Pre and Protohistoric Stone Architectures: Comparisons of the Social and Technical Contexts Associated to Their Building

Contents

Préface – Catherine Perlès ;
Prefacio – Primitiva Bueno-Ramírez ;
Chapter 1: Stonemasons, and even engineers, for megalithic building in Neolithic Europe? / Des maçons, voire quelques ingénieurs, pour le bâti mégalithique du Néolithique européen ? – Luc Laporte, Florian Cousseau, Philippe Gouézin, José-Antonio Linares-Catela and Hélène Pioffet ;

Part I: Big and Small Stones for megaliths ;
Chapter 2: Dry stone, old but innovative / Pierre sèche, ancestrale et innovante – Eric Vincens, Nathanaël Savalle and Claire Cornu ;
Chapter 3: Megalithic architectures: a methodological experience to study their elevation / Architectures mégalithiques : une expérience méthodologique pour étudier leurs élévations – Florian Cousseau ;
Chapter 4: Raised stones in the open and raised stones in burial chambers: Towards a convergence of the arrangements. The example of the megaliths in the department of Morbihan / Pierres dressées à l’air libre et pierres dressées des espaces sépulcraux Vers une convergence des dispositifs. L’exemple des mégalithes du département du Morbihan – Philippe Gouézin ;
Chapter 5: Techniques and criteria for the geometric documentation of the excavation of the dolmen ‘Alto de la Huesera’ (Álava, Spain) and its virtual reconstruction / Técnicas y criterios para la documentación geométrica de la excavación del dolmen « Alto de la Huesera » (Álava, España) y su reconstrucción virtual– Javier Fernández-Eraso, José A. Mujika-Alustiza, José M. Valle-Melón and Álvaro Rodríguez-Miranda ;
Chapter 6: Where were the dead buried in Recent Prehistory? The problem of architectures versus chronologies in Central Alentejo (Portugal) / Onde se enterravam os nossos mortos na Pré-história Recente? : O problema das arquiteturas versus cronologias no Alentejo Central (Portugal) – Leonor Rocha ;

Part II: Enclosures, Tower-tombs and ‘Temples’ ;
Chapter 7: The tower-tombs of Arabia from the 4th to the 3rd millennium BC: a standardised megalithic architecture for egalitarian societies? / Les tombes tours d’Arabie du 4ème au 3ème millénaire av. J.-C. : une architecture mégalithique standardisée pour des sociétés égalitaires ? – Tara Steimer-Herbet and Marie Besse ;
Chapter 8: ‘Temples’ or merely Buildings for Congregation? The prehistoric megalithic structures of Malta (3600-2500 BCE) / “Templi” o semplicemente edifici per la congregazione? Le strutture megalitiche preistoriche di Malta (3600-2500 a.C.) – Anthony Bonanno ;
Chapter 9: Stone architectures: entrances of Neolithic enclosures in Western France (5th-3rd millennium BC) / Architectures en pierre : les systèmes d’entrées des enceintes néolithiques de l’ouest de la France (Ve-IIIe mill. av. J.-C.) – Jean-Noël Guyodo, Audrey Blanchard and Luc Laporte ;
Chapter 10: Architectural study of an Iron Age rampart undergoing destruction: Guennoc Island, Landéda (Finistère, France) / Étude de l’architecture d’un rempart de l’âge du Fer en cours de destruction : l’Île Guennoc à Landéda (Finistère, France) – Hervé Duval, Florian Cousseau, Chloë Martin and Marie-Yvane Daire ;
Conclusion – Florian Cousseau and Luc Laporte ;

Abstracts ;
Bibliography ;
Authors

About the Author

Florian Cousseau is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). His work focuses on megalithic architecture in Western Europe for which he has developed a new methodology. ;

Luc Laporte is Research Director at CNRS (France). He is a specialist in the Neolithic period in Europe, and on the subject of megaliths in general. He has published widely on the megaliths of western France, Western Europe, and Africa, for the Neolithic and Protohistoric periods.