Towards a Chronology of Megaliths: Understanding Monumental Time and Cultural Memory

Abstract

I argue in this paper that monuments such as megaliths can be understood in terms of 'prospective' and 'retrospective memories'. They were originally built as permanent and widely visible mnemonics in order to transmit a particular message to the future, but that message is now lost. Megaliths were then, and stayed for much of their later history, 'sites of memory'. In later ages, people considered such ancient monuments as part of their 'cultural memory' and interpreted them within the framework of the 'history culture' of their given social context. Since such re-interpretations are often equally significant and also contain hopes for the future (prospective memories), they can be termed 'subsequent origins' of monuments. One example for a 'subsequent origin' is the way megaliths are studied and treated according to the academic values of present-day archaeologists. In the paper I discuss several case-studies of megaliths' 'life-histories' in different European regions. I conclude with the wish that a true chronology of monuments may be developed that reaches beyond chronographical tables and includes theories about monumental time: the pasts and futures of monuments, in each present.

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