# Megalithic architectural elements

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Architectural elements typical of European megalithic structures

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Several **[megalithic](/source/Megalith) architectural elements** are characteristic of European [Stone Age](/source/Stone_Age) structures.

## Forecourt

In [archaeology](/source/Archaeology), a forecourt is the name given to the area in front of certain types of [chamber tomb](/source/Chamber_tomb). Forecourts were probably the venue for [ritual](/source/Ritualism) practices connected with the burial and commemoration of the dead in the past societies that built these types of [tombs](/source/Tomb).

In European [megalithic](/source/Megalithic) architecture, forecourts are curved in plan with the entrance to the tomb at the apex of the open semicircle enclosure that the forecourt creates. The sides were built up by either large upright stones or walls of smaller stones laid atop one another.

Some also had paved floors and some had [blocking stones](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burial_stone&action=edit&redlink=1) erected in front of them to seal the tomb such as at [West Kennet Long Barrow](/source/West_Kennet_Long_Barrow). Their shape, which suggests an attempt to focus attention on the tomb itself may mean that they were used ceremonially as a kind of open air auditorium during ceremonies. Excavation within some forecourts has recovered animal [bone](/source/Bone), [pottery](/source/Pottery) and evidence of burning suggesting that they served as locations for [votive](/source/Votive) offerings or feasting dedicated to the [dead](/source/Dead).

## Kerb or peristalith

For the [roadside](/source/Road) edge, see [Curb (road)](/source/Curb_(road)).

Although the barrow mound is now almost gone, the surrounding peristalith at [Coldrum Stones](/source/Coldrum_Stones) in [Kent](/source/Kent) still survives (foreground). The stone burial chamber can be seen in the background.

In [archaeology](/source/Archaeology), kerb or peristalith is the name for a stone ring built to enclose and sometimes [revet](/source/Revetting) the [cairn](/source/Cairn) or [barrow](/source/Tumulus) built over a chamber tomb.

European [dolmens](/source/Dolmen), especially [hunebed](/source/Hunebed) and [dyss](/source/Dyss) burials, often provide examples of the use of kerbs in [megalithic](/source/Megalith) architecture but they were also added to other kinds of chamber tomb. Kerbs may be built in a [dry stone wall](/source/Dry_stone_wall) method employing small blocks or more commonly using larger stones set in the ground. When larger stones are employed, peristalith is the term more properly used. Often, when the earth barrow has been weathered away, the surviving kerb can give the impression of being a [stone circle](/source/Stone_circle) although these monuments date from considerably later. Excavation of barrows without stone rings such as Fussell's Lodge in [Wiltshire](/source/Wiltshire) suggests that, in these examples, timber or turf was used to define a kerb instead.

In the [British Isles](/source/British_Isles), the enclosing nature of kerbs has been suggested to be analogous to later [Neolithic](/source/Neolithic) and [Bronze Age](/source/Bronze_Age) stone and [timber circles](/source/Timber_circle) and [henges](/source/Henge) which also demonstrate an attempt to demarcate a distinct, [round](/source/Circle) area for [ritual](/source/Ritual) or [funerary](/source/Funeral) purposes. Famous sites with kerbs include [Newgrange](/source/Newgrange) where many of the stones are etched with [megalithic art](/source/Megalithic_art). An example of the dry stone wall type of kerb can be seen at [Parc le Breos](/source/Parc_le_Breos) in [Wales](/source/Wales).

## Orthostat

An orthostat is a large stone with a more or less slab-like shape that has been artificially set upright (so a cube-shaped block is not an orthostat). [Menhirs](/source/Menhir) and other [standing stones](/source/Standing_stone) are technically orthostats although the term is used by [archaeologists](/source/Archaeologist) only to describe individual prehistoric stones that constitute part of larger structures. Common examples include the walls of [chamber tombs](/source/Chamber_tomb) and other [megalithic](/source/Megalith) monuments, and the vertical elements of the trilithons at [Stonehenge](/source/Stonehenge). Especially later, orthostats may be carved with decoration in [relief](/source/Relief), a common feature of [Hittite architecture](/source/Hittite_architecture) and [Assyrian sculpture](/source/Assyrian_sculpture) among other styles. In the latter case, orthostats are large thin slabs of [gypsum](/source/Gypsum) neatly and carefully formed, for use as a wall-facing secured by metal fixings and carrying reliefs, which were then painted.

