{"id":10228,"date":"2019-02-13T18:19:20","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T01:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10228"},"modified":"2019-02-13T18:19:20","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T01:19:20","slug":"megaliths-started-in-france-say-archaeologists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10228","title":{"rendered":"Megaliths Started in France, Say Archaeologists"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

ROCK ON Huge stone structures found throughout Europe spread out in three waves starting as early as 6,800 years ago, a new study finds. This stone grave on Sardinia in Italy dates to around 5,000 years ago.(Credit: Sciencenews.org).<\/p><\/div>\n

I read this article, and all I could think about was the potential for historical-fantasy novels on the line of Jean Auel<\/a> or Michael and Kathleen Gear<\/a>: The Megalith Mission. <\/em>Or something like that!<\/p>\n

The earliest megaliths were built in what\u2019s now northwestern France as early as around 6,800 years ago, says archaeologist Bettina Schulz Paulsson of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Knowledge of these stone constructions then spread by sea<\/a> to societies along Europe\u2019s Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, she contends in a study posted online the week of February 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuropean megaliths were products of mobile, long-distance sea travelers,\u201d Schulz Paulsson says.<\/p>\n

Around 35,000 megalithic graves, standing stones, stone circles and stone buildings or temples still exist, many located near coastlines. Radiocarbon dating has suggested that these structures were built between roughly 6,500 and 4,500 years ago.<\/p>\n

Scholars a century ago thought that megaliths originated in the Near East or the Mediterranean area and spread elsewhere via sea trading or land migrations by believers in a megalithic religion. But as absolute dates for archaeological sites began to emerge in the 1970s, several researchers argued that megaliths emerged independently among a handful of European farming communities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read this article, and all I could think about was the potential for historical-fantasy novels on the line of Jean Auel or Michael and Kathleen Gear: The Megalith Mission. Or something like that! The earliest megaliths were built in what\u2019s now northwestern France as early as around 6,800 years ago, says archaeologist Bettina Schulz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,107,242,12],"class_list":["post-10228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archaeology","tag-france","tag-neolithic","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2EY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10679,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10679","url_meta":{"origin":10228,"position":0},"title":"Megalith Culture Spread by Seafarers?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"From Science, \"Stonehenge, Other Ancient Rock Structures May Trace Their origins to Monuments like This\" Stonehenge may be the most famous example, but tens of thousands of other ancient sites featuring massive, curiously arranged rocks dot Europe. A new study suggests these megaliths weren\u2019t created independently but instead can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ancient megalithic monument in Brittany (Science magazine)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencemag.org\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/inline__699w__no_aspect\/public\/carnac_16x9.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencemag.org\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/inline__699w__no_aspect\/public\/carnac_16x9.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencemag.org\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/inline__699w__no_aspect\/public\/carnac_16x9.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3881,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3881","url_meta":{"origin":10228,"position":1},"title":"Ancient Europeans Were First to North America?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This announcement might upset some apple carts. Actually, the idea that some of the early settlers of North America might have come from Europe as well as Asia has been kicking around for a while. Now the claim is made that based on analyses of stone tools, they were first.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":696,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=696","url_meta":{"origin":10228,"position":2},"title":"Megaliths, archaeology, and the ‘stoned age’","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In graduate school, I took a couple of classes on Mesoamerican religion taught by Dav\u00edd Carrasco, an scholar of such edifices as El templo major in Mexico City.One thing I came away with was that such structures served often to demonstrate how King Somebody's reign was in sync with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":985,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=985","url_meta":{"origin":10228,"position":3},"title":"Gallimaufry with Big Rocks","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 My copy of Fire Child: The Life & Magic of Maxine Sanders, 'Witch Queen' arrived, and I will post a full review soon. Short version: Better than I expected.\u00b6 When the Goddess Ruled the Earth is a new quasi-documentary film on hypothesized Neolithic religion. The trailers are all shots\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1869928784","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1144,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1144","url_meta":{"origin":10228,"position":4},"title":"Pomegranate 10.2 published","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The new issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies is now back from the printer. This issue, vol. 10, no. 2, is not yet on the Web site but will be soon.Table of Contents\"The Love which Dare not Speak its Name: An Examination of Pagan Symbolism and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":615,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=615","url_meta":{"origin":10228,"position":5},"title":"Vinland 2Part 1Fake or not,\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Vinland 2Part 1Fake or not, the Kensington Runestone was fervently defended by one Hjalmar Rued Holand, a local historian. His promotion resulted in a 1940 Smithsonian exhibition and later the creation of a museum in Alexandria, Minnesota.Nevertheless, expert opinion remained generally skeptical. The 1967 Newfoundland discovery seemed to obviate any\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10231,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10228\/revisions\/10231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}