Stone Age tombs said to emanate from France

They are called megaliths, and there are about 35,000 such monuments in Europe. The tombs of ancient Europeans, they began to appear thousands of years ago, ranging from single stones to complexes like Stonehenge.

For a century, archaeologists have debated how the knowledge to build them spread.

Analysis: Bettina Schulz Paulsson, a prehistoric archaeologist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden , says she has traced the first such tombs to northwestern France, about 6,500 years ago. (Stonehenge, by comparison, dates to around 2500 B.C.) The form then spread along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, as well as to England, Ireland and Scandinavia. Other researchers said they found the analysis persuasive.

Here’s what else is happening

Spain: Leaders of the Catalan independence movement will go on trial starting today at the Supreme Court. They face criminal charges including rebellion and violating court orders, and other European countries are watching closely. Here’s what to expect.