Many orthostats were a focus for [megalithic art](/source/Megalithic_art), as at [Knowth](/source/Knowth) in Ireland.

In the context of [classical Greek architecture](/source/Ancient_Greek_architecture) the term [orthostate](/source/Orthostate) is usually used.

## Port-hole slab

In [megalithic](/source/Megalith) [archaeology](/source/Archaeology) a port-hole slab is the name of an orthostat with a hole in it sometimes found forming the entrance to a chamber tomb. The hole is usually circular but square examples or those made from two adjoining slabs each with a notch cut in it are known. They are common in the [gallery graves](/source/Gallery_grave) of the [Seine-Oise-Marne culture](/source/Seine-Oise-Marne_culture).

## Portal stones

Portal stones are a pair of Megalithic orthostats, usually flanking the entrance to a [chamber tomb](/source/Chamber_tomb) or opposite the axial stone of an [axial stone circle](/source/Axial_stone_circle). They are commonly found in [dolmens](/source/Dolmens). Examples may be seen at [Bohonagh](/source/Bohonagh) and [Knocknakilla](/source/Knocknakilla).

A trilithon at Stonehenge

## Trilithon

Main article: [Trilithon](/source/Trilithon)

A trilithon (or trilith) is a structure consisting of two large vertical stones supporting a third stone set horizontally across the top. Commonly used in the context of [megalithic](/source/Megalithic) monuments, the most famous trilithons are those at [Stonehenge](/source/Stonehenge) and those found in the [Megalithic Temples of Malta](/source/Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta).

The word *trilithon* is derived from the [Greek](/source/Greek_language) "having three stones" (*tri* - "three", *lithos* - "stone") and was first used by [William Stukeley](/source/William_Stukeley). The term also describes the groups of three stones in the Hunebed tombs of the Netherlands and the three massive stones forming part of the wall of the [Temple of Jupiter](/source/Temple_of_Jupiter_(Roman_Heliopolis)) at [Baalbek](/source/Baalbek), Lebanon.[1]

## See also

- [List of megalithic sites](/source/List_of_megalithic_sites)

- [List of ancient monoliths](/source/List_of_ancient_monoliths)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Adam, Jean-Pierre (1977), "À propos du trilithon de Baalbek: Le transport et la mise en oeuvre des mégalithes", *Syria*, **54** (1/2): 31–63 (50f.), [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.3406/syria.1977.6623](https://doi.org/10.3406%2Fsyria.1977.6623)

## Further reading

- James Phillips, the *Megalithic Architecture in Europe* series

- Salvatore Piccolo (2013), *Ancient Stones: the Prehistoric Dolmens in Sicily*, Thornham/Norfolk (UK), Brazen Head Publishing

## External links

- [BBC Highlands and Northern Isles - In Your Backyard](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scotland/highlands_and_islands)

- [The Comparative Archaeology Web - A Spatial Analysis of megalithic Tombs](http://www.comp-archaeology.org/MEGTindex.htm)

- [The Council for British Archaeology](http://www.britarch.ac.uk)

- [The Megalith Map](https://web.archive.org/web/20061113040435/http://megalith.ukf.net/)

- [The Megalithic Portal](http://www.megalithic.co.uk/)

