Megalithic Art: A Visual Repertoire for the Dead

Introduction

By the mid-fifth millennium BCE, Neolithic communities along the Atlantic Seaboard of Europe began to witness the emergence of a pictographic language based on a common repertoire of abstract and figurative motifs. This distinct art form is arguably an extension of a much wider pan-European schematic art tradition which was mainly confined to communities involved in passage grave construction and use. The megalithic art tradition unified much of the Neolithic world along the coastal regions of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coastal fringes of Europe, between the Iberian Peninsula and northern Scotland for a period of some 3,000 years. The art itself appears to have acted as a personal signature that was unique to each monument and its builders but drawing on a limited set of symbols that included chevrons, concentric circles, cupules, spirals, and zigzag lines. The majority of this repertoire was engraved, although there is clear evidence that many sites were also...