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Large T shaped Hunebed D27 in Borger-Odoorn, Netherlands.

A Megalithic tomb is an over ground burial place, built by Neolithic farming communities, from large stone slabs (megaliths) laid on edge, and which were then covered with earth or other, smaller stones. They are a type of chamber tomb, and the term is used to describe the structures built across Atlantic Europe, the Mediterranean and neighbouring regions, mostly during the Neolithic period. They differ from the contemporary long barrows through their structural use of stone and may contain cremations or articulated or disarticulated inhumations which were kept in the more accessible stone chambers, unlike those simply buried underneath barrows.

There is a huge variety of types and styles. The free-standing single chamber dolmens and portal dolmens found in Brittany, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Wales and elsewhere consist of a large flat stone supported by three, four or more standing stones. They were covered by a stone cairn or earth barrow.

Examples with outer areas, not used for burial are also known, the Court Cairns of south west Scotland and northern Ireland, the Severn-Cotswold tombs of south west England and the Transepted gallery graves of the Loire region in France share many internal features although the links between them are not yet fully understood. That they often have antechambers or forecourts is thought to imply a desire to emphasise a special ritual or physical separation of the dead from the living by the builders.

The Passage graves of Orkney, Ireland's Boyne Valley, and north Wales are even more complex and impressive, with cross shaped arrangements of chambers and passages. The workmanship on the stone blocks at Maeshowe for example is unknown elsewhere in north west Europe at the time.

Megalithic tombs appear to have been used by communities for the long-term deposition of the remains of their dead and some seem to have undergone alteration and enlargement. The organisation and effort required to erect these large stones mean that the societies concerned must have placed great emphasis on the proper treatment of their dead. The ritual significance of the tombs is supported by the presence of megalithic art carved into the stones at some sites. Hearths and deposits of pottery and animal bone found by archaeologists around some tombs also implies some form of burial feast or sacrificial rites took place there.

Further examples of megalithic tombs include the stalled cairn at Midhowe in Orkney and the passage grave at Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey.

Northern-style megalithic burial from Jukrim-ri, Gochang-eub, North Jeolla Province, Korea.

Most archaeologists are of the consensus that Northeast Asian megalithic traditions originated in Northeast China, in particular the Liao River basin. Koreans have noted that the structure of megaliths is geographically and chronologically distinct. They call the earliest megalithic burials "northern" or "table-style" because they feature an above-ground burial chamber formed by heavy stone slabs that form a rectangular cist. An oversized capstone is placed over the stone slab burial chamber, giving the appearance of a table-top. These megalithic burials date to the early part of the Mumun Pottery Period (c. 1500-850 B.C.) and are distributed, with a few exceptions, north of the Han River. A few northern-style megaliths in China contain grave goods such as Liaoning bronze daggers, prompting some archaeologists to interpret the burials as the graves of chiefs or preeminent individuals. However, whether a result of grave-robbery or intentional mortuary behaviour, most northern megaliths contain no grave goods at all.

These megalithic burials are distributed in the southern Korean Peninsula and it is thought that most of them date to the latter part of the Early Mumun or to the Middle Mumun Period. Southern-style megaliths are typically smaller in scale then northern megaliths. The interment area of southern megaliths has an underground burial chamber made of earth or lined with thin stone slabs. A large heavy capstone is placed over the interment area and is supported by smaller propping stones. Most of the megalithic burials on the Korean Peninsula conform to the southern type. Archaeologists estimate varyingly that there are 15,000 to 100,000 southern megaliths in Korea.

Representations of a dagger (right)and two human figures, one of which is kneeling (left), carved into the capstone of Megalithic Burial No. 5, Orim-dong, Yeosu, Korea.

As with northern megaliths, the excavated southern examples contain few, if any artifacts. However, some megalithic burials contain fine red-burnished pottery, bronze daggers, polished groundstone daggers, and greenstone ornaments. Southern megalithic burials are often found in groups, spread out in a line parallel with the direction of streams. Megalithic cemeteries contain burials that are linked together by low stone platforms made from river cobbles. Broken red-burnished pottery and charred wood found on these platforms has led archaeologists to hypothesize that these platform were sometimes used for ceremonies and rituals. The capstones of many southern megaliths have 'cup-marks' carvings. A small number of capstones have human and dagger representations.

These megaliths are distinct from other types by a burial shaft, sometimes up to 4 m in depth, that is lined with cobbles. A large capstone is placed over the burial shaft without propping stones. Capstone-style megaliths are the most monumental type in the Korean Peninsula, and they are primarily distributed near or on the south coast of Korea. It seems that most of these burials date to the latter part of the Middle Mumun (c. 700-550 B.C.), and they may have been built into the early part of the Late Mumun. An example is found near modern Changwon at Deokcheon-ni, where a small cemetery contained a capstone burial (No. 1) with a massive rectangularly-shaped stone-and-earthern platform. Archaeologists were not able to recover the entire feature, but the low platform was at least 56 X 18 m in size.

• Nelson, Sarah M.

1993 The Archaeology of Korea. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.