"Brownshill Dolmen The Brownshill Dolmen (""Dolmain Chnoc an Bhrúnaigh"" in Irish) is a megalithic portal tomb situated 3 km east of Carlow, in County Carlow, Ireland. It lies just off the R726 regional road and is clearly visible from the road. The capstone at Brownshill, weighing an estimated 100 metric tons, is reputed to be the heaviest in Europe. The tomb is listed as a National Monument. Officially known as the Kernanstown Cromlech, it is also spelled as ""Browneshill"" Dolmen. It is sited on a hill on which sits the former estate house of the Browne family from which the"
"Dolmen A dolmen () or cromlech is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or ""table"". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BC) and were sometimes covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. Small pad-stones may be wedged between the cap and supporting stones to achieve a level appearance. In many instances, the covering has weathered away, leaving only the stone ""skeleton"" of the mound intact. It remains unclear when, why and by whom the earliest dolmens were made. The oldest known are"
"in English in Cornwall. Dolmen A dolmen () or cromlech is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or ""table"". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BC) and were sometimes covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. Small pad-stones may be wedged between the cap and supporting stones to achieve a level appearance. In many instances, the covering has weathered away, leaving only the stone ""skeleton"" of the mound intact. It remains unclear when, why and by whom the earliest dolmens were made."
"the Neolithic period, by Neolithic farming communities. They differ from the contemporary long barrows through their structural use of stone. There is a huge variety of megalithic tombs. The free-standing single chamber dolmens and portal dolmens found in Brittany, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Wales, and elsewhere consist of a large flat stone supported by three, four, or more standing stones. They were covered by a stone cairn or earth barrow. In Italy, dolmens can be found especially in Sardinia. There are more than 100 dolmen dating to the Neolithic (3500–2700 BC) and the most famous is called ""Dolmen di"
"The dolmen is a passage grave, an architectural jewel of the Paleolithic. Situated in the middle pasture, among oaks, a few km from Mérida in the road between Aljucén to La Nava de Santiago. The dolmen consists of a long covered walkway that leads to the death chamber. This camera is the dolmen true prodigy. Of the boulders that rose into the sky (the dome would be about 5 meters) there is only one intact, which gives an idea of the grandeur of the building. The other displayed items. But the base can appreciate the precision with which they were"
"Great dolmen The great dolmen or grand dolmen (, ) is a type of megalithic site of the Funnelbeaker culture (TBK) that occurs in Nordic megalith architecture, primarily in the east of what is now German Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and which has two different types of entrance. Neolithic monuments are features of the culture and ideology of Neolithic communities. Their evolution and function act as indicators of social development. The type of site, called ""Stordysse"" in Danish, does not follow the criteria listed below. In Germany, dolmens with three or more capstones are described as great dolmens and are divided into: The"
"to four compartments is common for dolmens, yet dolmen Nr. 1 with its six compartments is noted as a rare exception. Common Neolithic funerary goods found in the dolmens of the region are tools, pottery, and amber pearls. It is assumed that the pots were filled with groceries, and that there were also other, long decomposed organic funerary goods. Most probably, a magic function was ascribed to the amber pearls, especially the ones of a double axe shape. Funerary goods found in each dolmen near Lancken include flint hatches, chisels, amber pearls, and pottery, the latter being in part of"
"millennium BC. The dolmens could have been of spiritual significance, and are becoming cherished again today. 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"
"fairly basic wooden huts, sealed with mud and clay, which have been lost. Only the dolmens and menhirs remain. The Neolithic sites such as dolmens, passage graves and the like used to be considered to be primarily tombs of chieftains. Possibly drawing from the Egyptian model, a tribe was imagined as labouring away to build a burial site of stone for a mighty chieftain, much as the workers in Egypt had done for the pharaohs. Beliefs of ancient Egypt have survived in written form, and it seems clear that the embalmed body of the king was entombed underneath or within"
"some barely visible edge stones. While small in size, the dolmen has the province's largest inside chamber. It has a rough dating of about 3400 BCE. Several artefacts were found during an archaeological excavation in 1915 by Arvid Enqvist, among them an amber necklace, a stone axe, a flint knife, and some slate jewellery. These finds were dated to the late Neolithic. No grave finds from the dolmen's primary period, the early Neolithic, have been discovered. The neighbouring dolmen was also excavated at this time. Haga dolmen The Haga dolmen () is a megalithic dolmen, dating from the Neolithic era."
