Megalithic structures: types and types. The construction of megaliths as a defensive reaction of the culture of Old Europe, the megalith culture is

Megalithic temples of Malta Malta is famous throughout the world for the fact that the most ancient man-made buildings on Earth are located here. These are megalithic temples. Before every visitor leaving the building of the international airport in Malta, there appears a rather

§ 35. Ceremonial centers and megalithic structures

§ 35. Ceremonial centers and megalithic structures Some megalithic complexes, such as, for example, at Karnak or Ashdown, in Berkshire (800 megaliths on an area of ​​​​250 and 500 m, the arrangement of which resembles a parallelogram), were undoubtedly important

The term is not exhaustive, so a rather vague group of buildings falls under the definition of megaliths and megalithic structures. In particular, large-sized hewn stones, including those not used for the construction of burials and monuments, are called megaliths.

A separate group is represented by megalithic structures, that is, objects largely consisting of megaliths. They are distributed all over the world. In Europe, for example, this is Stonehenge, structures Cretan-Mycenaean culture or Egypt. In South America - Machu Picchu, Puma Punku, Ollantaytambo, Pisac, Sacsayhuaman, Tiwanaku.

Their common characteristic feature is stone blocks weighing sometimes more than a hundred tons, often delivered from quarries located tens of kilometers away, sometimes with a large difference in height relative to the construction site. In this case, the stones are processed in such a way that it cannot enter the joint between the blocks. razor blade .

As a rule, megalithic structures did not serve as housing, and from the period of construction to the present day no records have survived about the technologies and purpose of construction. The lack of reliable written sources and the fact that all these structures have suffered significantly under the influence of time make the task of exhaustive research almost impossible, which, in turn, leaves a vast field for various guesses.

The purpose of megaliths cannot always be determined. For the most part, according to some scientists, they served for burials or were associated with the funeral cult. There are other opinions. Apparently, megaliths are communal buildings (the function is socializing). Their construction represented a most difficult task for primitive technology and required the unification of large masses of people.

Some megalithic structures, such as complex of more than 3000 stones in French Brittany), were important ceremonial centers associated with the cult of the dead. Other megalith complexes have been used to determine the timing of astronomical events such as solstices and equinoxes.

Megalithic structures are subject to a specific architectural design. Based on their appearance, researchers divide them into three groups: menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs. These words themselves came to us from ancient Breton language. It was the language of the people of Brittany, a peninsula in Northwestern France.

MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS IN BRITTANY

Brittany is, of course, a country of megaliths. It was from the words of the Breton language, at the end of the 17th century, that the names of the main types of megalithic buildings were compiled (dolmen: daol - table, men - stone; menhir: men - stone, hir - long; cromlech: cromm - rounded, lec'h - place). In Brittany, the era of megalithic construction began around 5000 BC. and ended around 2500 BC. The builders of the megaliths were not the autochthonous population of Armorica. They came from the shores of the Mediterranean, gradually moving northwest from the southern and western shores of the Iberian Peninsula, densely populating first the coast of Morbihan, between the rivers Vilaine and Ethel, and then other lands of what is now Brittany, rising deep into the peninsula along the rivers and moving along the coast...

DOLMENS

Dolmens are usually “boxes” made up of stone slabs, sometimes joined by long or short galleries. They were collective burial chambers, as evidenced by bone remains and votive treasures (ceramics, jewelry, polished stone axes). Dolmens could be either free-standing structures or part of more complex structures. Let's look at some of them.

Cairn

A cairn is an ensemble of galleries and chambers covered with earth on top, that is, in this case, dolmens formed their skeleton. Relatively many cairns have survived in Brittany, but I would like to dwell on two of them, which are masterpieces of megalithic architecture of the West.

Built around 4,700 BC, this prehistoric necropolis could have been destroyed in our time: it was deliberately turned into a stone quarry for the construction of a tourist road in l955 and only the intervention of one of the most famous Breton archaeologists, Professor Pierre-Roland Giot ) stopped this technocratic barbarism.
To be precise, the monument at Barnenez is a structure of two cairns. It has a total of 72 meters in length and from 20 to 25 meters in width and includes eleven dolmens (in this case representing separate chambers) from each of which a gallery stretches from 7 to 12 meters in length towards the exit. The first cairn (A) was built around 4,350 BC, and the second (B) around 4,100 BC.

The necropolis at Barnenez is one of the most ancient architectural structures on Earth. Older than Stonehenge, New Grange, Egyptian pyramids...

Karin on the island of Gavrinis

This monument of megalithic art, built around 4,000 BC, is remarkable for its interior design. The cairn itself is not complicated: a thirteen-meter corridor leads to the burial chamber. However, its walls are painted with amazing drawings, more abstract than concrete, carved on stone. Among the elements of the fancy ornament there are spiral, cross-shaped and other elements.

