Dolmen

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Poulnabrone dolmen in County Clare, Ireland

A Dolmen (also known as cromlech, anta, Hünengrab, Hunebed, quoit, and portal dolmen) is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of three or more upright stones (megaliths) supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table). Most date from the early Neolithic period (4000 B.C.E. to 3000 B.C.E.). Dolmens were usually covered with earth or smaller stones to form a barrow, though in many cases that covering has weathered away, leaving only the stone 'skeleton' of the burial mound intact.

Etymology

Dolmen originates from the expression taol maen, which means "stone table" in Breton, and was first used archaeologically by Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne. The etymology of the German Hünenbett or Hünengrab and Dutch Hunebed all invoke the imagery of giants building the structures. Of other Celtic languages, "cromlech" derives from Welsh and "quoit" is commonly used in Cornwall. Anta is the term used in Portugal and dös in Sweden.

Dolmen sites

T-shaped Hunebed D27 in Borger-Odoorn, Netherlands.
Dolmen da Aboboreira, Baião, Portugal.
The dolmen Er-Roc'h-Feutet found in Carnac, in Brittany, France. An inscription proclaims ownership by the state of France.

Europe

Megalithic tombs are found from the Baltic Sea and North Sea coasts, south to Spain and Portugal. Hunebedden are chamber tombs similar to dolmens and date to the middle Neolithic (Funnelbeaker culture, 4th millennium B.C.E.). They consist of a kerb surrounding an oval mound which covered a rectangular chamber of stones with the entrance on one of the long sides. Some have a more complex layout and include an entrance passage giving them a T-shape. It has been suggested that this means they are related to the Passage graves found in Denmark and elsewhere.

Dolmen sites fringe the Irish Sea and are found in south east Ireland, Wales and Cornwall. In Ireland, however, dolmens are more to be found on the west coast, particularly the Burren and Connemara, where some of the more well known examples, such as Poulnabrone, are to be found. Examples have also been found in northern Ireland where they may have co-existed with the Court cairn tombs. It is thought that the dolmens themselves evolved from a simpler cist burial method.

Amongst the vast Neolithic collections of the Carnac stones, in Brittany, France, several dozen dolmens are found. And all around the country, several dolmens stand still, such as the ones of Passebonneau and des Gorces near Saint-Benoît-du-Sault.

In Spain dolmens can be found in Galicia (such as Axeitos, pictured below), Catalonia (like Romanyà de la Selva or Creu d'en Cobertella) and Andalusia (like the Cueva de Menga).

Many dolmens can be found all over Portugal, from the more simple ones to the more complex examples of megalithic architecture, such as the Almendres Cromlech or the Anta Grande do Zambujeiro.

In Mecklenburg and Pomerania (Germany) and Drenthe (Netherlands), large numbers of these graves were disturbed when harbours, towns and cities were built. The boulders were used in construction and road building. There are still many thousands left today in Europe; for example, more than a thousand on the island of Rügen alone.

The largest dolmen in Europe is the Browneshill Dolmen in County Carlow, Ireland. It's capstone weighs about 150 tonnes.

Asia

Similar tombs can be found all over the world. Korea has many of the Asian dolmens, dating from the 1st millennium B.C.E.. The dolmen in Ganghwa is a northern-type, table-shaped dolmen where ancestral rites were held. It is the biggest stone of this kind in South Korea, measuring 2.6 by 7.1 by 5.5 metres. The number of dolmens in North and South Korea, approximately 30,000, is about 40% of the total number of dolmens in the world.

There are also dolmens in Kerala, India, about 7 km from Marayoor, Kerala, near a small village of Pious Nagar, also known as Alinchuvad. These dolmens are set in clusters of two to five dolmens obviously for the burial of a family. There are hundreds of such dolmen clusters in the area. Apart from overground dolmens, underground burial chambers built with dressed stone slabs are also discovered in Marayoor. All these dolmens are made from heavy granite slabs, mined using primitive technology. This was a burial ground for several centuries for a noble tribal dynasty known as Adi Cheras.

An example of a go-board/southern-type dolmen on Ganghwa South Korea

Dolmen are generally classified in two types in East Asia. The table/northern-type and the go-board/southern-type. In the former, four stones were positioned to make the walls of a box and were capped by a stone which lay on top of the supports. The latter is characterized by underground burial with stones that supported the capstone.

The Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites are the location of hundreds of stone dolmen which were used as grave markers and for ritual purposes during the first millennium B.C.E. when the Megalithic Culture was prominent on the Korean Peninsula. The sites were designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. Korea is said to contain more than 40% of the worlds dolmen, which are mostly concentrated in these three sites.[1]

The megalithic stones are invaluable because they mark the graves of the ruling elite. Pottery, comma-shaped jewels, bronzes, and other funerary artifacts have been excavated from these dolmen. The culture of the people during this time can be gleaned from the evidence left by the dolmen. Additionally, the stones show how stone was quarried, transported, and used to build dolmen.

Dolmen in Korea have been dated to the seventh century B.C.E. in locations such as Gochang and the practice ended around the third century B.C.E. The dolmen culture is linked with the Neolithic and bronze cultures of Korea.

