tumulus is 280 feet in diameter and 44 feet tall. Its passageway is
62 feet long and is an early example of a construction technique used
in other later ancient cultures and even today—the corbeled vault
(FIGS. 4-16and 4-17b). At Newgrange, huge megaliths form the ceil-
ing of the passage and the burial chamber. The stones are held in
place by their own weight, those on one side countering the weight
of the megaliths on the other side of the passageway. Some of the
stones are decorated with incised spirals and other abstract motifs
(not visible in FIG. 1-19). A special feature of the Newgrange tomb is
that at the winter solstice the sun illuminates the passageway and the
burial chamber.
HAGAR QIMContemporary with Newgrange but on an island
far to the south is the megalithic temple (FIG. 1-1) of Hagar Qim,
one of many constructed on Malta between 3200 and 2500 BCEand
one of the oldest stone temples anywhere in the world. The Maltese
builders constructed their temples by piling carefully cut stone
blocks in courses(stacked horizontal rows). The doorways at Hagar
Qim were built using the post-and-lintelsystem (FIG. 4-17a) in
which two upright stones (posts) support a horizontal beam (lintel).
The layout of this and other Neolithic Maltese temples is especially
noteworthy for the combination of rectilinear and curved forms, in-
cluding multiple apses(semicircular recesses). Inside the Hagar Qim
temple archaeologists found altars (hence the identification of the
structure as a religious shrine) and several stone statues of headless
28 Chapter 1 ART BEFORE HISTORYnude women, one standing, the others seated. The level of architec-
tural and sculptural sophistication seen on this isolated island at so
early a date is extraordinary.
STONEHENGEThe most famous megalithic monument in Eu-
rope is Stonehenge (FIG. 1-20) on the Salisbury Plain in southern
England. A hengeis an arrangement of megalithic stones in a circle,
often surrounded by a ditch. The type is almost entirely limited to
Britain. Stonehenge is a complex of rough-cut sarsen (a form of
sandstone) stones and smaller “bluestones” (various volcanic rocks)
built in several stages over hundreds of years. The final henge took
the form of concentric post-and-lintel circles. The outer ring, almost
100 feet in diameter, consists of huge sarsen megaliths. Inside is a
ring of bluestones, which in turn encircle a horseshoe (open end
facing east) oftrilithons (three-stone constructions)—five lintel-
topped pairs of the largest sarsens, each weighing 45 to 50 tons.
Standing apart and to the east (outside the aerial view in FIG. 1-20) is
the “heel stone,” which, for a person looking outward from the cen-
ter of the complex, would have marked the point where the sun rose
at the summer solstice. Stonehenge seems to have been a kind of
astronomical observatory and a remarkably accurate solar calendar.
The megalithic tombs, temples, and henges of Europe are
enduring testaments to the rapidly developing intellectual powers
of Neolithic humans as well as to their capacity for heroic physical
effort.1-20Aerial view (looking northwest) of Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, England, ca. 2550–1600 BCE. Circle is 97in diameter; trilithons 24high.
The circles of trilithons at Stonehenge probably functioned as an astronomical observatory and solar calendar. The sun rises over its “heel stone”
at the summer solstice. Some of the megaliths weigh 50 tons.