"dolmens. In recent history, its excavated dolmen was used as a shelter by the East German army. Lancken-Granitz dolmens The Lancken-Granitz dolmens are a group of seven megalith tombs in the Lancken-Granitz municipality on Rügen, northern Germany. Erected during the middle Neolithic, when they were used by the Funnelbeaker culture, at least some were in use until the early Bronze Age. Three of them are encircled by solitary rocks forming either rectangles or a stone circle, one has a solitary ""guardian stone"" on its eastern side. The dolmens were constructed from glacial erratic boulders and red sandstone. In part subdivided"
"social roles and relationships and specialized sectors of activity. In Neolithic and Bronze Age societies, a great variety of tombs are found, with tumulus mounds, megaliths, and pottery as recurrent elements. In Eurasia, a dolmen is the exposed stone framework for a chamber tomb originally covered by earth to make a mound which no longer exists. Stones may be carved with geometric patterns (petroglyphs), for example cup and ring marks. Group tombs were made, the social context of which is hard to decipher. Urn burials, where bones are buried in a pottery container, either in a more elaborate tomb, or"
"not a tumulus, but a dolmen - it had even been protected as a Bronze Age tumulus before. The dolmens were nevertheless frequented by the local population throughout the Iron Age as well as the Slavic and the early German period, as multiple archaeological finds show, yet they were also used as a dump by the local East German LPG for ""stones which had been cleared from the fields"". Dolmen Nr. 6 was re-used as a burial site during the late Slavic period, while else the Rani erected burial mounds of their own, keeping them in some distance to the"
"Rectangular dolmen A rectangular dolmen (), extended dolmen (German: ""erweiteter Dolmen"") or enlarged dolmen is a specific type of megalith, rectangular in shape, with upright sidestones and, usually, two capstones. The term rectangular dolmen was coined by Ekkehard Aner and is used especially in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, where dolmens with this type of ground plan primarily occur. A more precise term, however, is extended dolmen, used by Ewald Schuldt and Ernst Sprockhoff, because these types of dolmen also occur with trapezoidal ground plans (e.g. the Gnewitz). Neolithic monuments are an expression of the culture and ideology of neolithic"
"was discovered in 1903 during an archaeological excavation but was not studied until over a century later. There was a Neolithic civilization in the Clare area — the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen: single-chamber megalithic tombs, usually consisting of three or more upright stones. Clare is one of the richest places in Ireland for these tombs. The most noted one is in The Burren area; it is known as ""Poulnabrone dolmen"", which translates to ""hole of sorrows"". The remains of the people inside the tomb have"
"groupings of standing stones — in formations of circles, lines, ovals, ‘U’-shapes, or rectangles — were not employed to support the weight of soil above them, but served as markers. Megalithic chambers designed to bear the weight of a mound of earth, turf, rubble or stone have been classified into groups, including dolmens, portal dolmens, gallery graves, wedge tombs, passage tombs, and court tombs. The term ""dolmen"" describes groupings of erected stones supporting one large, flat roof stone, like an oversized rudimentary table. ""Portal dolmens"" have an angled stone slab supported by uprights that define a chamber, often with an"
"of the granite ridges that snake through the forest and wetlands landscape. The Dolmens widespread in Europe and much of Asia are interpreted as Neolithic burial chambers. Large boulders make excellent long term markers for important and sacred places, just as burial plots are marked by large stones today. Some petroforms could be close to ancient burial areas, or near sacred areas associated with the dead. Large rocks are a universal marker that can last for generations. Boulders will last for tens of thousands of years. In memory of a person or the history about a place, these markers help"
"these reservoirs and assures a continuous supply of water in them by means of rain water collection culverts. A further reminder of the early times when human beings roamed the area around Qrendi is a dolmen which is found in Misraħ Sinjura or Misraħ is-Sinjura from where it took its name. Dolmens are dated to the Bronze Age, that is, to around 2500-1500 B.C. or the Tarxien Cemetery phase. Dolmens are one of the most common megalithic structures found in many parts of the world, and consist of a stone slab placed horizontally over two or more upright stones, serving"
