An article published Friday in Science Advances detailed how Neolithic (Stone Age) farmers were far more scientifically savvy than Big Archaeology will usually admit.
The study argues that findings from the megalithic site known as Dolmen of Menga, in modern-day Spain, shows that its builders had a good, if rudimentary, grasp of physics, geometry, geology and architecture. Dolmen of Menga is roughly 1,000 years older than what Stonehenge is believed to be, suggesting our ancient ancestors knew how to create megalithic stone structures better than modern humans — in fact, we can’t even figure out how much of these megalithic sites were built because we can’t do this type of building without modern technology.
“These people had no blueprints to work with, nor, as far as we know, any previous experience at building something like this,” study co-author Leonardo Garcia Sanjuan, told Nature. “And yet, they understood how to fit together huge blocks of stone” with the type of “precision that would keep the monument intact for nearly 6,000 years.”
![](https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Dolmen_de_Menga._Interior_2-620x413.jpg)
By Pedro J Pacheco – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50206927
![](https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Dolmen_de_Menga_Antequera_interieur-464x620.jpg)
By Pedro J Pacheco – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50206927
![](https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Dolmen_de_Menga_Antequera-620x464.jpg)
By Pedro J Pacheco – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50206927
Such a feat is impossible with at least a basic understanding of scientific knowledge, the archaeologist added. The structure is made up of 32 enormous stone blocks from a quarry just a kilometer away (0.6 miles). (RELATED: Archaeologists Find ‘Stunning’ Ancient Burial Chamber In Surprising Place)
“I’ve always been amazed by the engineering skills needed to build this dolmen,” University College London archaeologist Michael Parker Pearson told the outlet. “This paper reveals just how precisely that has to have been done, with an extraordinary eye on dimensions and angles. With such big stones, they could not have afforded to make mistakes when manoeuvring them into position. If even just one was a few centimetres out, that would have been hard to correct once an upright stone was set in its trench.”
In addition to being a daunting and scientifically complex task, the region is seismically active. But none of the tremors have knocked Dolmen of Menga loose. “These people really knew what they were doing,” Garcia Sanjuan concluded.