Dolmen

Dolmens (also known as cromlechs, Hünengräber, Hunebedden and quoits) are megalithic tombs consisting of large stones (megaliths) set in formation and originally covered with earth or smaller stones. In many cases the covering has been weathered away leaving only the stone 'skeleton' of the monument. They are a single-chamber type of megalithic tomb.

"Dolmen" 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.

Dolmen sites

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 BC). 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.

Amongst the vast neolithic collections of the Carnac stones, in Brittany, France, several dozen dolmens are found.

In Spain dolmens can be found in Galicia (such as Axeitos, pictured below) and Catalonia (like Romanyá de la Selva).

In Mecklenburg, Pomerania and Drenthe, Netherlands, large numbers of these graves were disturbed when 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.

Asia

Similar tombs can be found all over the world. Korea has many of the Asian dolmens, dating from the 1st millennium BC. 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. There are also dolmens in Kerala, India, about 7 km from Marayoor, Kerala, near the small village of Piousnagar.

Middle East

Dolmens are also found in Syria 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.

Other photos

Image:hunebed-d27-vg.jpg|Hunebed D27 (pictured above) in 1924. Image:Dolmen axeitos.JPG|Dolmen de Axeitos, Galicia, Spain. Image:Chûn Quoit (small).jpg|Chûn Quoit, in Penwith, Cornwall, UK. Image:DolmenDuch.jpg|Dolmen Duh, region Gelendzhik, Krasnodarski Krai, Russia.

External links

Death customs | Megalithic monuments | Monument types | Stone Age

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