"Simple dolmen The simple dolmen (, literally ""ancient dolmen"") or primeval dolmen is an early form of dolmen or megalithic tomb that occurs especially in Northern Europe. The term was defined by archaeologist, Ernst Sprockhoff, and utilised by Ewald Schuldt in publicising his excavation of 106 megalithic sites in the north German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The simple dolmen emerged in the early days of the development of megalithic monuments of the Funnelbeaker culture (TBK) and around 3,500 BC they appeared across almost the entire region covered by the stone cult structures of Nordic megalith architecture, but not in the Netherlands,"
"in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were erected as burial sites in the Neolithic, by the bearers of the Funnelbeaker (TRB) culture, between 3,500 and 3,200 BC. Initially, the TRB people buried their dead in pits, often covered with mounds of clay. Later, they erected dolmens for this purpose, but also continued the use of flat graves. All megaliths were erected during a relatively short time period, spanning about 200 years or about seven generations, with the oldest ones dating to phase C of the Early Neolithic, while most were built in the beginning of the Middle Neolithic. The dolmens were built from glacial"
"identifying as having no religion. This number rises to 52% for Jersey people under 35. In the Neolithic period religious activity in the settled communities is marked by the building of ritual burial sites known as dolmens, from which food and personal items such as jewelry, spindle whorls, pottery, tools and animal bones have been excavated at La Hougue Bie (a ritual site used around 3500 BC). These finds indicate that Neolithic settlers possibly believed in an afterlife much like many modern religions, the burial of the dead with their belongings showing similarities to the burial process in the Egyptian"
"of megaliths, described as dolmens or mounds, sometimes confusingly. They are in any case burials of collective nature, placed in spots of great visibility, often on top of mountain ridges. The materials used are always of local origin. Dolmens are the most typical, being formed by a chamber delimited by flat stones, often quite large, covered by another stone as roof. The monument was then covered by stones and earth, making up a mound. The chambers are of two types: simple or with corridor. The first are more common, while the latter are limited to the Ebro valley area. Dolmens"
"found in Western Europe, dating from c 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it. They are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite the absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have been found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating. However, it has been impossible to prove that these remains date from the time when the stones were originally set in place. The word ""dolmen"" has an unclear history. The"
"a hatch in the roof of the building. The dolmen or cromlech is one of three that can be found in the vicinity, the others being on Tibradden Mountain and at Mount Venus. A dolmen was a royal burial plot and is made up of two upright granite blocks supporting a third crossways (here it has slipped out of place) and backed by a solid upright some ten feet high. The dolmen is sometimes referred to by locals as ""the druids altar"" or the ""druids seat"". An inner ring of partially submerged boulders and an outer ring of sycamore trees"
"in continental Europe during the 7th millennium BP – the free standing megalithic structures supporting a sloping capstone (known as dolmens), common across Atlantic Europe that were, according to John Davies, ""the first substantial, permanent constructions of man"". Such massive constructions would have needed a large labour force (up to 200 men) suggestive of large communities nearby. However, in his contribution to ""History of Wales, 25,000 BC AD 2000"", archaeologist Joshua Pollard notes that not all Neolithic communities were part of the simultaneous ""marked transformations in material culture, ideology and technical practices"" known as the Neolithic Revolution. The cromlech at"
"Jersey dolmens The dolmens of Jersey are neolithic sites, including dolmens, in Jersey. They range over a wide period, from around 4800 BC to 2250 BC, these dates covering the periods roughly designated as Neolithic, or “new stone age”, to Chalcolithic, or “copper age”. Before that, the dolmen La Cotte de St Brelade has evidence of habitation both by our near cousins, the Neanderthals, and early man. These come from the Paleolithic or “old stone age”, and belong to the period of the hunter-gatherer, where the tribe would forage in pursuit of food. In the case of La Cotte, as"
"stones of the dolmen. The chapel narthex is formed by the dolmen. Dolmen-Chapel of São Brissos The Dolmen-Chapel of São Brissos () is a small chapel located in the parish of Santiago do Escoural in the municipality of Montemor-o-Novo in Portugal. It consists of the conversion of a prehistoric tomb into a Christian cult building. The chapel has been classified as a Property of Public Interest since 1957. The dolmen-chapel is situated beside the Valverde-N2 road, near the turn-off to Sao Brissos. The dolmen () is of a Neolithic date and was built between the 4th and 3rd millennium BC."
