Megalithic architectural elementsThis article describes several characteristic architectural elements typical of European megalithic (Stone Age) structures. In archaeology, a forecourt is the name given to the area in front of certain types of chamber tomb. Forecourts were probably the venue for ritual practices connected with the burial and commemoration of the dead in the past societies that built these types of tombs. In European megalithic architecture, forecourts are curved in plan with the entrance to the tomb at the apex of the open semicircle enclosure that the forecourt creates.
Platform moundA platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity. It typically refers to a flat-topped mound, whose sides may be pyramidal. The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years, starting in the Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period. Many different archaeological cultures (Poverty Point culture, Troyville culture, Coles Creek culture, Plaquemine culture and Mississippian culture) of North Americas Eastern Woodlands are specifically well known for using platform mounds as a central aspect of their overarching religious practices and beliefs.
Kofun systemThe ja is a social order seen in the construction of stylized Kofuns that appeared in the early Kofun period of Japan. It is believed to represent a new level of social complexity and the advent of the Yamato Kingship The concept was proposed in 1991 by Archaeologist Hiroshi Tsuide. In addition, Kazuo Hirose and Yoshiro Kondo have proposed similar concepts under the name of anterior-posterior tomb state and anterior-posterior tomb order, respectively, but the emphasis of the arguments differs among the theorists, and there are conflicting opinions, especially from the perspective of state formation theory.
Golasecca cultureThe Golasecca culture (9th - 4th century BC) was a Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age culture in northern Italy, whose type-site was excavated at Golasecca in the province of Varese, Lombardy, where, in the area of Monsorino at the beginning of the 19th century, Abbot Giovanni Battista Giani made the first findings of about fifty graves with pottery and metal objects. The culture's material evidence is scattered over a wide area of 20,000 km2 south of the Alps, between the rivers Po, Serio and Sesia, and bordered on the north by the Alpine passes.
Carnac stonesThe Carnac stones (Steudadoù Karnag) are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites near the south coast of Brittany in northwestern France, consisting of stone alignments (rows), dolmens (stone tombs), tumuli (burial mounds) and single menhirs (standing stones). More than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones were hewn from local granite and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany and form the largest such collection in the world. Most of the stones are within the Breton municipality of Carnac, but some to the east are within neighboring La Trinité-sur-Mer.
