Discuss the possible significance of the Neolithic megaliths in northern Europe, including Carnac and Stonehenge

Question

Please provide the best answer for the statement.

Answer 1

1. Carnac’s east–west alignment suggests a connection to the rising and setting of the sun and to fertility rites. Some scholars speculate that the stones may have marked out a ritual procession route; others think they symbolized the body and the process of growth and maturation. The megaliths might also have stood in tribute to the strength of the leaders responsible for assembling them.
2. Stonehenge was a burial ground. Archaeologist Mike Parker-Pearson speculates that villagers would have transported their dead to the River Avon, then journeyed downstream, in a ritual symbolizing the passage to the afterlife, finally arriving at an avenue leading up to Stonehenge from the river.
3. Durrington Walls, about 2 miles north of Stonehenge, consists of a circular ditch surrounding a ring of very large timber posts. The circle was the center of a village consisting of as many as 300 houses. Its orientation toward the rising sun at the summer solstice suggests that the structure was a sign of the growing importance of agricultural production in northern Europe after 3500 BCE.
4. The complexity of all of the sites suggests that the late Neolithic peoples who built them were extremely social beings, capable of great cooperation.