Neolithic Europe

Megalithic tombs appear to have been used by communities for the long-term deposition of the remains of their dead and some seem to have undergone alteration and enlargement. The construction of these structures had already begun in the Mesolithic, accelerated after Neolithisation and continued at a slower rate into the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age.

The organisation and effort required to erect these large stones mean that the societies concerned must have placed great emphasis on the proper treatment of their dead. The ritual significance of the tombs is supported by the presence of megalithic art carved into the stones at some sites. Hearths and deposits of pottery and animal bone found by archaeologists around some tombs also implies some form of burial feast or sacrificial rites took place there.

The most common type of megalithic construction is the dolmen a chamber consisting of upright stones (orthostats) with one or more large flat capstones forming a roof. Many of these, though by no means all, contain human remains. Though generally known as dolmens, many local names exist, such as hunebed in the Netherlands, Hünengrab in Germany and dysse in Denmark. It is assumed that most dolmens were originally covered by earthen mounds.

The second most common tomb type is the passage grave. Passage graves are distributed extensively along the Atlantic façade of Europe. They are found in Ireland, Britain, Scandinavia, northern Germany and the Drenthe area of the Netherlands. The earliest passage tombs seem to take the form of small dolmens. Many later passage tombs were constructed at the tops of hills or mountains, indicating that their builders intended them to be seen from a great distance. The passage itself, in a number of notable instances, is aligned in such a way that the sun shines into the passage at a significant point in the year, for example at sunrise on the winter solstice or at sunset on the equinox.

Some of the oldest surviving constructions in Denmark are passage graves, built between 3,200 and 1,800 BCE. They consist of a chamber and a passage way, covered by an earthen mound, which is usually round. One grave could contain up to several hundred skeletons when excavated.







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