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MENHIRS

Standing stones or menhirs (because of their large size, called megaliths) are stones set vertically in the ground and in many different varieties; like dolmens, they are often found at strategic or regionally interesting points. They can either stand alone or be place in groups in rows or in circles; where they appear in groups together, they are called megalithic monuments. Standing stones are found throughout the world (in particular in Brittany and on the British Isles) with no known or documented history; they are usually difficult to date: pottery found underneath, connects some of them with the Beaker people, however others appear to be earlier or later.

The term statue menhir stands for a class of menhirs in which the anthropomorphism is expressed in a fuller and more developed way. A statue menhir is a large upright type of carved standing stone created during the Late European Neolithic. The statues consist of a vertical slab with a human figure cut into it, sometimes with clothing or weapons visible. Menhirs are widely distributed across Europe, Africa and Asia, but they are most commonly found in Western Europe, in particular in south and west France, Corsica and Italy. The word menhir is a combination of two words found in the Breton language; men (stone) and hir (long).
Their shape is generally rough and squared, often making thinner towards the top.
The function of Menhirs has stimulated more debate than practically any other issue in European pre-history; practically nothing is known of the social organization. They originate from many different periods across pre-history and were erected as part of a larger Megalithic culture that flourished in Europe. The tradition of the megalith design could arise, however, only at places where such big stones were available and could also be transported with the available means of the time and where there was a similar common belief: the hope for a life after death.
We know from the local finds that they buried their dead, and they had the skills to grow cereal, farm, and make pottery, stone tools and jewellery.
It is likely that many had a functionality involving fertility rites and seasonal cycles. The equinoxes, solstices, and lunar months were all apparently indicated by the alignment of the menhirs. All the astronomically significant elements of the Solar and Lunar Calendar could have been perfectly identified.
Therefore, it can be supposed that these megalithic complexes function as astronomical instruments in order to constitute a primitive but precise calendar of the monthly phases of the sun and moon, revealing the variation of the season and the agricultural cycles connected with them.

In Sardinia, there are innumerable traces of an ancient megalithic cultures: dolmen, narrow hall tombs and other megalithic pre-nuraghic formations, offer an picture of the megalithic cultures. But this left the most significant monuments in the form of closely spaced groups of menhirs placed in blocks.
The Menhirs stones, which are called "Perdas Fittas" or "Perdas Longas" in the Sardinian language were probably connected to a religion of agricultural fecundity or a religion of veneration of ancestors. They are dated to the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods.
There was a considerable civil evolution in the Copper Age, characterised by different aspects of material culture. The religious practices led to the development of artistic production in ceramic and stone.
As a result there was a further development of megalithic constructions, with the erection of collective burial places: one hundred and forty dolmens and cromlechs (circular structures surrounded by artificial or natural menhirs).
The first fortification appeared. Reasons of defence and control they presuppose the existence of political and military leaders belonging to a dominant class of warriors, necessary for the cohesion of the communities which had become aggressive.
There were the first form of accumulation of wealth and specialisation of roles, while craftsmen were particularly actives in the field of metallurgy. Great armed menhir statues of stone, found in the central Sardinia, representing heroic ancestors, illustrate this socio-cultural change.

The phenomenon of statue menhir in Sardinia is characteristic of the territory around Laconi.
In Laconi, there is the highest number of menhirs in Sardinia, with dozens of proto-anthropomorphic, anthropomorphic and stele statues. A religious complexes, consisting of cromlech (prehistoric megalithic monument made up of stone circles) and lined-up menhirs with gallery-dolmen (a prehistoric stone chamber tomb disposed to form a gallery) are still visible in the countryside of Laconi.