Radiocarbon dates and Bayesian modeling support maritime diffusion model for megaliths in Europe.

ABSTRACT: There are two competing hypotheses for the origin of megaliths in Europe. The conventional view from the late 19th and early 20th centuries was of a single-source diffusion of megaliths in Europe from the Near East through the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coast. Following early radiocarbon dating in the 1970s, an alternative hypothesis arose of regional independent developments in Europe. This model has dominated megalith research until today. We applied a Bayesian statistical approach to 2,410 currently available radiocarbon results from megalithic, partly premegalithic, and contemporaneous nonmegalithic contexts in Europe to resolve this long-standing debate. The radiocarbon results suggest that megalithic graves emerged within a brief time interval of 200 y to 300 y in the secon

SUBMITTER: Schulz Paulsson B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6397522 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature