What is the coverage of the Megalithic Portal?

The Portal's coverage may well change in the future, but its current range and scope is summarised below:

British and other European sites
Basically, we attempt to cover pretty much everything from Palaeolithic sites up to 1000AD/CE (and later in some parts of the world). Megaliths (of course), other prehistoric and later sites including settlements that extend into Roman times . We also include most later sites up to 1000AD/CE, including pre-Norman crosses, brochs, Pictish stone slabs as well as ancient sacred springs and holy wells are also included as these are very hard to date. We include Polish / Slavic and Japanese hill forts and similar earthen sites which can be later medieval.

All these sites have main site entries and will be shown on the map by green or red symbols. You will need to look at the close-up maps to see these. Sites that we have no photographs of are shown green. As soon as we receive the first photograph of a site, the site entry is changed from a Text Page to a Photo Page. Then the symbol will show red on the close up maps. Photo captions should give information about the subject shown in the photograph. Fuller information including locations, access and nearest towns etc. will be found on the main sites. The Portal gives access to an enormous amount of information via the coloured icons on each site page - old and modern maps, aerial photos etc. etc. Just go and see what is available by clicking on any or all of the icons.

Exclusions
We don't include prehistoric flint find spots and flint scatters - apart from extremely important such as Boxgrove. We do now include most Roman sites so please help us expand our information in this area. We probably shouldn't try to include every Roman building everywhere as there are so many so we're concentrating on the important sites to begin with. We include important Early Medieval 'Dark Age' sites but nothing later than around 1000AD/CE. This means that medieval carvings of sheela-na-gigs, green men, fonts, most churches, castles and market crosses are beyond our remit (although a few later crosses have crept in, which is fine but we're not really focusing on these). We do accept photos of well houses and similar. These can be medieval or later, but the wells themselves are invariably much older and in most cases very hard to date. Photos of the nearby surrounding area and views from sites are welcome as well.

Churches
We allow photos of churches that are associated with Early Medieval 'Dark Age' / Viking era and similar dated sites outside Europe, as background or context to these sites. We have already stretched 'megalithic' to breaking point and beyond (!) so we can't include post 1000AD/CE churches unless they have early Christian or Viking carvings etc.

Modern Stone Circles and Monoliths
Just to make things more complicated - we do welcome site entries for modern and 'tribute' stone circles and monoliths, ie those created more recently than true prehistoric ones. This is partly to explain and date sites that can be confused with true ancient sites, and partly as a bit of fun and to appreciate the architecture of these sites. Standing stones and circles are still being built and we are always keen to see modern examples from all over the world.

Museums and Visitor Centres
We welcome contributions of Site Page entries for Museums, Visitor Centres and similar from anywhere in the world which have collections of prehistoric and other ancient artefacts that we cover. Photos can also include museum buildings and overviews of rooms/collections but should focus on the parts of the collection that are relevant to us.

International
Sites outside the UK and Europe are now a major part of the content of the Megalithic Portal and we aim ultimately to reach the same level of detail as we currently have with sites in Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain and Scandinavia. We need more of these and in particular, we need people with photographs and the knowledge to guide us to these places. Browse through the Gallery and you'll see we now cover the entire world, with some areas having more detail than others. Where there are gaps in your country we'd especially like to fill them to see what we have at present.

We are best known for our coverage of prehistoric sites of course, but we now also include sites of most types in the Classical and early historic periods, including ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman and related.

We also include 'pre Columbian' sites from the Americas and equivalent pre-contact or 'close to contact' sites from South America, Australia, New Zealand etc. up to around 1600AD. For places like India, China, the Far East and Japan we welcome information on ancient sites as well. Pease see the sorts of site we list at present and ask if you need assistance.

Other
Generally, anything else not mentioned above won't have a Site Entry and don't appear on our map. However there are exceptions so if you are not sure on whether to submit a site, please ask. We also like to showcase the very best landscape photographs and pictures of historic buildings so please send these in if you have particularly good examples to share.

Special events such as solstice celebrations and organised field trips are covered and we always like to see portraits of our contributors. We also have an Art Gallery but artistic interpretations of sites are not always linked to the main site pages.

Future Developments
The Portal will continue to change and expand. We are always receptive to new ideas and improvements. Make your views known by attaching comments to photographs and articles and by taking part in the forums. Click on the name of a contributor and you can email questions and comments