difficulties of building these megalithic complexes in an era so remote with few or almost nonexistent construction utensils.

It seems strange to declare that this megalithic phenomenon spread to other countries by sea, however, it is true that we can see those in America, or in islands of the Iberian Peninsula, and the most famous of all islands, Great Britain, so there is this speculation, of navigators going into the oceans, spreading these monuments, but who were they? where did they come from? and what kind of scientific and technical knowledge they had to do such a thing and to lift those gigantic monuments? There is still much speculation about these questions and most of it remains a mystery, however, there is a very good and plausible explanation for how they went to continentes and islands only reached by sea. For example, Great Britain was once part of the European land mass, attached to the Iberian Peninsula, people from Egypt could go on foot from their country passing through the Iberian Peninsula and into Great Britain, without using a single boat, also, when the Ice Age begain,all the North of Europe all the way to the very centre of Portugal and of Spain, was an imense tick icy Wall, a great natural bridge that linked the European continent to the American one, and many people from that era, migrated from one palce to another, going to and from between continentes, so it is also possible that Alaska for example, was still attached to Sibéria.

This will be one of the greatest mysteries of humankind, but we are always working to find the truth, or at least a good explanation for how was it possible for these people, so called primitive, to erect these monuments, that even today is hard to lift with machines, i mean... we have to take into account that, most of these monuments, especially menhirs, far exceed 7 meters in height, and its weight reaches up to or exceeds 100 tons, we must take into account that the transportation and erection of these monuments should not have been a simple job. Quite the contrary, it implied a sophisticated technique and also a considerably  well planed organization to take this outstanding work. The European humans at this time, still lived on a primary stage of social organization and had a technique not evolved enough to allow them to perform these megalithic constructions.
Also we need to think about the fact that most of the stones of these monuments aren't near the quarry where they were previously extracted, for example the dolmen of El soto in Huelva in Spain, one of it's slabs was trasnported from a distance superior to 38 klm (23 miles ), but the most spectacular case is that of the "blue stones" of Stonehenge, these 24 blocks of stone, weighing more than 350 tons, which constitute the second circle of the great monument, were extracted for the Prescelly hills in Wales, and placed on the plain of Salisbury, about 230 klm ( 141 miles ) of its original place. Another amazing fact his the case of the dolmen in Pépieux ( France ) with a slab with more than 30 tons, on top of an isolated Hill, with very inclined slopes. How was it possible to bring such heavy stones up there?

This remains a mystery to be solved. Suffice to say, that these people weren't that primitive as we may think.

Note: The artwork to illustrate this post is a drawing of a sacred mound made by me. If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger