Transmission symbolique et la mer dans l’Europe mégalithique (4700–2500 cal av. J.-C.)

Abstract

This paper presents the summarized outcomes of a comparative study of the megalithic art in Europe in order to analyze and explain how inter-cultural exchange between prehistoric societies (∼4500–2500 cal BC) shaped megalithic art, and to theorize and interpret the significance and function of these images. New research is consistent with the conclusion that the Megalith builders undertook long-distance voyages enabled by skills in shipbuilding and navigation ∼2000 years earlier than the previously proposed Bronze Age date (Schulz Paulsson, 2017, 2019). The chronology and coastal setting of the ∼35,000 still existing European megalithic graves and standing stones, widespread trade in green stone artefacts and a shared symbolic universe indicate societies strongly associated with maritime environments. From several hundreds of these megaliths, especially from Brittany, Andalusia, Portugal, Galicia, Catalonia, Sardinia, the Maltese archipelago, Ireland and Scotland are paintings and engravings known, some are combined to form complex symbolic systems. Strikingly, identical motifs can be found along the coast separated by long distances. The transfer of symbols between the regions indicates transcultural encounters in all its variety from travels to population migration and the maritime transmission of similar cosmological worldviews.