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Severalmegalithic architectural elements are characteristic of EuropeanStone Age structures.
Inarchaeology, a forecourt is the name given to the area in front of certain types ofchamber tomb. Forecourts were probably the venue forritual practices connected with the burial and commemoration of the dead in the past societies that built these types oftombs.
In Europeanmegalithic architecture, forecourts are curved in plan with the entrance to the tomb at the apex of the open semicircle enclosure that the forecourt creates. The sides were built up by either large upright stones or walls of smaller stones laid atop one another.
Some also had paved floors and some hadblocking stones erected in front of them to seal the tomb such as atWest Kennet Long Barrow. Their shape, which suggests an attempt to focus attention on the tomb itself may mean that they were used ceremonially as a kind of open air auditorium during ceremonies. Excavation within some forecourts has recovered animalbone,pottery and evidence of burning suggesting that they served as locations forvotive offerings or feasting dedicated to thedead.
Inarchaeology, kerb or peristalith is the name for a stone ring built to enclose and sometimesrevet thecairn orbarrow built over a chamber tomb.
Europeandolmens, especiallyhunebed anddyss burials, often provide examples of the use of kerbs inmegalithic architecture but they were also added to other kinds of chamber tomb. Kerbs may be built in adry stone wall method employing small blocks or more commonly using larger stones set in the ground. When larger stones are employed, peristalith is the term more properly used. Often, when the earth barrow has been weathered away, the surviving kerb can give the impression of being astone circle although these monuments date from considerably later. Excavation of barrows without stone rings such as Fussell's Lodge inWiltshire suggests that, in these examples, timber or turf was used to define a kerb instead.
In theBritish Isles, the enclosing nature of kerbs has been suggested to be analogous to laterNeolithic andBronze Age stone andtimber circles andhenges which also demonstrate an attempt to demarcate a distinct,round area forritual orfunerary purposes. Famous sites with kerbs includeNewgrange where many of the stones are etched withmegalithic art. An example of the dry stone wall type of kerb can be seen atParc le Breos inWales.
An orthostat is a large stone with a more or less slab-like shape that has been artificially set upright (so a cube-shaped block is not an orthostat).Menhirs and otherstanding stones are technically orthostats although the term is used byarchaeologists only to describe individual prehistoric stones that constitute part of larger structures. Common examples include the walls ofchamber tombs and othermegalithic monuments, and the vertical elements of the trilithons atStonehenge. Especially later, orthostats may be carved with decoration inrelief, a common feature ofHittite architecture andAssyrian sculpture among other styles. In the latter case, orthostats are large thin slabs ofgypsum neatly and carefully formed, for use as a wall-facing secured by metal fixings and carrying reliefs, which were then painted.
Many orthostats were a focus formegalithic art, as atKnowth in Ireland.
In the context ofclassical Greek architecture the termorthostate is usually used.
Inmegalithicarchaeology a port-hole slab is the name of an orthostat with a hole in it sometimes found forming the entrance to a chamber tomb. The hole is usually circular but square examples or those made from two adjoining slabs each with a notch cut in it are known. They are common in thegallery graves of theSeine-Oise-Marne culture.
Portal stones are a pair of Megalithic orthostats, usually flanking the entrance to achamber tomb or opposite the axial stone of anaxial stone circle. They are commonly found indolmens. Examples may be seen atBohonagh andKnocknakilla.
A trilithon (or trilith) is a structure consisting of two large vertical stones supporting a third stone set horizontally across the top. Commonly used in the context ofmegalithic monuments, the most famous trilithons are those atStonehenge and those found in theMegalithic Temples of Malta.
The wordtrilithon is derived from theGreek "having three stones" (tri - "three",lithos - "stone") and was first used byWilliam Stukeley. The term also describes the groups of three stones in the Hunebed tombs of the Netherlands and the three massive stones forming part of the wall of theTemple of Jupiter atBaalbek, Lebanon.[1]
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