Editing Stone row (section)

==Description==
[[File:Alignement Kerlescan Carnac.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Parallel rows of upright, flat-sided stones set in a grassy field with trees in the background|Part of the [[Kerlescan]] alignment in Carnac, Brittany]]

The term alignment is sometimes taken to imply that the rows were placed purposely in relation to other factors such as other monuments or topographical or astronomical features. Archaeologists treat stone rows as discrete features however and alignment refers to the stones being lined up with one another rather than anything else. Their purpose is thought to be religious or ceremonial perhaps marking a processional route. Another theory is that each generation would erect a new stone to contribute to a sequence that demonstrated a people's continual presence.

Stone rows can be few metres or several kilometres in length and made from stones that can be as tall as 2m, although 1m high stones are more common. The terminals of many rows have the largest stones and other [[megalithic]] features are sometimes sited at the ends, especially burial [[cairn]]s. The stones are placed at intervals and may vary in height along the sequence, to provide a graduated appearance, though it is not known whether this was done deliberately. Stone rows  were erected by the later [[Neolithic]] and [[Bronze Age]] peoples in the British Isles, parts of [[Scandinavia]] and northern France. 

[[File:Castlenalacht3.jpg|thumb|[[Castlenalacht Stone Row]], [[County Cork]], Ireland]]
A well known example is the [[Carnac stones]], a complex of stone rows in [[Brittany]]. There are a number of examples on [[Dartmoor]] including the row at [[Stalldown Barrow]] and three rows at [[Drizzlecombe]] and the [[Hill O Many Stanes]] in Caithness. In Britain they are exclusively found in isolated moorland areas.