Researchers from the University of Seville have participated in a study carried out at the Menga Dolmen (Antequera, Malaga) that shows the advanced architectural and engineering techniques used for its construction, which experts set 6000 years ago. The results of this work are shown in an article published in the journal Science Advances (Science Group) entitled ’Early science and engineering of colossal stones in Menga, a Neolithic dolmen (Antequera, Spain)’. in which nine specialists from different institutions such as the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC), the University of Alcalá de Henares (UAH), the University of Seville (US), the University of Salamanca (USAL), the University of Granada (UGR) and the Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences (IACT-CSIC-UGR) have collaborated.
In this work, a highly detailed scientific examination has been carried out, never before performed on any dolmen construction at the international level, which reveals the engineering and architectural techniques employed in the construction of the Mega dolmen, flagship of the Dolmens of Antequera Site, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since July 2016. Specifically, this study is based on the analysis of the angles of the planes of each stone, the stratigraphic polarity of each structural element and on the depth of the foundations. It is also verified the presence of innovative solutions to stability problems through the underground design of the monument, the placement of pillars and unloading arches, similar to what is used in cathedrals. In addition, up to three different cuts were made in each stone, with predetermined angles, to achieve support and consolidation in the structure of the building. It also highlights the use of the unloading arch principle almost 6,000 years ago, with the convex geometry that was given to the number 5 cover which marks an innovative breakthrough in early architectural engineering, never before recorded. The data now published also indicate that the huge stones were placed without the aid of ascending ramps, but were transported by sledges along the longitudinal axis of the dolmen, from a quarry located 50 m above and at a distance of almost 1 km.
All this, combined with the previously obtained and published data on the provenance of the gigantic stones used to build this dolmen, reveals the existence of previously unsuspected scientific knowledge and extraordinary inventive brilliance among the Neolithic communities in the south of the Iberian Peninsula that built this great edifice, approximately 5800 to 5600 years ago. From sophisticated knowledge of engineering, geology, geometry and astronomy, these great anonymous architects dared to design and build not only one of the first engineering monuments of mankind made with titanic stones, some of them weighing 150 tons, but a building of great stability and solidity that continues to amaze almost six thousand years after its construction. An example of this is the No. 5 shelter, the heaviest stone ever used in a dolmen building and the second one used throughout Europe as part of the megalithic phenomenon after the great Brisé menhir (Locmariaquer, Brittany, France).
The recently published study, which has taken almost ten years of multidisciplinary work, shows that the inhabitants of the Antequera region had not only advanced knowledge of an early science, but also the manpower and logistical capacity to successfully complete the construction of a building for which there was no previous experience or reference in the Iberian Peninsula at that time. Above all, it is important to note that this unprecedented feat was born of empirical knowledge and scientific experience, with advanced engineering, indicating the evolved intellectual, practical and technical capabilities of Neolithic societies.
All in all, the research now published reveals an early convergence of knowledge in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, which may have served as a precursor of the advances observed later in other European and Mediterranean societies and civilizations. This suggests the great precocity of the technical and scientific developments existing in the European Neolithic, well before those deployed among the first state societies of the Near East and Egypt - as a reference, it is worth saying that the famous step pyramid of Zoser, the oldest in Egypt, is 1000 years later than the dolmen of Menga and the oldest levels of Stonehenge.
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