Covered alley

There is a type of dolmens called covered alleys. A covered alley is a series of dolmens that make up a gallery, which can end in a chamber not exceeding the width of the gallery, or at a blind end. It looks like this:

Dolmen with gallery

In contrast to a covered alley, a dolmen with a gallery, such as the famous Table de Marchands at Lokmarieker (pictured), is a round or square burial chamber, to which a long corridor leads, which is, so to speak, a passage from the world of the living to the world of the dead (and back probably :)). The plan of this type of dolmen can be supplemented by side rooms (the dolmen at Keriaval, near Pluarnel).

So, nothing is as different from a dolmen as another dolmen. Moreover, not all types of such structures are described here. There are also knee dolmens, transept dolmens (cruciform) and some others. Frankly speaking, some names had to be invented in the process of working on the article, since they simply do not exist in Russian, and literal translations from other languages ​​usually do not reflect the essence of the objects described here.

As we already know, dolmens are both crypts and funerary monuments, as evidenced by the bones and votive warehouses (jewelry, polished axes, ceramics, etc.) found there. We are talking about traces of burials, mostly collective, small or colossal, initially covered with stones (cairns) or earth (mounds), and undoubtedly equipped with additional wooden structures. Breton variations of dolmens are very numerous, and their architecture has changed over time. The most ancient ones were large in size, but the burial chambers in them were reduced; this suggests that they were intended for some of the most important figures of the tribe. Over time, the volume of dolmens decreased, while the size of the burial chambers increased, and they became real collective graves. In the town of Chaussée-Tirancourt, in the Paris Basin, during the study of a similar burial, archaeologists discovered about 250 skeletons. Unfortunately, in Brittany, the acidity of the soil often leads to the destruction of bones. In the Bronze Age, burials again became individual. Later, during Roman rule, some dolmens were adapted to satisfy the religious needs of the conquerors, as evidenced by the numerous terracotta figurines of Roman deities found in them.

How were dolmens built? If you compare the heaviness and bulkiness of these stone structures with the technical arsenal of their creators, then you can only take off your hat to their tenacity and resourcefulness. It was something like this...

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Bottom line

Thus, we already know something about one of the types of megalithic architecture. It's time to move on to the next, no less interesting.

MENHIRS

A menhir is a stone pillar dug vertically into the ground. Their height varies from 0.80 meters to 20. Free-standing menhirs are usually the tallest. The “record holder” was Men-er-Hroech (Fairy Stone), from Lokmariaker (Morbihan), which was destroyed around 1727. Its largest fragment was 12 m, and in its entirety it reached 20 m in height, with an approximate weight of 350 tons. Currently, all the largest menhirs in France are located in Brittany:

- menhir in Kerloas (Finistère) - 12 m.

- menhir in Kaelonan (Cote-d'Armor) - 11.20 m.

- menhir in Pergal (Côtes d'Armor) - 10.30 m.

There are also menhirs lined up (let's call them rows of stones), sometimes in several parallel rows. The most grandiose ensemble of this kind is located in Karnak, and has about 3,000 (!) menhirs

Carnac (Morbihan department)

CARNAC is, of course, the most famous megalithic ensemble in Brittany and one of only two (along with Stonehenge) in the world. Brittany, and even France, would not be surprised by menhirs, but Carnac amazes the imagination with the unimaginable concentration of these monuments in a relatively small area. Initially, there were about 10,000 (!) monuments of various sizes in the Karnak complex. In our time, there are approximately 3,000 of them left. This complex of megaliths (mainly cromlechs and menhirs) from the late Neolithic - early Bronze Age (late third - second millennium BC) includes 3 megalithic systems:

Menek is the western part of the Karnak complex. It includes 1,099 menhirs in eleven lines, approximately 1,200 meters long.

Kermario - about 1,000 menhirs in ten lines 1 km long. In the southwestern part, the ensemble is complemented by a dolmen.

Kerleskan - 555 menhirs in thirteen lines, the length of which is 280 meters. In the west these lines are preceded by a cromlech of 39 stones. The highest height of the largest menhir in Kerleskan is 6.5 meters.

By 5000 BC, sites located on the island of Hoedic in Morbihan show the existence of small human groups living mainly by hunting, fishing and collecting shellfish. These human groups buried their dead, in some cases using a special ritual. The deceased was supplied for the journey not only with items made of stone and bone, and jewelry made from shells, but was also crowned with something like a “crown” made of deer antlers. During this era, called the Mesolithic, sea levels were approximately 20 meters lower than today. Starting around 4,500 BC, the first megaliths appear in Carnac (which was also observed in other areas of what is now Brittany by that time).

