In the Neolithic period in Europe the Mesolithic nomadic hunter-fisher-gatherer lifestyle transitioned into a new way of life: sedentary farmers began growing crops and keeping animals, such as cattle, sheep/goat and pigs for subsistence, and firing clay to create ceramics. Another aspect of this new way of life was the use of large stones for monuments and funeral buildings, which occurred in different regions at different times. These structures were much longer lasting than the houses, which were mainly built from wood, earth and smaller stones. The monuments, standing stones, stone circles, dolmens, passage graves etc. have, in many cases, been visible since they were built—a prime example being Stonehenge—and some were uncovered during excavations during the past 200 years. Due to the fantastic preservation of stone relative to other materials, megaliths have been studied by curious scholars for centuries and represent one of the oldest fields of archaeological exploration.

Research is still very much ongoing, and this New Book Chronicle presents just a small sample. The first book Megalithic societies combines contributions that highlight diverse new methods in the field, such as refined radiocarbon dating, ancient DNA and isotope analyses. The second book Gesellschaft und Monumentalität zwischen Nordatlantik und Ostsee 4500–1800 v. Chr (Society and monumentality between the North Atlantic and Western Baltic) collects and compares the research of both regions to make transformations, continuities and discontinuities of the long timespan visible. The third book The Stonehenge world: living, landscape, food and design at the time of our greatest monument looks beyond the megalithic monument and gathers evidence about the people and their lives when Stonehenge was built and in use. The final book Stone Lands is quite the opposite because it explores how people today relate to megaliths and ancient places as well as a personal memoir through the author’s journey of grief.

Reading these books, it became obvious how much new methods and technologies have reshaped the field in the past 20-odd years, since I studied them at university. Despite much more data being accumulated, some of the same questions are still hotly debated, such as the origin of megaliths and the societal structure that is presumed to have brought forth such large projects. The interpretations range from highly hierarchical ones where an elite commissioned the building or the co-operative efforts of an egalitarian society, with an inter-related debate on how mobile the people involved really were. Many studies nowadays try to look beyond the monument and explore its incorporation into the landscape and the social-economical worlds. We are getting closer to finding out who—as in, which societies or parts of communities—built them but the reason why is still much debated. And maybe it is not that important after all. The enduring allure that these monuments have for many people today, archaeologists as well as neo-Pagans and other enthusiasts, is what ties us to these places. Many examples are so ancient that the monuments are often perceived as part of the natural landscape or the fantastical fae-world rather than being manmade.

Gail M. Higginbottom, Jadranka Verdonkschot, Chris Scarre, A. César González-García & Felipe Criado-Boado (ed.). 2026. Megalithic societies: old questions, new narratives. Oxford: Archaeopress; 978-1-80583-076-4 hardback £65 ebook OpenAccess https://doi.org/10.32028/9781805830764

This compilation of research is the outcome of the meeting of the European Megalithic Study Group in 2023 and consists of 16 chapters written by experts from across Europe. All chapters focus on new methods applied to readdress and rethink narratives of societies with megalithic monuments in North and West Europe, which emerged in most European areas relatively soon after the transition to the Neolithic way of life. The book hosts mainly contributions on the building of the megaliths and their place in the landscape and in time, with only a few touching upon the communities that created them. It is aimed at specialists of the field and delivers a wide panoply of research methods into researching Neolithic sites and societies.

In the first chapter, Chris Scarre introduces the topic and looks at the advances of the past 20 years that new methods brought to Neolithic studies and delivers a solid overview on the developments of radiocarbon dating, ancient DNA and stable isotopes. The new chronologies are based on improved radiocarbon dating and help to establish the origin and spread of monumentality of buildings and whether it relates to the emergence of the Neolithic. Ancient DNA analysis revealed that the Mesolithic people did not so much take on the ‘Neolithic package’ but were rather re-/displaced over time by the incoming farming communities. Ancient DNA also provides information on the social fabric of burials, such as family ties and kinship, and stable isotope analyses highlight the diet and mobility of people and animals.

