Megalithic Wiki:About

The Megalithic Wiki at Wikia is intended as a wiki for detailed information about megaliths and megalithic sites around the world, including but not limited to dolmens, menhirs, cairns, standing stones, stone circles, henges, earthworks, etc. and including detailed descriptions, all possible interpretations (e.g. archaeoastronomy), GPS locations, original user photographs of megalithic sites (from all angles and positions), bibliographies of research materials, literature, books and book reviews, authors, websites, online journals (blogs), etc.

Terminology relating to megalithic sites is also to be included.

The Megalithic Wiki at Wikia is not intended to be a competitor to individual megalithic websites as published by numerous authors online. Indeed, these megalithic authors are urged to contribute articles, photographs, drawings and illustrations to Megalithic Wiki articles about megalithic sites with which such authors are familiar.

Ideally, the Megalithic Wiki should function as a world-wide compendium of megalithic sites, broadly defined and construed to include petroglyphs, with liberal reference to be given to research sources and reference materials, both online and offline.

We suggest that all new Megalithic Wiki authors start their first new Megalithic Wiki pages using the template format found at the Stonehenge page, but this is only a suggestion. All new pages can of course ultimately be designed as the users want these pages to be.

To use the Stonehenge template merely go to the Stonehenge page, click on "view source" in the menu (an edit is not possible because this page is protected) and then copy that source code into the editing box of any new page that you have created. If you retain the format and the commands found at that template, you merely then have to change the title, the information text of the Infobox, the photograph in the Photobox and the content text of the Textbox to have a ready-made addition to the Megalithic Wiki at Wikia.

The basic page for any megalithic site should contain only the basic information about that site. New pages should be created for special themes.

For example, we plan to write some material about Gerald S. Hawkins and the astronomical theories about Stonehenge elaborated in Hawkins' book Stonehenge Decoded. Some megalithic researchers give credence to some of the astronomical ties that Hawkins sees at Stonehenge, but others do not. For such disputed theories, special pages should thus be created, and this also applies to disputed theories posited by mainstream academia.

Similarly, one person may want a particular photograph on the main page, another person may prefer another photograph on that page. Accordingly, it makes no sense, for example, to make the main page of Stonehenge a battle ground for competing theories or for competing photographs, resulting in needless editing wars. The best solution is to permit free expression of views by the creation of many subsidiary pages to the main page for any megalithic site, a main page which itself should be kept clear of theories and should stick to the facts that are actually known and supported by original sources.