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Tuesday, 27 August 2024, 17:04
Researchers from the University of Seville have participated in a study carried out at the Menga Dolmen in Antequera (Malaga province) that shows the advanced architectural and engineering techniques used for its construction, which experts date to 6,000 years ago. The results of this work are shown in an article published in the Science Advances journal (Grupo Science) entitled 'early science and engineering of colossal stones at Menga, a Neolithic dolmen (Antequera, Spain)', in which nine specialists from different institutions such as the Spanish institute of oceanography (IEO-CSIC), the University of Alcalá de Henares (UAH), the University of Seville (US), the University of Salamanca (USAL), the University of Granada (UGR) and the Andalusian institute of earth sciences (IACT-CSIC-UGR) have collaborated.
This work has carried out a highly detailed scientific examination, never before carried out on any dolmen construction at an international level, which reveals the engineering and architectural techniques used in the construction of the Menga dolmen, flagship of the Sitio de los Dólmenes de Antequera, included in the Unesco World Heritage List since July 2016, the US explained in a press release.
Specifically, this study is based on the analysis of the angles of the planes of each stone, the stratigraphic polarity of each structural element and the depth of the foundations.
The presence of innovative solutions to the problems of stability through the underground design of the monument, the placement of pillars and arches, similar to those used in cathedrals, is also evident. In addition, up to three different cuts were made in each stone, at predetermined angles, to achieve support and consolidation in the structure of the building.
It also highlighted the use of the unloading arch principle almost 6,000 years ago, with the convex geometry that was given to the No. 5 stone marking a groundbreaking advance in early architectural engineering, never before recorded. The data now published also indicate that the huge stones were placed without the aid of ascending ramps, but were transported by sledges along the longitudinal axis of the dolmen, from a quarry 50 metres above and at a distance of almost one kilometre.
All this, combined with the previously obtained and published data on the provenance of the gigantic stones used to build this dolmen, reveals the existence of previously unsuspected scientific knowledge and of extraordinary inventive brilliance among the Neolithic communities in the south of the Iberian Peninsula who built this great edifice.
With sophisticated knowledge of engineering, geology, geometry and astronomy, these great anonymous architects dared to design and build not only one of the first engineering monuments of mankind made of titanic stones, some of them weighing 150 tons, but also a building of great stability and a solidity that continues to amaze almost six thousand years after its construction. An example of this is the No. 5 stone, the heaviest stone ever used in a dolmen building and the second heaviest stone used in Europe as part of the megalithic phenomenon after the great Brisé menhir (Locmariaquer, Brittany, France).
The recently published study, which has taken almost ten years of multidisciplinary work, shows that the inhabitants of the Antequera region had not only advanced knowledge of an early science, but also the manpower and logistical capacity to successfully complete the construction of a building for which at that time there was no previous experience or reference in the Iberian Peninsula.
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