As the following chapters are quite diverse, I highlight only a few here. The importance of advanced dating methods is discussed in a case study of two Iberian megalithic monuments, the dolmen in Menga and the tholos in Montelirio (García Sanjuán et al.). It addresses the challenges in the secure dating of the different phases and events of the monuments but also how this can be overcome by using methods such as optically stimulated luminescence. The results of the large number of differently obtained dates show the long timespan of these monuments, as well as the nuances and changes that highlight the complex history of these monuments. The project ‘Passage Tomb People’ is researching the societies that built the megalithic passage tombs along the Atlantic Façade of Ireland, North Wales and Orkney. Through analysing animal and human remains and pottery sherds with multiple methods (such as radiocarbon dating, stable isotopes and peptide fingerprinting analyses) the construction of the passage tombs is put into context with the people who were buried there as well as the environment in which they lived, with cattle husbandry and agriculture identified as the main food sources. The different study areas show some connections with each other but also local differences.

Quite a few chapters focus on the architecture and development of the monuments. The chapter on Sardinia researches the many Neolithic rock-cut tombs with a view to their connection to the contemporaneous megalithic monuments. It focuses on rock-cut tombs with megalithic elements and delivers an excellent overview of megalithic monuments on this island from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age and delves into the connection between Megalithic and Nuraghic communities (Melis). In comparing architectural elements (such as grave type, dolmen/passage tomb, size, chamber shape, orientation) in the megalithic graves of the Funnel Beaker culture in three case study areas in North Germany, regional and local networks become visible, in which certain elements were shared but also locally adapted and changed over time (Behrens). The megalithic graves of Westphalia are featured in Kerstin Schierhold’s chapter, where excavations and surveys allowed the detailed analyses of a small group of gallery graves. This research, together with other studies, delivered the groundwork for visual 3D reconstructions and is an excellent example of how to transfer knowledge into visual props, such as reconstructed megalithic graves and what impact this can make on the communication with the wider public. Niels Andersen’s chapter on Danish megaliths is all about dolmens and passage graves, both assigned to the Funnel Beaker Culture, whose communities built an estimated staggering number of 30 000 of these in Denmark. The two different types of monuments are discerned as: dolmen as open visible stone chambers with one big cap stone, built between 3500 and 3200 BC; and more complex passage graves, chambers of stone dug into an earthen barrow, covered by earth with a passage leading into it, built between 3200 and 3100 BC. The in-depth reassessment of old finds and newer excavations is utilised to understand the context in which they were built and used. The study revealed connections between settlements and megaliths but no real evidence that the dolmens and passage graves were erected as primary funerary monuments but were used later to deposit human remains.

A large comparative multimethod survey of three sites in Ireland and Sweden uses and interprets the different approaches to reveal the development and landscape setting of the sites and to advance a best practice for the large-scale prospection of megalithic landscapes with least invasive methods (Davis et al.). Further chapters include research applying GIS, viewshed analyses and archaeoastronomy, looking at petroglyphs in connections with megalithic monuments as well as theoretical approaches.

The final chapter is by Johannes Müller and it centres on the people who built and used the monuments across Europe and delves into the question of ‘dynasties’ that can be seen in the largest megalithic graves, such as Newgrange. Among other issues, the different sizes of megaliths, nutrition and the meaning of inbreeding are studied across a wide area and, together with comparisons from ethnoarchaeology, lead to the conclusion that these megaliths are probably not evidence for a hierarchical society but rather show an egalitarian society.

This diverse compilation is not a coherent narrative but delivers a great starting point to look into the new methods and research that enlighten us and provide possibilities and ideas for future studies on the Neolithic.

Johanna Brinkmann. 2025. Gesellschaft und Monumentalität zwischen Nordatlantik und Ostsee 4500–1800 v. Chr. (Scales of Transformation in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies 22). Leiden: Sidestone; 978-94-6428-099-9 paperback €60 ebook OpenAccess https://doi.org/10.59641/2s1353ve

Johanna Brinkmann’s book is based on her PhD thesis from 2022 and delivers an extensive comparison of the archaeological record of the British Isles and the western Baltic from the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic through to the Early Bronze Age (4500–1800 BC) to highlight similarities as well as differences and to help explain processes of transformation, discontinuities and continuities. The main questions are when and how monumentality in buildings developed and how it was linked to changes in the societies that erected them. These two study regions are well researched, and the methods described in the book above have already delivered many new results and provide the foundation of this large overview. Most of these published studies though are concerned with local or regional settings, but this macroscale approach on a long timespan allows trends to be observed and changes explored within a larger perspective. In the past, the two research areas have been studied under two different ‘schools of thought’ due to the history and development of the field of archaeology, where the Neolithic in the British Isles was analysed with more theoretical models than that of the western Baltics. This is especially important for the understanding of past interpretations of megalithic monuments, and in Chapter 2 Brinkmann delivers an excellent outline of the diverse approaches, often with contradicting opinions on the same material culture. This chapter ends with a balanced view of how to integrate the different theory strands with the archaeological record and examples of how to align the possible motives behind the interpretations with the corresponding archaeological and empirical evidence. A thorough background chapter introduces the methodology and places the material in space and time, it also defines and discusses the main terms and strands of enquiry such as monumentality, transformation etc. To allow for a more objective and broader comparison, the material is approached using the polythetic concept (classification in feature, artefact, type and find or feature group, after Clarke) instead of the traditional cultural groups.

