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Megalithic transport and territorial markers: evidence from the Channel Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Mark Patton
Mark Patton*
Affiliation:
Jersey Museums Service, The Weighbridge, St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, UK
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Extract

Evidence from the Channel Islands supports the view that long-distance transport of megaliths in the European Neolithic cannot be substantiated. Analysis of the stones at La Hougue Bie, however, shows that megaliths were regularly moved over shorter distances, and suggests that the distribution of megalithic sites within a region cannot be explained simply as a function of the availability of building materials. This view modifies the purely materialistic conclusions of Thorpe & Williams-Thorpe in their recent demolition of the Stonehenge bluestones myth (ANTIQUITY 65: 64–73).

Type
Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 66 , Issue 251 , June 1992 , pp. 392 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1992

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