An tremendous inhumation knoll in southerly Spain has been hailed as one of themost impressive social system of the Neolithic periodfollowing a new examination of its humongous feature . Known as the Menga dolman , the unbelievable monument is think to have been built around 5,700 years ago and contains the frame of several hundred ancient individuals .
Weighing around 150 tons , Menga ’s copestone is the secondly turgid Isidor Feinstein Stone ever used in aNeolithic dolmen , and the overall structure is describe by the investigator as “ the most colossal Isidor Feinstein Stone monument build in its clock time in Europe . ” After analyze the dolmen ’s oversized building block , the study authors discovered that the ancient constructor also choose to function with soft stone that command a huge amount of technical skill and logistical establishment to erect .
Using a range of petrographic and stratigraphic analytic thinking techniques , the researchers con that the Menga stone are “ mostly calcarenites , a poorly cemented detrital aqueous stone comparable to those know as ' soft stones ' in New polite engineering . ” Such stones are particularly tricky to transport without damaging them , which means whoever built Menga must have planned the project meticulously .
Artistic representation of quarrying activities for the extraction the capstone.Drawing by Moisés Bellilty under guidance of José Antonio Lozano Rodríguez and Leonardo García Sanjuán (CC BY 4.0)
“ Working with these large and tenuous stones must have involved a monolithic labor investiture not only in stone working , but also in wood - working andrope - fashioning , ” drop a line the written report authors . “ declamatory amounts of wood must have been used to build the scaffolding used in the quarrying cognitive process and to fix the road on which the massive stones were transported . ”
place on a hilltop , thetombwas carefully orientate to provide “ three major locational advantages ” . For representative , the dolman jacket ’s berth absolutely align with the nearby mickle known as " Lover ’s Rock " and the sunrise , “ which produce a complex practice of light and phantasm inside the chamber . ”
On top of this , the website ’s location more or less below the quarry that provided the naked material enabled the ancient builder to carry the monumental careen in a ceaseless downhill flight . eventually , the substratum on the brow is considerably more stable than the surrounding soft clay soils , thus providing a firmer and more inviolable base for the dolman .
Despite these advantages , the porous nature of the rock used to construct the tomb would ordinarily have leave them vulnerable to water impairment . To overcome this job , Menga ’s designers isolate the prominent stones with large mounds - or tumuli - made of “ alternating layer of carefully mesh flat sandstones and pressed ground . ”
Taking into report all of these instauration , the researchers spout that “ the construction of Menga embodies a unique attainment present the state - of - the - art in megalithic engineering science in prehistoric Iberia and possibly in Europe . ”
The discipline is published in the journalScientific Reports .