Chapters 5 and 6 deliver the research on the two regions and are organised in the same way, each gathering the evidence for: artefacts (ceramic, stone, metal), house and settlements, burials and monuments, treatment of the dead, subsistence, mobility, continuities and discontinuities. The gathered data is immense and will be useful for many scholars as a solid and recent overview for these areas and also for students of the Neolithic (the summaries in German/English at the end can be used as fantastic shortcuts).

The compiled data are then compared in the culminating Chapter 7, which has the same title as the book. Some of the conclusions are not necessarily new or surprising but reflect the integration and adjustments of the applied new methods. Both areas adopted the Neolithic way of life at the same time (around 4100–3800 BC). This is understood here as a transformation, and the Mesolithic archaeological material is replaced with new types of sites and artefacts, such as non-megalithic long barrows, rectangular house plans, domesticated animals and plants, flint axes as well as ceramics, though the use of ceramics is already known earlier in the western Baltics. Though roughly around the same time, the incoming farmers may have originated from different areas; the genetic analyses show an affinity between the people in the British Isles and the western Mediterranean, while the people in the western Baltic show an ancestry with Anatolia and the Levant. In both areas, long barrows are the first types of large monuments (c. 4000 BC), in the British Isles megalithic graves (e.g. Medway tombs, portal tombs, Cotswold-Severn tombs) followed soon after whereas in the western Baltic they were being built from only about 3600 BC onwards (dolmens). Human remains were interned successively over time in most of these megalithic graves. Changes in the material culture demonstrate discontinuities for the British Isles: c. 3500/3000 BC with passage graves and Grooved ware; 2500/2300 BC with Beaker material; 2200/2000 BC with the use of tin-bronzes. For the western Baltic, discontinuities become apparent at: 3500–3300/3100–2900 BC with the main phase for collective burials in passage and gallery graves and early copper artefacts; 2900–2700 BC with the Schnurkeramik and single graves under shallow mounds; 2350/1950 BC Beaker material and beginning of the Late Neolithic, and an incoming population with steppe ancestry. Brinkmann’s final topic is on the social structure of the communities that built the megalithic graves. The archaeological material and the genetic analyses, at least for the Funnel Beaker culture, do not yield evidence for a highly hierarchical or institutionalised society and these elaborate collective graves were erected by co-operative communities.

With the plethora of mentioned finds, sites and dates through the wide space it would be easy to get lost along the way in the text, but the excellent illustrations keep the reader on track. Many of them are true info-graphics. By using the same style and colour themes and with a helpful chronology bar on most figures, the two regions and different subjects can easily be compared, which is no small achievement. Despite the often-complex topics and condensed information on the material, the writing stays remarkably clear and accessible for non-specialists (though they must be willing to plough through lots of detail).

The book will undoubtedly be a source for future research and hopefully more large-scale discussions will follow to lead to a deeper understanding of the Neolithic societies and their megaliths and possibly a consensus will be reached, especially for those areas still subject to heated debate.

Matthew Canti (ed.). 2026. The Stonehenge world: living, landscape, food and design at the time of our greatest monument. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press; 978-1-83624-585-8 hardback £40.

Stonehenge is one of the most recognisable European megalithic monuments. Its complex history, construction and meaning have been researched in depth over more than 100 years—Antiquity readers will be familiar with some of the outcomes—yet this new book promises something else: that is, to shed light on what life was like at the time from before (Late Mesolithic to Middle Neolithic) and during the construction and use of the monument (Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age, c. 3000–1500 BC). Matthew Canti, senior geoarchaeologist at Historic England, brings together a cast of experts to discuss a wide array of topics, which include the natural environment, subsistence and diet, clothing, houses and burials, social structure, depositions, design and technology. In all these areas, innovations in methods and technologies have delivered a range of new results in the past two decades, as presented in the books reviewed above. I was very excited to start reading this book but a few chapters in, I realised that much of it must have been written more than 10 years ago and only a few contributions seem to have been updated. The small number of recently published research citations seem to have been tagged on in extra sentences here and there, but they are by no means included in the discussion.

