Stone Age builders had engineering savvy, finds study of 6,000-year-old monument
www.nature.com
A survey of the Dolmen of Menga suggests that the stone tomb’s Neolithic builders had an understanding of science.

The Neolithic farmers and herders who built a massive stone chamber in southern Spain nearly 6,000 years ago possessed a good rudimentary grasp of physics, geometry, geology and architectural principles, finds a detailed study of the site.

Using data from a high-resolution laser scan, as well as unpublished photos and diagrams from earlier excavations, archaeologists pieced together a probable construction process for the monument known as the Dolmen of Menga. Their findings, published on 23 August in Science Advances1, reveal new insights into the structure and its Neolithic builders’ technical abilities.

  • WatDabney@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    11·
    2 months ago

    Not to diminish either the abilities of the builders or the sincerity of the researchers, it strikes me that there’s sort of an anthropic principle dynamic going on here…

    That this structure exhibits sound building techniques essentially goes without saying, since it’s still standing. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t be, so researchers wouldn’t be able to study it and draw countervailing conclusions from it.