Atlantic Europe is the zone par excellence of megalithic monuments, but these form only part of a much broader and more numerous category of earthen and stone constructions. A single basic concept lies behind this volume: that the intrinsic qualities encountered within the diverse landscapes of the region both informed the settings chosen for the monuments and played a role in determining their form and visual appearance. This in part derives from the use of local materials, and the manner in which they were displayed within the monuments: for example how stone, clearly taken from the local geology, was visibly incorporated. Yet we may go further than this in some instances and propose that the nature of local landforms did themselves both attract monuments, providing meaningful or dramatic settings, and provide a series of ideas which played some part in influencing the form of those monuments. Monuments and Landscape in Atlantic Europe goes significantly beyond the limits of existing debate by inviting archaeologists from different countries within the Atlantic zone to examine the relationship between landscape features and prehistoric monuments in their specialist regions.
By placing the issue within a broader regional and intellectual context, the authors illustrate the diversity of current archaeological ideas and approaches converging around this central theme. The regions represented include Britain, France, Ireland, Spain and Sweden. The result constitutes a remarkable testament to the convergence of conceptual approaches to prehistoric monuments in the diverse landscapes and diverse intellectual traditions of Atlantic Europe.