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Stone Age builders had engineering savvy, finds study of 6000-year-old monument

www.nature.com Stone Age builders had engineering savvy, finds study of 6000-year-old monument

A survey of the Dolmen of Menga suggests that the stone tomb’s Neolithic builders had an understanding of science.

Stone Age builders had engineering savvy, finds study of 6000-year-old monument

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Using data from a high-resolution laser scan, as well as unpublished photos and diagrams from earlier excavations, archaeologists pieced together a probable construction process for the monument known as the Dolmen of Menga.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

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