List of our contributors -- Preface : megalithic architecture in Europe / Luc Laporte and Chris Scarre -- Section 1 : the megalith-builders -- Menga (Andalusia, Spain) : biography of an exceptional megalithic monument / Leonardo García Sanjuán and José Antonio Lozano Rodríguez -- Structural functions and architectural projects within the long monuments of Western Europe / Luc Laporte -- Megalithic building techniques in the Languedoc region of southern France : recent excavations at two dolmens in Hérault / Noisette Bec Drelon -- Megalithic constructional techniques in north-west France : cairn III at Prissé-la-Charrière / Florian Cousseau -- A monumental task : building the dolmens of Britain and Ireland / Vicki Cummings and Colin Richards -- The megalithic construction process and the building of passage graves in Denmark / Torben Dehn -- Accident or design? Chambers, cairns and funerary practices in Neolithic western Europe / Chris Scarre -- Dolmens without mounds in Denmark / Palle Eriksen and Niels H. Anderson -- In the eye of the beholder : key architectural elements in 25 years of visual analysis of Danish megalithic tombs / Jørgen Westphal -- Section 2 : cemeteries and sequences --Building forever or just for the time bieng? A viewe from north-western Iberia / Ramón Fábregas Valcarce and Xosé Ignacio Vilaseco Vázquez -- The megalithic architecture of Huelva (Spain) : typology, construction and technical traditions in easternAndévalo / Jose Antonio Linares Catela -- The clustering of megalithic monuments around the causewayed enclosures at Sarup on Funen, Denmark / Niels H. Andersen -- Two types of megalithis and an unusual dolmen at Lønt, Denmark / Anne Birgitte Gebauer -- Common motivation, different intentions? A multiscalar appraoch to the megalithic architecture of the Funnel Beaker North Group / Franziska Hage, Georg Schafferer and Martin Hinz -- Section 3 : chronologies and context -- Between east and west : megaliths in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula / Primitiva Bueno Ramíerz, Rosa Barroso Bermejo and Rodrigo de Balbín Behrmann -- Megalithic hollows : rock-cut tombs between Tagus and the Guadiana / Leonor Rocha -- Houses of the dead and natural rocks : new evidence from western France / Philippe Gouézin -- The stone rows of Hoedic (Morbihan) and the construction of alignments in western France / Jean-Marc Large and Emmanuel Mens -- Decorative techniques in Breton megalithic tombs (France) : the role of paintings / Primitiva Bueno Ramírez, Rodrigo de Balbín Behrmann, Luc Laporte, Philippe Gouézin, Rosa Barroso Bermejo, Florian Cousseau, Antonio Hernanz Gismero and Mercedes Iriarte Cela -- Stability in a changing world : insights from settlement intensity patterns and archaeobotany / Martin Hinz and Wiebke Kirleis -- Section 4 : conclusions -- Ostentation, power and megaliths : the example of Easter Island / Nicolas Cauwe -- A southern viewpoint / Luc Laporte and Primitiva Bueno Ramíerz -- A northern viewpoint / Chris Scarre and Torben Dehn.

"Megalithic monuments are among the most striking remains of the Neolithic period of northern and western Europe and are scattered across landscapes from Pomerania to Portugal. Antiquarians and archaeologists early recognised the family resemblance of the different groups of tombs, attributing them to maritime peoples moving along the western seaways. More recent research sees them rather as the product of established early farming communities in their individual regions. Yet the diversity of the tombs, their chronologies and their varied cultural contexts complicates any straightforward understanding of their origins and distribution. Megalithic Architectures provides new insight by focusing on the construction and design of European megalithic tombs--on the tomb as an architectural project. It shows how much is to be learned from detailed attention to the stages and the techniques through which tombs were built, modified and enlarged, and often intentionally dismantled or decommissioned. The large slabs that were employed, often unshaped, may suggest an opportunistic approach by the Neolithic builders, but this was clearly far from the case. Each building project was unique, and detailed study of individual sites exposes the way in which tombs were built as architectural, social and symbolic undertakings. Alongside the manner in which the materials were used, it reveals a store of knowledge that sometimes differed considerably from one structure to another, even between contemporary monuments within a single region. The volume brings together regional specialists from Scandinavia, Germany, Britain, France, Belgium and Iberia to offer a series of uniquely authoritative studies. Results of recent fieldwork are fully incorporated and much of the material is published here for the first time in English. It provides an invaluable overview of the current state of research on European megalithic tombs"--From publisher's website.

This volume provides insight by focusing on the construction and design of European megalithic tombs - on the tomb as an architectural project. It shows how much is to be learned from detailed attention to the stages and the techniques through which tombs were built, modified and enlarged, and often intentionally dismantled or decommissioned.