Dolmen La Sergenté, Jersey

A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (40003000 BCE) and were sometimes covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus (burial mound). Small pad-stones may be wedged between the cap and supporting stones to achieve a level appearance. In many instances, the covering has eroded away, leaving only the stone "skeleton".

In Sumba (Indonesia), dolmens are still commonly built (about 100 dolmens each year) for collective graves according to lineage. The traditional village of Wainyapu has some 1,400 dolmens.

Etymology

Celtic or French

The word ''dolmen'' entered archaeology when Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne used it to describe megalithic tombs in his (1796) using the spelling ''dolmin'' (the current spelling was introduced about a decade later and had become standard in French by about 1885). Some sources indicate that dolmen is Breton, although the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') describes its origin as "Modern French" and argues that de la Tour d'Auvergne used the Cornish word for a cromlech, ''tolmên'', but misspelled it as ''dolmin'', and other sources refer to dolmen as a "continental term." Whatever the origin, dolmen has replaced ''cromlech'' as the usual English term in archaeology, when the more technical and descriptive alternatives are not used. The later Cornish term was ''quoit'' – an English-language word for an object with a hole through the middle preserving the original Cornish language term of – the name of another dolmen-like monument is Mên-an-Tol 'stone with hole' (Standard Written Form: ''Men An Toll''.)

In Irish Gaelic, dolmens are called .

Germanic

Dolmens are known by a variety of names in other languages, including Galician and , , , Afrikaans and , , Abkhaz: , Adyghe:

Danish and , , , and . ''Granja'' is used in Portugal and Galicia. The forms ''anta'' and ''ganda'' also appear. In Catalan-speaking areas, they are known simply as , but also by a variety of folk names, including ('cave'), ('crate' or 'coffin'),Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B
"caixa"
(in Catalan). In: ''Diccionari català-valencià-balear''. Palma: Moll, 1930–1962. . ('table'),Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B
"taula"
(in Catalan). In: ''Diccionari català-valencià-balear''. Palma: Moll, 1930–1962. . ('chest'), ('hut'), ('hut'), ('slab'), ('pallet slab'), ('rock') or ('stone'), usually combined with a second part such as ('of the Arab'), ('of the Moor/s'), ('of the thief'), ('of the devil'), ('of Roland'). In the Basque Country, they are attributed to the ''jentilak'', a race of giants.

The etymology of the and – with ''/'' meaning 'giant' – all evoke the image of giants buried (// = 'bed/grave') there. Of other Celtic languages, Welsh was borrowed into English and ''quoit'' is commonly used in English in Cornwall.

Western Europe

The oldest dolmens found in Western Europe are roughly 7,000 years old. Although archaeological evidence is unclear regarding their creators, the structures are often associated with tombs or burial chambers. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have been found in proximity of dolmen sites. While the remains can by analyzed with radiocarbon dating, it is difficult to confirm whether said remains coincide with the date the stones were originally set in place.

Early in the 20th century, before the advent of scientific dating, Harold Peake proposed that the dolmens of western Europe were evidence of cultural diffusion from the eastern Mediterranean. This "prospector theory" surmised that Aegean-origin prospectors had moved westward in search of metal ores, starting before 2200 BCE, and had carried with them the concept of megalithic architecture.

Middle East

Dolmens can be found in the Levant, some along the Jordan Rift Valley (Upper Galilee in Israel, the Golan Heights,Megalithic Structures in the Golan and the Galilee Reveal Rock Art of a Mysterious Ancient Culture
Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority, New York,12 July 2020. Accessed 12 Nov 2023. Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and southeast Turkey.James A. Fraser, ''Dolmens in the Levant'', 1st ed., 2018
"Description"
Routledge homepage. Access 12 Nov 2023.

Dolmens in the Levant belong to a different, unrelated tradition to that of Europe, although they are often treated "as part of a trans-regional phenomenon that spanned the Taurus Mountains to the Arabian Peninsula." In the Levant, they are of Early Bronze rather than Late Neolithic age. They are mostly found along the Jordan Rift Valley's eastern escarpment, and in the hills of the Galilee, in clusters near Early Bronze I proto-urban settlements (3700–3000 BCE), additionally restricted by geology to areas allowing the quarrying of slabs of megalithic size. In the Levant, geological constraints led to a local burial tradition with a variety of tomb forms, dolmens being one of them.

Korea

Dolmens were built in Korea from the Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, with about 40,000 to be found throughout the peninsula. In 2000, the dolmen groups of Jukrim-ri and Dosan-ri in Gochang, Hyosan-ri and Daesin-ri in Hwasun, and Bujeong-ri, Samgeori and Osang-ri in Ganghwa gained World Cultural Heritage status. (See Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites.)

