There’s a fascinating new paper on ancient sea-travel routes in northern Europe, and a resulting coherent diffusion of stone-circle building… “Radiocarbon dates and Bayesian modeling support maritime diffusion model for megaliths in Europe”.

Now we have to be a little sceptical here, because… i) it seems increasingly easy to get questionable headline-grabber papers past peer-review and into the PNAS journal, judging by other recent examples; ii) the study is partly based on computer-modelling and statistical re-shaping, a method which has its own inherent problems; and iii) stone circles in remote coastal areas are far more likely to have survived into the historical record.

That said, the new paper does present an intriguing prehistoric proposition and has good evidence to support it…

“We argue for the transfer of the megalithic concept [of stone circles] over sea routes emanating from northwest France, and for advanced maritime technology and seafaring in the megalithic Age.”