Let's try to reconstruct the method of erecting menhirs:

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The purpose of menhirs, which are not funerary monuments, remains a mystery. Due to the lack of instructions for use left by the builders for future generations, archaeologists are carefully juggling several hypotheses. These hypotheses, which are not mutually exclusive, vary from case to case and depend on a variety of factors: whether the menhirs are isolated or not; rows of stones are composed of one row or several, more or less parallel; menhirs oriented in a readable way, etc. Some could mark territory, indicate graves, or refer to the cult of waters.

But the hypothesis most often expressed relates to several large rows of stones oriented between east and west. There is an assumption that these are attributes of the solar-lunar cult, coupled with agricultural methods and astronomical observations, and large crowds of people gathered near them, for example, during the winter and summer solstices. “The direction of certain blocks according to privileged directions is amenable to analysis,” emphasizes Michel Le Goffi, a Breton archaeologist, and when cases are repeated, sometimes according to a clearly traceable system, one can rightfully think that this is not accidental. This is almost certain in many cases, as at Saint-Just and Carnac. But doubts will always exist due to the lack of direct evidence. Archaeological finds among the rows of stones are indeed very vague, some pottery and processed flints have been found, but the remains of ritual fires, dating from the same time as the construction of the megaliths, suggest that they were located outside the habitation zone.

CROMLECHI

An example of a cromlech is such a well-known building as Stonehenge.

Cromlechs are called ensembles of menhirs standing, most often, in a circle or semicircle and connected by stone slabs lying on top, however, there are menhirs collected in a rectangle (as in Crucuno, Morbihan). On the small island of Er Lannic, in the Gulf of Morbihan, there is a “double cromlech” (in the shape of two touching circles).
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Comparative table of the number of megalithic structures in France and Brittany.

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Most common type megalithic structures - dolmens (from the Breton dol - table and men - stone). In most cases, these are collective, intended for the burial of members of individual clans, less often - individual tombs, made of large stone blocks or slabs, placed on edges vertically or slightly obliquely and covered with one or several slabs on top, like a table top, which is where the name comes from. stone table." In some dolmens, the slab covering the entrance has a large round or oval hole. Many dolmens were covered with earth on top, so that only the entrance remained free, but with rare exceptions, the mounds did not survive to this day; they settled. In some areas, megalithic tombs are decorated with carved, engraved or painted designs in the form of spirals, ribbons or rectangular motifs. The most famous examples of such ornamented tombs are Le Havre Inis and Morbihan in France and New Grange in Ireland. In Brittany and the Marne there are symbolic images of parts of human figures - heads, arms, chests, sometimes some costume accessories - belts, necklaces, hryvnias, weapons - daggers.

Dolmens are widespread in the world. In Europe, they are found in the north of Germany, Denmark, Southern Scandinavia, Holland, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Bulgaria. The oldest European dolmens date back to the 4th millennium BC, the latest - 2400-2000. BC. .

Some dolmens were led by small corridors made of large stone slabs and covered with earth, the so-called tombs with a passage. In southern France and on the Iberian Peninsula, “covered galleries” (allees couvertes) - elongated (15-20 m) corridors made of stones - also served as places for collective burials.

The latest type megalithic structures dating back to the Bronze Age are small underground tombs in the form of boxes made of stone slabs, the so-called cysts, or cysts. In the full sense of the word, they can no longer be called megalithic, since their size does not allow us to talk about “large” stones.

Sometimes to megalithic buildings include fortresses, dwellings and other structures made of stone blocks or dry masonry slabs (the so-called cyclopean buildings).

Construction megalithic buildings presented a most difficult task for primitive technology. The weight of cover slabs reaches 40 tons or more, and the weight of free-standing stones is sometimes 100 or even 300 tons. In some cases, for example for the construction of Stonehenge, stones were delivered almost 200 km away. In addition to a number of devices - adding earth, installing levers, rollers, etc., for the construction of megalithic buildings it was necessary to unite large masses of people. These buildings were erected by entire clans or even tribes. There is no doubt that the large expenditure of effort of the entire community associated with the construction of megalithic buildings required special organization. Thus, a common feature of all bearers of megalithic cultures is that their economic and social structure was strongly influenced by cultic and religious ideas. We do not know what ideas formed the phenomenon that could be called "megalithic religion." Sun worship? Cult of the mother goddess? In the absence of written sources, this riddle apparently cannot be solved. As elements of the “megalithic religion”, in addition to the main one - collective burials (in various stone structures and natural grottoes), one can name almost universally found images of a female deity (figurines, sometimes menhir statues), symbols in the form of images of two eyes (found in various places from Sicily to Scandinavia), temples (in the British Isles, Malta, Brittany). But even recognizing the presence of some common elements in various megalithic societies, one cannot help but notice the extreme diversity in their manifestation. Therefore, the idea expressed by some researchers about the spread of “megalithic ideas” by certain “missionaries” who followed traders appears not only as an unjustified modernization of processes that took place 5 thousand years ago, but also groundless based on the very facts that we know.