"was required that separated the chamber and the profane or secular passage (symbolically) from one another. The effort was made to reduce the size of the slab covering the opening of the re-usable simple dolmen to one that could be manhandled by the settlement community. The simple dolmen with a passage evolved into the ""extended dolmens"", which are generally longer, usually have more than one capstone and - apart from the transitional types at Neu Gaarz, Bad Doberan county - have orthostats that stand on one of their two smallest faces, thus allowing the roof of the chamber to be"
"shape (""Hünenbett"", dolmen Nr. 1 and 3), the most common form of Neolithic tomb encirclement structures, or a stone circle (""Bannkreis"", dolmen Nr. 6) with unknown, proposedly magic, function. Both ""Hünenbett"" shapes are oriented from east to west, and their long sides measure and , respectively. At the ""Hünenbett"" around dolmen Nr. 3, only 16 boulders are still in place, while initially each long side had comprised 13 boulders. A ""guardian stone"" is placed adjacent to its eastern narrow side. The stone circle around dolmen Nr. 6 has a diameter of . The dolmens are located in the center of"
"scattered farms or a settlement, bonded as a clan or family"" - very much a precursor to the idea of a ""parish"". So how are to understand the dolmens. Mark Patton suggests that we can imagine the tribes coming together, for various significant times of the year, to celebrate in ritual the passage of the seasons. Bihet notes that pouques or fairies have a particularly strong connection to the folklore of the dolmens. The major sites in Jersey are listed below: This Neolithic passage grave is in the Parish of St Martin. It is a 5 metre long passage leading"
"Neolithic tomb The Neolithic tombs of Northwestern Europe, particularly Ireland, were built by the Neolithic (New Stone Age) people in the period 4000 - 2000 BC. There are four main types: All these types of tomb were built from large slabs of rock which were uncut or worked only slightly. In each case, there was a ""doorway"" made from two large stones facing each other. The doorway led to an inner chamber, or a passage and chamber, lined with flat slabs. In all but the portal dolmens, the tomb was then covered in earth and small stones to make a"
"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.Another (fourth) dolmen near the Zhane River has a secret entrance at the back of the chamber, and a façade, dummy entrance and courtyard at the front of the"
"Grantez and La Pouquelaye de Faldouet. Le Couperon is on the 55 pence stamp. Jersey dolmens The dolmens of Jersey are neolithic sites, including dolmens, in Jersey. They range over a wide period, from around 4800 BC to 2250 BC, these dates covering the periods roughly designated as Neolithic, or “new stone age”, to Chalcolithic, or “copper age”. Before that, the dolmen La Cotte de St Brelade has evidence of habitation both by our near cousins, the Neanderthals, and early man. These come from the Paleolithic or “old stone age”, and belong to the period of the hunter-gatherer, where the"