A History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1: From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries

by Mircea Eliade

Similar explanations of the megalithic complex have been proposed by other eminent prehistorians.19 However, these explanations were invalidated by the discovery of dating by the radioactivity of carbon and by dendrochronology.20 It has been possible to show that the megalithic sepulchers (“chamber tombs”) of Brittany were built before 4000 B.C. and that in England and Denmark stone tombs were being built before 3000 B.C.21 As for the gigantic complex of Stonehenge, it was thought to be contemporary with the Wessex culture, which was linked with the Mycenaean civilization. But analyses based on the recent methods prove that Stonehenge was finished before Mycenae; its last rebuilding (Stonehenge III) dates from 2100–1900 B.C.22 So too on Malta, the period represented by the Tarxien temples and the necropolis of Hal Saflieni had ended before 2000 B.C.; hence certain of its characteristic features cannot be explained by an influence from the Minoan Bronze Age.23 So the conclusion is inescapable that the European megalithic complex precedes the Aegean contribution.