Question about origin megalithic construction is complex and has not yet been solved. Montelius, Sophus Muller, Gernes and others believed that megaliths arose under the influence of ancient Egyptian stone tombs and gradually spread along the sea coast from Africa to Scandinavia. Some German scientists considered Northern Europe and Scandinavia in particular to be the homeland of megaliths, and their builders to be “proto-Indo-Germans,” but new dating finally refuted this point of view. The most ancient (second half of the 4th millennium BC) megaliths in Western Europe appeared in Spain (Almeria culture) and Portugal (dolmen culture).

They do not represent a single culture, they were created by different communities, and the “megalithic” pottery is very different in different places. Obviously, the reason for their construction is a common religious idea that arose in similar social and geographical conditions: an attempt to create an indestructible, eternal home for the deceased. Burials in dolmens were supposed to replace burials in specially dug or natural caves, which served as a model for megalithic tombs. Even G. de Mortillier argued that in dolmens the tradition of burying in dwellings was continued, including in artificial or natural caves that served as dwellings and at the same time burial places. Round holes in the entrance slab of the dolmen were probably supposed to serve, according to the ideas of the ancients, for the entry and exit of the soul of the deceased, as well as for delivering food and drink to the deceased.

However, the hypothesis about the independent origin of ideas megaliths in different, poorly connected societies does not exclude the possibility of borrowing this idea and even samples of buildings by one society from another. Most often, the very idea of ​​collective burials, implemented in megalithic structures, is derived from the Eastern Mediterranean. In this area there are known graves covered with a stepped false vault (tholos) into which stone entrances (dromos) led. Similar buildings, along with other megalithic structures, are found on the Iberian Peninsula, which is considered the oldest Western European region of megalithic buildings, and even in Ireland and Scotland. However, this form of buildings has been known in the West since the 3rd millennium BC, and in the Aegean world it appears in a developed form only around 1600 BC. The tholos may be thought to have their origins in the earlier round graves, but not necessarily in the false-vaulted graves. In a word, we have no reason to deny the possibility of the emergence of the idea of ​​megalithic buildings in the Eastern Mediterranean, but there is also no evidence that this idea came to Western Europe from there. The idea of ​​a single people - the builder of megaliths has been finally refuted by the discoveries of recent years. All that remains is the assumption about the diffusion of the idea of ​​megaliths. The agricultural and pastoral tribes that left behind megalithic buildings in Southern England and France differed in culture from the tribes that inhabited South-Eastern Norway and the northern regions of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany and also erected megalithic buildings. In general, megalithic cultures north of the Mediterranean become poorer in terms of architectural forms, variety of implements and amount of metal. In addition, southern megalithic culture- more ancient, and this indicates that the idea of ​​megalithic buildings spread from south to north.

Let's return to the SUM culture, the question about which served as a reason for the story about megaliths at all. The SUM culture is interesting because it clearly demonstrates the possibility of a transition from burials in natural caves to megalithic structures. Burials of this culture are found in natural caves, artificial caves carved into chalk rocks, or gallery tombs.

The artificial caves were chambers about 4x4 m in size, hollowed out in layers of chalk, into which an inclined entrance (dromos) led. On the walls of some tombs there are carved schematic figures of a man with an ax (or just an ax, and sometimes other objects), similar to those depicted in the statues - menhirs of Southern France. In tombs, up to 40 or more bones are found lying in an extended position (sometimes they bear traces of being in fire). There are more carefully decorated chambers, containing only eight skeletons, and the grave goods are richer. It can be assumed that these are the burials of “leaders” Back to text

14. The issue of the spread of megalithic buildings from the East is considered in extensive literature. However, it cannot be solved only on European material. Megalithic structures are known in different countries of the world (except Australia), and supporters of the theory of their spread from a single center cannot explain how they penetrated, say, Korea and other countries remote from the Middle East. The idea of ​​the arrival of megalithic cultures in Europe from the Eastern Mediterranean is associated with the general concept of the development of European, especially Neolithic, culture under the influence of creative impulses coming from the East. One of these impulses was allegedly the spread of the idea of ​​megaliths and, along with it, metal in Europe along the sea routes. See: A. Varagnac. Die Verbreitung des Megalithglaubens uber See. Das Chalkolithikum. - In the book: Der Mensch der Urzeit. Dusseldorf - Koln, 1960, pp. 375-380.

15. Some consider these figures to be a depiction of the goddess of burial armed with an axe, while others consider them to be a depiction of a female ancestor, the ancestor.