v t e Prehistoric technology Prehistory Timeline Outline Stone Age Subdivisions New Stone Age Technology history Glossary Tools Farming Neolithic Revolution Founder crops New World crops Ard / plough Celt Digging stick Domestication Goad Irrigation Secondary products Sickle Terracing Food processing (Paleolithic diet) Fire Basket Cooking Earth oven Granaries Grinding slab Ground stone Hearth Aşıklı Höyük Qesem Cave Manos Metate Mortar and pestle Pottery Quern-stone Storage pits Hunting Arrow Boomerang throwing stick Bow and arrow history Nets Spear spear-thrower baton harpoon Schöningen woomera Projectile points Arrowhead Transverse Bare Island Cascade Clovis Cresswell Cumberland Eden Folsom Lamoka Manis Mastodon Plano Systems Game drive system Buffalo jump Toolmaking Earliest toolmaking Oldowan Acheulean Mousterian Aurignacian Clovis culture Cupstone Fire hardening Gravettian culture Hafting Hand axe Grooves Langdale axe industry Levallois technique Lithic core Lithic reduction analysis debitage flake Lithic technology Magdalenian culture Metallurgy Microblade technology Mining Prepared-core technique Solutrean industry Striking platform Tool stone Uniface Yubetsu technique Other tools Adze Awl bone Axe Bannerstone Blade prismatic Bone tool Bow drill Burin Canoe Oar Pesse canoe Chopper tool Cleaver Denticulate tool Fire plough Fire-saw Hammerstone Knife Microlith Quern-stone Racloir Rope Scraper side Stone tool Tally stick Weapons Wheel illustration Architecture Ceremonial Kiva Pyramid Standing stones megalith row Stonehenge Dwellings Neolithic architecture long house British megalith architecture Nordic megalith architecture Burdei Cave Cliff dwelling Dugout Hut Quiggly hole Jacal Longhouse Mudbrick Mehrgarh Pit-house Pueblitos Pueblo Rock shelter Blombos Cave Abri de la Madeleine Sibudu Cave Roundhouse Stilt house Alp pile dwellings Stone roof Wattle and daub Water management Check dam Cistern Flush toilet Reservoir Well Other architecture Archaeological features Broch Burnt mound fulacht fiadh Causewayed enclosure Tor enclosure Circular enclosure Goseck Cursus Henge Thornborough Megalithic architectural elements Midden Oldest extant buildings Timber circle Timber trackway Sweet Track Arts and culture Material goods Baskets Beadwork Beds Chalcolithic Clothing/textiles timeline Cosmetics Glue Hides shoes Ötzi Jewelry amber use Mirrors Pottery Cardium Cord-marked Grooved ware Jōmon Linear Unstan ware Sewing needle Weaving Wine winery wine press Prehistoric art Art of the Upper Paleolithic Art of the Middle Paleolithic Blombos Cave List of Stone Age art Bird stone Cairn Carved stone balls Cave paintings Cup and ring mark Geoglyph Hill figure Golden hats Guardian stones Gwion Gwion rock paintings painting pigment Megalithic art Petroform Petroglyph Petrosomatoglyph Pictogram Rock art Rock cupule Stone carving Sculpture Statue menhir Stone circle list British Isles and Brittany Venus figurine Prehistoric music Evolutionary musicology music archaeology Alligator drum Paleolithic flute Divje Babe flute Gudi Prehistoric religion Evolutionary origin of religion Paleolithic religion Spiritual drug use Burial Burial mounds Bowl barrow Round barrow Mound Builders culture U.S. sites Chamber tomb Cotswold-Severn Cist Dartmoor kistvaens Clava cairn Court cairn Cremation Dolmen Great dolmen Funeral pyre Gallery grave transepted wedge-shaped Grave goods Jar burial Kuyavian long barrows Long barrow unchambered Grønsalen Megalithic tomb Mummy Passage grave Rectangular dolmen Ring cairn Simple dolmen Stone box grave Tor cairn Unchambered long cairn Other cultural Archaeoastronomy sites lunar calendar Behavioral modernity Origin of language Prehistoric counting Prehistoric medicine trepanning Prehistoric warfare Symbols symbolism

v t e Stonehenge Structure and surroundings Altar Stone Aubrey holes Bluestone Excavations at Stonehenge Heel Stone Heelstone Ditch Laser scanning at Stonehenge Q and R Holes Sarsen Station Stones Stonehenge Landscape Stonehenge road tunnel Trilithon Y and Z Holes Replicas and derivatives Achill-henge Bamahenge Carhenge Foamhenge Maryhill Stonehenge Mystical Horizons Phonehenge West Stonehenge Aotearoa Stonehenge II Wally Wallington Studies Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge Stonehenge in its landscape Stonehenge Riverside Project The Salisbury Museum Theories about Stonehenge Wiltshire Museum In culture Battle of the Beanfield Bringing Back the Bluestones Polytantric Circle Stonehenge Free Festival Stonehenge replicas and derivatives Concepts Earth mysteries Megalithic architectural elements Mount Killaraus Category

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Megalithic architectural elements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalithic_architectural_elements) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalithic_architectural_elements?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.