They are mainly distributed along the West Sea coastal area and on large rivers from the Liaoning region of China (the Liaodong Peninsula) to Jeollanam-do. In North Korea, they are concentrated around the Taedong and Jaeryeong Rivers. In South Korea, they are found in dense concentrations in river basins, such as the Han and Nakdong Rivers, and in the west coast area (Boryeong in South Chungcheong Province, Buan in North Jeolla Province, and Jeollanam-do. They are mainly found on sedimentary plains, where they are grouped in rows parallel to the direction of the river or stream. Those found in hilly areas are grouped in the direction of the hill.

India

Marayoor, Kerala

Also called Muniyaras, these dolmens belong to the Iron Age. These dolmenoids were burial chambers made of four stones placed on edge and covered by a fifth stone called the cap stone. Some of these Dolmenoids contain several burial chambers, while others have a quadrangle scooped out in laterite and lined on the sides with granite slabs. These are also covered with cap stones. Dozens of dolmens around the area of old Siva temple (Thenkasinathan Temple) at Kovilkadavu on the banks of the River Pambar and also around the area called Pius nagar, and rock paintings on the south-western slope of the plateau overlooking the river have attracted visitors.

Apart from the dolmens of Stone Age, several dolmens of Iron Age exist in this region especially on the left side of river Pambar as is evident from the usage of neatly dressed granite slabs for the dolmens. At least one of them has a perfectly circular hole of 28 cm diameter inside the underground chamber. This region has several types of dolmens. Large number of them are overground with about 70–90 cm height. Another type has a height 140–170 cm. There is an overground dolmen with double length up to 350 cm. Fragments of burial urns are also available in the region near the dolmens. This indicates that the dolmens with 70–90 cm height were used for burial of the remains of people of high social status. Burial urns were used for the burial of the remains of commoners. The dolmens with raised roofs might have been used for habitation of people. Why some people lived in the cemeteries has not been satisfactorily explained.

Types

*
*
*
*
*

File:Trethevy Quoit from the South - geograph.org.uk - 362250.jpg, Trethevy Quoit – one of the best-preserved in Cornwall, UK dated to around 3500–2500 BCE
File:Chûn Quoit (small).jpg, Chûn Quoit in Cornwall, UK, about 2400 BCE
File:Lanyon Quoit 05.jpg, Lanyon Quoit in Cornwall, UK, 3500–2500 BCE
File:MarayoorDolmen.JPG, A dolmen erected by Neolithic people in Marayur, Kerala, India.
File:Muniyara.jpg, Dolmens of Marayoor, India.
File:Example of a southern-style dolmen at Ganghwa Island.jpg, A southern-style dolmen at Ganghwa Island, South Korea
File:Korea-Hwasun Dolmen sites03.jpg, The biggest dolmen near Hwasun, South Korea
File:Dolmen Roch-Feutet.JPG, The dolmen Er-Roc'h-Feutet in Carnac, Brittany, France
File:Crucuno dolmen.jpg, Crucuno dolmen in Plouharnel, Brittany, France
File:KilclooneyDolmen1986.jpg, Kilclooney More dolmen near Ardara, County Donegal, Ireland
File:LG Dolmen1.JPG, Lancken-Granitz dolmen, Germany
File:Hunebed-d27.jpg, T-shaped Hunebed D27 in Borger-Odoorn, Netherlands
File:Antadaaboboreira.jpg, Dólmen da Aboboreira, Baião, Portugal
File:Dolmen di Avola.JPG, Dolmen of Avola, Sicily
File:Bisceglie dolmen della chianca 5.JPG, Dolmen of Bisceglie, Apulia
File:12i dolmen di Montalbano.jpg, Dolmen of Fasano, Apulia
File:Tinkinswood burial chamber (4787).jpg, Tinkinswood, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, around 3000 BCE
File:Dolmen de Axeitos.jpg, Dolmen of Oleiros, Galicia
File:Mores02.jpg, Dolmen Sa Coveccada, Mores, Sardinia
File:Dolmen Russia Kavkaz Jane 1.jpg, Russia
File:Долмен Начови чаири.jpg, Bulgaria
File:Dolmen-Keriaval.jpg, Keriaval Dolmen, Carnac, Brittany, France

See also

* Irish megalithic tombs
* List of dolmens
* List of megalithic sites
* Megalithic art
* Neolithic Europe
* Nordic megalith architecture
* Stupa

References

Works cited

*

Further reading

*
*
*
*

External links

World heritage site of dolmen in Korea

The Megalith Map

The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map
* on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

Jersey Heritage Trust

Dolmens of Russia

Dolmens. Part 2. How and for which purpose were they built? Hypotheses

{{Authority control

Burial monuments and structures
Megalithic monuments
Types of monuments and memorials
Stone monuments and memorials
Stones
Death customs
Megalithic monuments in the Middle East
Stone Age Europe
4th-millennium BC architecture