The 12 chapters look at different topics and show little integration with each other (apart from Chapters 7 & 11 on diet and technology). It would have been helpful (especially if aimed at the general public) to add a final short chapter bringing results together in a ‘diorama’ showing what Neolithic life at Stonehenge was probably like, according to the evidence—as the back of book promises “a wide view of the culture in a way which is usually only found in exhibitions”. Despite this promise and unlike in a (good) exhibition it is mostly left to the reader to piece all the information together.

Canti describes the geological background for the site and its implications for the land use, which leads on to the chapter on ‘Vegetations history’ (Hazell & Allen). The evidence is well presented: tiny plant pollen, snails and insects all give clues to certain habitats. But, since the record of this data is only localised and is often conflicting, no clear picture emerges. Over the long timeframe from the Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age, climate and with it vegetation changes are observed. At the time of the construction, the landscape probably consisted of a mosaic of habitats, with woodlands and open grassland areas, and Stonehenge was built in an open grassland area. From Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic times onwards, some land-clearing activities are noted. The scarce evidence for plant and animal resources tentatively suggests that, in the Late Neolithic, farming cereal took a step back (with an uptake again in the Early Bronze Age) and wild plants were more common and domesticated animals such as cattle, pigs and sheep/goats provided the main part of the meat (and milk) consumption (Chapter 4 by Pelling & Campbell; Chapter 5 by Worley; Chapter 7 by Campbell et al.). The focus then moves to the Neolithic people, Simon Mays and Sarah Starck deliver an overview of the research on human remains excavated in England, with 2000 Neolithic and 4000 Bronze Age people (half of which are cremations). However, this number appears to me to be very low, especially in comparison with the investigated funerary sites from these periods. More men than women or children are buried in the excavated graves but only a minority of the people were buried in these barrows or pits and there must have been other funerary rites that did not allow for the remains to survive (due to exposure or deposition in river). Early Bronze Age/Beaker people differ in varying degrees from the Neolithic population, they are taller by 50–60mm, have a shorter skull and have a genetic affinity with continental people, though only one true immigrant, the ‘Amesbury Archer’, is identified.

The scarce evidence of settlements is highlighted, and the small houses found at Durrington Walls, near Stonehenge, also reconstructed at the visitor centre, are probably the common type of building with a plan of approximately 5 × 5m (Chapter 8 by Greaney & Last). The newly reconstructed timber hall (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/search-news/220526-largest-ever-replica-of-a-pre-historic-building-at-stonehenge/), based on Durrington 68, is not mentioned. The chapters on ‘Depositional practice’ (by Last), ‘Design, clothing and personal adornment’ (by Sheridan with Campbell) and ‘Technology and domestic objects’ (by Brunning et al.) accentuate the everyday life of the Neolithic/Early Bronze Age people a bit better and seem more enduring in their relevance.

A huge amount of data is presented in the contributions, with a focus on the site and its surroundings but, as evidence is scarce in some areas, data from Wiltshire, southern England and further afield are also included to deliver a better picture. The book is aimed at the general public, with an emphasis on presenting the evidence in an accessible way, so concluding interpretations as well as open discussions are thoroughly grounded. The authors clearly explain what evidence was gathered, and why only certain types of material survive in the archaeological record in a certain way and how they can be analysed. Yet, the amount of listed evidence is in stark contrast to the few interpretations of them. Only a few chapters attempt to deliver a ‘vision’ of the life at the time of Stonehenge. This convoluted, evidence-heavy style is hardly accessible for a wider public. Since the research is mostly outdated by about 10 years, it is also only of limited use for specialists or students. I am well aware that some books take a long time to publish, but the reasons are usually outlined in the Introduction. It is bizarre that Historic England publishes this as a new book with state-of-the-art research, when it is clearly outdated. The readership deserves better for the flagship site of English Heritage and England’s greatest megalithic monument.

Fiona Robertson. 2025. Stone Lands: a journey of darkness and light through Britain’s ancient places. London: Little Brown; 978-1-4721-918-3 hardback £25.

