Ancient Stones, Modern Ingenuity

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Archeologists and scientists recently conducted a geological and architectural analysis on the Dolmen of Menga, a megalithic monument in southern Spain that dates to between 3600 and 3800 BCE.

The large stone chamber was made 1,000 years before the more famous Stonehenge in modern-day England, but required the same level of technical ingenuity and know-how to build it, according to a new study.

“These people had no blueprints to work with, nor … any previous experience at building something like this,” co-author Leonardo García Sanjuán told Nature News. “And yet, they understood how to fit together huge blocks of stone with a precision that would keep the monument intact for nearly 6,000 years.”

García Sanjuán and his team explained that the prehistoric inhabitants used elaborate techniques to transport the large stones – some of which were larger than those used at Stonehenge – and join them.

This involved tilting and locking the stones with millimeter-scale precision to ensure the monument’s stability for thousands of years – an impressive feat considering that it was built in an earthquake-prone area.

The ancient builders used counterweights, ramps, and other methods to set the stones upright in deep sockets.

One notable feature of the dolmen is the shaping of the largest horizontal stone: It curves upward in the center and slopes toward the edges, which helps distribute weight like an arch, making the structure stronger.

The early engineers also protected the stones from water damage by covering them with layers of beaten clay, which shows their knowledge of materials and their properties.

“What’s surprising about this is the level of sophistication,” Susan Greaney, a researcher at the United Kingdom’s University of Exeter who was not involved in the study, told New Scientist. “The architectural understanding of how the weight distribution works, I’ve not seen that anywhere else before.”