Читать книгу Art History For Dummies - Jesse Bryant Wilder - Страница 78

A megalithic structure is a simple or complex arrangement of stones standing upright like dominoes. Some appear to be stark, open-air temples built by mammoth-sized men. Others look like graveyards with hundreds of headstones sprouting out of the earth. Types of megalith construction include

 Post-and-lintel systems: In this arrangement, the post part is made up of the upright stones, and the lintel is the horizontal slab on top. Some megalith structures did serve as tombs, either for one person or several people. Many megalithic tombs look like giant stone tables with two uprights supporting a massive horizontal slab laid across them. The post-and-lintel system is one of humankind’s first architectural advances. Sometimes the tombs are covered with small rocks and dirt, forming a grave mound over the horizontal.

 Menhirs: Topless megaliths — solitary upright slabs — appear in two types of formations: circular patterns known as cromlechs and cemetery-like rows called alignments. Prehistoric peoples scattered fields of menhirs throughout Brittany in western France between 4250 BC and 3750 BC. Despite their appearance, alignments weren’t graveyards. They seem to have been astronomical observatories and sites for sun worship (not the kind that requires an SPF 15). The largest alignment is in Carnac, Brittany, where 3,000 menhirs stand in 2-mile-long rows. The menhirs appear to gradually grow as you move from east to west. Stones on the eastern side are 3 feet high, while on the western end they’re over 13 feet high. The alignment corresponds to the rising and setting sun. Today, no one knows how this prehistoric observatory worked.