The final book in this NBC is rather different from the previous research and evidence-laden books, and is more a tribute to the megalithic monuments themselves and what they mean to people today. Fiona Robertson, a writer, publisher and self-confessed megalith enthusiast, delivers with her book a beautifully written expression of her lifelong passion for these ancient stone monuments as well as a moving exploration of her grief at the passing of her much-loved husband, Stephen. Each chapter is structured around a visit to major centres of Neolithic-Bronze Age megalithic monumentality, spanning the length and breadth of Britain. Interwoven with these visits is a parallel narrative on the huge emotional challenges faced by Robertson and her family at each stage of Stephen’s illness, from the initial cancer diagnosis through to experimental treatments to bereavement and beyond. The core theme that runs through the book is that the extreme longevity of standing stones—“millennia-old witnesses to the sound and fury of human existence” (p.10) far outlast an individual’s lifespan—and that the experience of visiting these prehistoric monuments and “touching an ancient weather-scored pillar of granite, sandstone or quartz can make the drama of life seem, if only for a moment, small and far away” (p.10). Robertson is exploring why many people are so fascinated with these standing stones and monuments and what they mean to people today; more on a personal and emotional level than in a strict phenomenological sense—to her, they are ‘symbols of survival’.

Though not an archaeologist herself, the megalithic sites are meticulously researched with an extensive archaeological bibliography that reflects the current state of knowledge regarding the dating, construction and interpretations of the different sites. It covers antiquarians such as John Aubrey, “the first true stones obsessive” (p.8) who wrote the foundational Ur-text Monumenta Britannica in the seventeenth century, to the latest megalithic theories published in this journal and elsewhere. It reflects on the uneven histories of excavation and interpretation that each megalithic site has experienced; for example, about the scholarship on the lunar alignments at Callanish (Lewis), the latest perspectives on the debates over the movement of bluestones from the Preseli Hills (Wales) to Stonehenge and the discussion over the meaning of quartz in prehistory. It also incorporates the folklore, art, belief and emotions that megaliths inspire from a very wide range of people. The book’s minimalist illustrations include simple line-drawn archaeological site plans and beautiful drawings of megaliths as they are now.

Robertson is not only incredibly interested in megaliths but sees them as integral in celebrating the turning of the seasons in cyclical year of lunar and solar movements. Through her travels and research, she also found that many believe, as she does, that “individual standing stones have a character, even a consciousness of their own, that it is possible to interact with them, to learn and receive gifts from them” (p.128). Nevertheless, the book does not seek to propose or impose any unifying explanation for the stone monuments but rather opts for the idea that they are for everyone to enjoy and experience as they see fit. Whatever megaliths mean to people, it is sufficiently special to them that it ensures that they return again and again—whether for renewal, inspiration or pleasure. Robertson concludes that the ancient mystery of megaliths is integral to their appeal, because their endurance reminds us not only that “the past is always with us” (p.341) but also even in our technologically advanced twenty-first-century present, there is much that we do not know. The book makes a persuasive argument that today megalithic monuments are valued, venerated and re-visited due to the emotional experiences that they offer people in their lives, with visitors finding their own meaning, frequently regardless of archaeological research.

There are vivid and emotionally moving accounts of visits to stone circles, rows, tombs and monuments on island seascapes such as Scilly, Mull, Lewis and Orkney and to mainland megalithic landscapes of Wiltshire, Dartmoor, the Peak District and Cumbria that are sure to inspire some readers to make their own journeys. Being a prehistoric archaeologist reading the book, and having been to quite a few of the sites as well, there is much to enjoy and reflect upon—especially as I also enjoy dragging my husband (in my defence, he is also an archaeologist) and children on long walks in beautiful landscapes to ancient stone monuments. Part of each chapter involves the journey to the megalith with some of the most evocative passages of the book about walking through the landscapes, weather and wildlife to the monument, complete with bribing children with sweets, and the shared experiences of reaching and moving into the ‘ancient place’.

The book looks at the monuments from a very different angle from academic publications, yet it evokes the feelings that so many people have while visiting the stones, feelings that I believe many archaeologists partly share towards the sites and landscapes that they devote years or decades to investigating, though mostly unspoken. First and foremost, this book is a personal memoir combining the fascination for and interest in megaliths with the beautiful as well as traumatic memories of her husband. The journey Robertson takes us on is an enjoyable read, with lots of information about megaliths that many people may find resonates with their own reflections of marriage, family life and grief and cherishing the good times together.