Skilled Neolithic Engineers Built Spain's Menga Dolmen

Archaeology Magazine ^ | August 30, 2024 | editors / unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

According to a Phys.org report, a team of archaeologists, historians, geologists, and physicists led by José Antonio Lozano Rodríguez of the Canary Islands Oceanographic Center and the University of Alcalá examined the Menga dolmen, a megalithic monument built in what is now southern Spain some 6,000 years ago, to learn more about how it was constructed. The structure consists of stone walls topped with a stone ceiling supported by stone pillars. Some of these stones weigh more than 160 tons. The researchers suggest that the stones were quarried about one-half mile away and transported to the site on sledges dragged over a wooden trackway. Then, they think the site for the dolmen was dug out of the hill in which the monument rests, and the rocks were precisely wedged into place in the bedrock with counterweights and ramps. Interlocking the stones at a slight inward angle with levers reduced the size of the roof needed, and produced the dolmen's trapezoidal building shape. The pillar stones were then added, and the roof stones were put in place. Overall, the researchers concluded, each step of the construction required the work of highly skilled engineers.

[SunkenCiv]

L. García Sanjuán, J. A. Cámara Serrano, Megalithic Sites and Landscapes of Andalusia: The Large Stones of Prehistory (Consejería de Cultura, 2009)

Location and interior of the Menga dolmen

[SunkenCiv]

Lozano Rodríguez et al. 2024, Science Advances

[SunkenCiv]

The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, alpha:

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• Ancient Egyptians used so much copper, they polluted the harbor near the pyramids, study finds [08/30/2024]
• Archaeologists Uncover Gold Artifacts in the Tomb of a Thracian Warrior [08/27/2024]
• At a Bold Meeting 250 Years Ago, the Continental Congress Set America in Motion [08/31/2024]
• Boy accidentally smashes 3,500-year-old jar on museum visit [08/27/2024]
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• Bronze Ship's Ram Recovered Near Sicily [08/28/2024]
• Cache of Ronald Reagan rare and personal documents valued at $80,000 are up for sale [08/26/2024]
• Connecticut Senate wipes Wright Brothers from history [06/07/2013]
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• Door Guardian Sculpture Discovered at Angkor Archaeological Park [08/29/2024]
• 'Everything we found shattered our expectations': Archaeologists discover 1st astronomical observatory from ancient Egypt [08/30/2024]
• Finding an Apartment in Ancient Rome [08/27/2024]
• Göbekli Tepe conspiracy theories: Rupert Soskin pushes back. [23:54] [08/25/2024]
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• Hundreds of Ancient Viruses Discovered Deep Inside Tibetan Glacier [08/30/2024]
• Intact Thracian Temple Found in Bulgaria [08/28/2024]
• Israeli archaeologists discover unique ancient seal affirming biblical account of Jerusalem 2,700 years ago [08/29/2024]
• Matching Dinosaur Footprints Discovered on Both Sides of the Atlantic [08/31/2024]
• The Oldest Scandinavian Legal Text: New Study Challenges Traditional Views of Viking Age Economy [08/26/2024]
• The oldest wine ever discovered, originating from Andalusia, is a white wine over 2,000 years old. [08/28/2024]
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• They found gold coins from the time of Justinian the Great near Troyan [near the village of Debnevo] [08/29/2024]
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• Vandalism found at Gettysburg battleground, preservationists remove traces of defacement: 'Hallowed ground'. [08/27/2024]

[SunkenCiv]

The list of the week's topics was quite long, so this Digest ping doesn't include it, it's in an earlier post.

[Tax-chick]

Overall, the researchers concluded, each step of the construction required the work of highly skilled engineers.

Next, they'll be telling us that building the pyramids "required the work of highly skilled engineers." It's a new idea, some kind of brilliant insight, the building enormous things out of rock requires skill?

Maybe the point is that the word "engineers" is supposed to convey something new.

[SunkenCiv]

Yes, just as different technologies were used in stone-knapping to make tools during the stone age.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Bedrock University was a very good engineering school

[JeanLM]

Not sure those skilled engineers would be called “white” today and the Peruvian stone masons were pretty skilled too.

[Does so]

My long-time “take” is that civilization has moved ahead in spurts. The spurts are generated by the occasional genius born among the population who directs how things get accomplished.

(Borrowed from Dr. Jay Gould, who postulated that evolution on the planet occurred in spurts, or in “Punctuated Equilibrium”).

I had occasion to speak with him before his early death.

[carcraft]

I also believe this but with one caveat. There are points where social order promotes, technology exists and genius meet. I think of the Panama Canal. It required American will, medical expertise, electric motor technology and organizational genius.

[thinden]

looks kinda like “earth berm” housing or storm shelters?

is the floor original bedrock? pretty smooth

thanx for sharing

[SMARTY]

It would make a good bomb shelter

[Tax-chick]

The word “engineer” conveys higher status today than the word “builder” or “construction manager” or - at the bottom - construction worker. It sounds as though they’re trying to cut-and-paste status onto Neolithic people, as if the monuments themselves did not speak sufficiently eloquently of our ancestors’ abilities.

[Tax-chick]

Yes, that’s reasonable. My point was that using the word “engineer” doesn’t add anything to the people’s accomplishments.

[Sirius Lee]

It would make a good bomb shelter

I was wondering what they were sheltering from when I saw the pics.

[thinden]

To: SMARTY
It would make a good bomb shelter

I was wondering what they were sheltering from when I saw the pics.

xxxxxxxxx

me too

[aquila48]

“Next, they’ll be telling us that building the pyramids “required the work of highly skilled engineers.” “

I know, what a stoopid headline! Truly brilliant insight.

[Max in Utah]

I'm wondering if the original reason for building dolmens was for protection against a threat from the sky.

From Wikipedia:
The Taurid stream has a cycle of activity that peaks roughly every 2,500 to 3,000 years,[9] when the core of the stream passes nearer to Earth and produces more intense showers. In fact, because of the separate "branches" (night-time in one part of the year and daytime in another; and Northern/Southern in each case) there are two (possibly overlapping) peaks separated by a few centuries, every 3000 years. The next peak is expected around 3000 AD.

Most of them were constructed about 6,000 years ago, in Britain, France, Germany, Bulgaria, the Levant, Turkey, Russia, India, China, Japan and especially Korea.

Archaeologists say dolmens were built as tombs, but I suggest that any burials came later.

[Organic Panic]

Much can be accomplished with an expendable supply of slaves.