Interpretive illustration of a typical Menhir (standing stone)

Menhir (standing stone)

Latheron, 2 standing stones

United Kingdom

DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE

No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.

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Overview

About this site

Overview

Latheron, 2 standing stones is a menhir in Highland, United Kingdom. It lies at 58.2849° N, 3.3674° W.

Catalogue recordSources and licences

Where it sits in time

The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.

The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.

Est. 2800–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical for this type

What this badge meansThe published range for this kind of monument in this region. It is not a date for this site.
Source for this date

Article

Latheron, 2 standing stones

2 min read281 words

Context

Sources for this section

Britain and Ireland are rich in standing stones; the Atlas records many hundreds. Together with Brittany they hold about 50,000 examples across the Atlantic fringe of Europe, and many stand singly in fields. In Ireland they are usually in farmers' fields and are heavily worn by weather and by livestock rubbing against them. The stones are usually difficult to date. They were put up in many periods of prehistory as part of the wider megalithic cultures, and any single stone may be Neolithic, Bronze Age or later. Theories about their purpose remain speculative: rituals, territorial markers, or markers in a system of belief. The regional background, “British and Irish standing stones”, is given below.

Dating

Sources for this section

No scientific date has been published for this site. Monuments of this type in United Kingdom are generally dated 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE; the site itself may fall inside or outside that range.

Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.