Dolmen

In the first archaeological works, the term was used as a collective name for megalithic chamber tombs.

In English-language archaeological literature, the term is obsolete and applies to tombs whose initial design is not definable, or non-standard types that are not included in the category of gallery or corridor tombs. In French, the term is still popular. In Portugal, dolmens are usually called "anta", in Scandinavia - "des"; these words are part of the names of local dolmens.

In Russia, dolmens are traditionally called West Caucasian (now already Ural) stone tiled, composite and monolithic tombs. This applies to similar structures in other regions of the world.

In 1660, clergyman Johan Picardt from the small town of Cuvorden , in Drent , concluded that the dolmens were built by giants . Some time later, local authorities showed interest in these graves. Due to the fact that dolmen stones were used to strengthen dams, as well as for the construction of churches and houses, on July 21, 1734, the Drenthe Landscape Authority introduced a law on the protection of dolmens.

Only in 1912, several dolmens were carefully studied by specialists. Fragments of ceramics, flint axes, arrowheads, amber beads were found in dolmens, but only a few human remains - they are poorly preserved in sandy soil. Sometimes, judging by the shards found, the number of ceramic vessels reached 600. If we assume that for each deceased there were two or three vessels with food, then quite a lot of people were probably buried in some graves.

Most dolmens are located in Korea , India , North Africa (in Rocknia ), Western , Northern and Southern Europe.

The largest number of dolmens was found on the Korean Peninsula (see Dolmens in Kochkhan, Hwasun, and Kanghwado ); before the war of 1950-1953 there were about 80,000 of them; to date, at least 30,000 have survived ^[3] . In China, there are about 50 dolmens in Zhejiang and about 700 in Liaoning. Dolmen-type burials were also found in Japan , mainly in the north-west of Kyushu ^[4] . There are also dolmens in the countries of South and Southeast Asia - India , Indonesia , Taiwan and Vietnam . ^[5]

In Russia , in the Western Caucasus, there are a large number of dolmens. Caucasian dolmens were created during the early and middle Bronze Age from the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC and were used until the 1st millennium BC. e. ^[6] during the existence of dolmen culture . Also, megalithic structures were found on the island of Vera in the South Urals (Lake Turgoyak, Chelyabinsk Region).

In Israel , in the Gamla Nature Reserve, there is Givat Bazak - the largest dolmen field in the country. The area of ​​this field is 3.5 square meters. km, on which more than 700 dolmens were found. Ten of them were excavated by archaeologists, nine turned out to be empty, and in the tenth, a skeleton without a head and left leg was found, oriented to the east, of a later period than the dolmen itself. In general, dolmens were common in the early Bronze Age throughout the Middle East - for example, they are known in Jordan, in the Wadi-Zarqa Valley.

In Spain, on the outskirts of Roses (180 km northeast of Barcelona), province of Girona , on a hilltop, at the end of the 19th century. 3 dolmens were found, named Creu Cobertella, Del Cap de l'home and Llit de la Generala, which were studied in 1919 and again in 1925 by the famous researchers Pere-Bosch Gimpere and Luis Pericot . They attributed these dolmens to the ancient Greek period of Iberia and established the period of creation of 3500-3000 years. BC e. During the excavations, it was found that grapes were previously grown at the site of the dolmens installation and that there was a vast ancient settlement on the hillside, on the site of which is now the spa town of Roses.

In its simplest form, it is one stone placed on several others (sometimes one). The stones are large in size and weight . The most popular option is 3 stones, set in the shape of the letter P ( Stonehenge is built from many such elements).

In the most architecturally completed form (which is inherent in the dolmens of the North Caucasus ), the dolmen consists of five or six stone slabs and is a stone closed box: on four slabs placed vertically, the fifth lies; optionally, the sixth plate is the bottom. In the front transverse plate, as a rule, there is a hole - round (most often), oval, arched, sub-triangular or square in shape, which is closed with a stone cork - however, it may not be ( false portal dolmen ): in this case, the hole may be behind or on the side. Plates are often joined into a groove, there are practically no gaps. The side walls and the roof can protrude in front of the portal or facade, forming a portal niche, which was overlapped by a common roof or had an overlap of a separate slab.

A rare type is a monolithic dolmen . To date, there is only one such completed dolmen, located in the village of Volkonka, Lazarevsky district of Sochi. ^[7] This is a unique monument, the inner chamber of which is entirely carved into the rock through a single hole. Or, more likely, the cavity was chosen in the not very solid inner part of the sandstone rock.

A dolmen could be built openly on the surface of the earth, or a mound was poured over it, which subsequently could partially settle or be destroyed, as well as on the top of the mound. Sometimes dolmens took a more complex form: for example, they had an entrance gallery of standing plates, or arranged in the form of a large rectangular chamber, one of the longitudinal sides of which was approached by an entrance gallery (so that the whole structure took the form of the letter T ), or, finally, the dolmen turned in a series of longitudinal chambers that followed one after another, sometimes more and more expanding and deepening into the ground. The material from which dolmens were formed varies depending on the terrain: granite, sandstone, limestone.

Dolmens were built at different times by people of different cultures. In Western Europe, people who belonged to the culture of “funnel-shaped goblets,” got their name from the characteristic vessels used by them, were actively building. The stone for dolmens in Western Europe was often not cut down, but erratic boulders carried over from the Scandinavian ice age were used.

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  Restoration of overlap of dolmen 39-2 (mound 39, burial 2) by archaeologist A. D. Rezepkin. Treasures, Adygea, RF

The main function for dolmens of all types is funeral , which is confirmed by archaeological research ^[8] .

The orientation of the dolmens (the vector directed from the back wall to the facade slab. Approx. Author) on the terrain is different, but, as a rule, it fits into the arc of sunrise-sunset and the culmination of celestial bodies of the north-east-south-north-west. Only solitary monuments are directed to the north ... observations on individual monuments (the Psynak-1 complex, dolmen with cromlech of the Wolf Gate group, dolmen with the Mammadova Slit sighting) showed that they mark the points of sunrise and sunset on the days of the solstices and equinoxes .

- Kudin M. Dolmens and ritual // Sochi local historian. - Sochi, 1999. - Vol. four.

Such observations may indirectly confirm the assumption that the builders of dolmens were not alien to the solar cult .

• Dolmens of the Western Caucasus
• Stone box
• Monolithic Dolmen
• Tiled Dolmen
• Compound Dolmen

• Map of the location of dolmens on the planet
• Map of dolmens on the Korean peninsula at megalithic.co.uk
• Begyristine M.A. Stone industry of the Isibit dolmen (Sirauki, Navarra) in the context of dolmens of the peninsular Basque region // Guernica: electronic journal about the Basque culture, ISSN 1998-5096
• “Kolikho. Mystery of the Caucasus Dolmens on YouTube
• How dolmens are restored in the Caucasus