Middle East

Dolmens are also found in Syria, Jordan and Israel, in the Golan Heights.

Eurasia

Over 3000 dolmens and other structures can be found in the North-Western Caucasus region of Russia, where more and more dolmens are discovered in the mountains each year.


Most of them are represented by rectangular structures made of stone slabs or cut in rocks with holes in their facade. These dolmens cover the Western Caucasus on both sides of the mountain ridge, in an area of approximately 12.000 square kilometres of Russia and Abkhazia.

The Caucasian dolmens represent a unique type of prehistoric architecture, built with precisely dressed cyclopic stone blocks. The stones were, for example, shaped into 90-degree angles, to be used as corners or were curved to make a perfect circle. The monuments date between the end of the 4th millennium and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.E.

While generally unknown in the rest of Europe, these Russian megaliths are equal to the great megaliths of Europe in terms of age and quality of architecture, but are still of an unknown origin. In spite of the variety of Caucasian monuments, they show strong similarities with megaliths from different parts of Europe and Asia, like the Iberian Peninsula, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Israel and India. A range of hypotheses has been put forward to explain these similarities and the building of megaliths on the whole, but still it remains unclear.

Approximately 3.000 of these megalithic monuments are known in the Western Caucasus, but more are constantly being found, while more and more are also being destroyed. Today, many of these monuments are in great disrepair and will be completely lost if they are not protected from vandals and general neglect.

Architecture of Russian dolmens

File:Dolmen-doguab-1.jpg
A dolmen near Gelendzhik.

The dolmens have a limited variety in their architecture. The floor plans are square, trapezoidal, rectangular and round. All of the dolmens are punctuated with a portal in the centre of the facade. While round portholes are the most common, square ones are also found. In front of the facade is a court that usually splays out, creating an area where rituals possibly took place. The court is usually outlined by large stone walls, sometimes over a meter high, which enclose the court. It is in this area that Bronze and Iron Age pottery has been found - which helped date these tombs -, along with human remains, bronze tools and silver, gold and semi-precious stone ornaments.

The repertoire of decoration for these tombs is not great. Vertical and horizontal zigzags, hanging triangles and concentric circles are the most common motifs. One decorative motif that is quite common is found across the top of the porthole slab. It can best be described as a lintel held up by two columns. Pairs of breasts, done in relief, have also been found on a few tombs. These breasts usually appear above the two columns of the porthole decoration. Perhaps related to these are the stone plugs, which were used to block the porthole, and are found with almost every tomb. They are sometimes phallic-shaped.

Some unusual items associated with dolmens are big round stone balls, double balls and animal sculptures.

File:Dolmen pyramid in Mamed canyon.jpg
Dolmen pyramid in Mamed Canyon

One of the most interesting megalithic complexes – group of three dolmens - stands in a row on a hill above Zhane River on the Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar area near Gelendzhik, Russia. In this area there is a great concentration of all types of megalithic sites including settlements and dolmen cemeteries. Large stone mounds surrounded the two monuments.

The central dolmen is rectangular in plan, 4 x 4 meters, while the two flanking dolmens are circular, 4 and 5 meters in diameter. The two round dolmens had been bulldozed - probably in the 1950s - in order to harvest the surrounding trees, but the main structure of the central dolmen had not been damaged. One of the dolmens is very unique, with a secret entrance at the back of the chamber, and a façade, dummy entrance and courtyard on the front of the dolmen.

Russian dolmens and rituals

It is very difficult now to restore the rituals connected with the dolmens. Different dolmens are believed to have power in different areas, such as health, love, and family. People leave offerings at the appropriate dolmen to get help in each of the different areas of their lives.

The location of dolmens shows that they are occupying the even parts on the slopes of the hills, river terraces and not high mountains (maximum height up till 500-700 meters over the sea level). Only some single dolmens are located on the heights.

There is a source of water near dolmens all the time – 5-50 meters distance, and sometimes it can be underground. It tells about the importance of water in rituals of the dolmen builders. In most of the mythologies the water is the agent and principle of the birth, which can be connected to the motives of birth and death (alive or dead water) and be male or female. According to legends the dolmens have the special power to call the rain and we can see the zigzag ornament often on dolmens, which possibly means water as it was graphically imaged in many ancient cultures.

Dolmen with zigzag pattern near the Zhane River

Stone by itself is the material connected to the motives of death. It is the border between the world of the alive and the dead. The dolmen symbolised the mountain of the world, which got the dead to be born again. Naked women rub against the stones, scroll through the hole in stone, and drink water from the stone holes of dolmens to conceive a child.

The person buried in the dolmen was the medium between the world of the living and the gods. The dead were left in front of dolmen or were buried in the ground. After rotting, the bones and skull were put inside the dolmen. Later in time, the cult of the dead changed and the fear of the dead appeared. It is the time when the false-portal type of dolmens appeared. In order to stop the dead finding their way back in the world of the living, a convexity on a facade was made to simulate a stone plug, but the true hole is cut on the back side - on the north side of the dolmen, which was associated with the world of the dead. Sometimes it would be covered with soil, as it is the entrance to the underworld.

Gallery of images


External links


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  1. Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites World Heritage Site. Retrieved August 11, 2007.