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Megalithic Structures and Social Identities
The European Megalithic Studies Group Meeting 2010 in Kiel, organized by the Graduate School, took place from May 13 to 15. It brought together leading scientists from the fields of early monumentality and megalithic buildings from Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. They discussed how the phenomenon of monumental megalithic structures at such an early stage in the history of mankind could be connected to the formation and development of social identities. One of the questions in focus dealt with which concrete meanings were connected to the megaliths in prehistory. The scholars discussed different approaches, such as hermeneutic and contextual, in addition to structural approaches, model calculations regarding demography and an estimation of workload necessary, or considerations concerning the division of labour and social differentiation.
One common approach considered throughout all participating national scientific communities is the concept of cultural landscapes formed especially by megalithic buildings. Famous examples such as Carnac (Bretagne) and Stonehenge or Falbygden (Sweden) and the Altmark as well as Flintbek (both in Germany) could be compared during the meeting. It became clear that overlaps and similarities exist regarding concepts as well as contents of research. Furthermore, the meeting in Kiel showed that the different perspectives of the participating scientific communities can lead to fruitful and advanced results when discussed.
Text by Martin Furholt/Jirka Niklas Menke
Photo by Bente Majchczak