Added September 18, 1999. Updated April 25, 2006, 11:46 hours.

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A SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF MEGALITHIC TOMBS

2. HISTORY OF TRB MEGALITHIC TOMB RESEARCH

By Maximilian O. Baldia 1993, 1995, 1999-April 25, 2006©
All rights reserved

2.1 Conclusion

Megalithic tomb research and archaeology are in many ways synonymous. In the beginning the great obstacle ... was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. Imagination drew in bold strokes ... while knowledge advanced by slow increments and contradictory witnesses (Boorstin 1983:86). The antiquity of the TRB, first suspected by Westendorp, is now established. Megalithic chambers were not a part of its earliest manifestation. The earliest megalithic chamber construction in Denmark is thought to begin in the EN II/C, but no one seems to be sure if and when the first primeval dolmen were built on the Danish island of Sjælland, as Aner suggested. The precise beginning and end of passage-grave construction and the evolution of gallery-graves is also still debated, even though hundreds of years of investigation by uncounted numbers of researchers have accumulated large amounts of information on the tombs.

These data merely accentuate the diverse kinds of burial architecture and incongruous mortuary practices. What seems obvious in one region may not even exist in another. The emerging picture is one of a real society, where mortuary traditions are passed on over generations, while innovations occur at different times and in different places. Useful or novel developments from outsiders are incorporated or assimilated as desired and needed. This diversity is only beginning to be reflected in new theoretical and methodological advances, in which immutable typologies designed to show rough chronological differences slowly give way to more flexible approaches and interpretations.

What is missing is a flexible typology based on a detailed, comparative chronology for tomb construction. This approach cannot be based on C¹⁴ dates alone. It must also take into account observation and logical interpretation of architectural features and make use of a computerized data base that includes tomb locations, dimensions and orientations from all regions. Only this can yield the interregional analytical synthesis predicted by the pioneers of megalithic tomb research a century ago.

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2.2 Related Links

Central and North European Neolithic Chronology with summaries of individual cultures

Neolithic/Copper Age Link Index: Links to News Bulletins, Articles, Site Reports, Databases, etc. about the Neolithic/Copper Age in Europe.

Please send comments or questions to Max Baldia.