page_title: Megaliths in the Urals
section_title: Menhirs
hierarchical_section_title: Megaliths in the Urals / Menhirs
caption_attribution_description: English: Menhir at Akhunovo
context_page_description: In recent years, many megaliths have been discovered in the Urals: dolmens, menhirs and a large megalithic cultic complex on Vera Island.
context_section_description: The commonest megalithic structures of the steppe area of the Urals are menhirs. They are crude or roughly finished stones standing on the surface. This type of object is also found in forested areas, but very rarely and usually associated with dolmens. There are several types of menhirs in the Southern Urals: single, stone rows, complexes of menhirs, and circular structures of menhirs. 
  All discovered single menhirs are usually situated close to Bronze Age settlements or cemeteries. For this reason, archaeologists believe that they date from this period, and the evidence of limited excavations does not contradict this conclusion. 
  Stone rows are for the most part oriented in an east–west direction. The length of some known rows is 13-18 m. The most massive stones are situated in the center, forming the core of the composition. Topography of the stone rows (their location in landscape) is very variable and has no clear strong pattern. 
  An unexpected discovery is a circular structure of menhirs at the village of Akhunovo in Bashkiria. This is a circular structure with a diameter of about 25 m, and consisting of eight menhirs. The two largest stones are aligned in the north–south direction inside the ring. One of these central stones is surrounded by a ring (diameter 3.5 m) of post holes. The position these holes precisely repeats the structure of the whole stone ring, each hole corresponds to a menhir of the ring.
caption: Menhir at Akhunovo.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS CORPORATION", "Image Model": "C8080WZ", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "v757-76", "Image DateTime": "2008:10:06 12:49:07", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "550", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 20, 0, 1, 0, 20, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4084", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4541", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:10:06 12:49:07", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:10:06 12:49:07", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "77/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2448", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1268", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}