Menhirs. Famous megalithic structures Several versions of scientists

On the surface of the globe, with the exception of Australia, there are many mysterious and ancient buildings. Modern studies have shown that they were erected in the Neolithic, Eneolithic and Previously it was believed that they all represent one common culture, but today more and more scientists are questioning this theory.

So, by whom and why were such megalithic structures created? Why do they have this or that form and what do they mean? Where can you see these monuments of ancient culture?

Before considering and studying megalithic structures, you need to understand what elements they can consist of. Today it is considered to be the smallest unit of constructions of this type of megalith. This term was officially introduced into scientific terminology in 1867, at the suggestion of the English specialist A. Herbert. The word "megalith" is Greek, translated into Russian means "big stone".

An exact and exhaustive definition of what megaliths are does not yet exist. Today, this concept refers to ancient structures made of stone blocks, slabs or simple blocks of various sizes without the use of any cementing or binding compounds and solutions. The simplest type of megalithic structures, consisting of only one block, are menhirs.

The main features of megalithic structures

In different eras, various peoples erected huge structures from large stones, blocks and slabs. The temple in Baalbek and the Egyptian pyramids are also megaliths, it's just not customary to call them that. Thus, megalithic structures are various structures created by different ancient civilizations and consisting of large stones or slabs.

However, all structures that are considered megaliths have a number of features that unite them:

1. All of them are made of stones, blocks and slabs of gigantic dimensions, the weight of which can range from several tens of kilograms to hundreds of tons.

2. Ancient megalithic structures were built from rocks that were strong and resistant to destruction: limestone, andesites, basalts, diorites and others.

3. No cement was used in the construction - neither in mortar for fastening, nor for making blocks.

4. In most buildings, the surface of the blocks from which they are composed is carefully processed, and the blocks themselves are tightly fitted to each other. The accuracy is such that a knife blade cannot be inserted between two megalithic blocks of volcanic rocks.

5. Quite often, the preserved fragments of megalithic structures were used by later civilizations as a foundation for their own buildings, which is clearly seen in the buildings on Jerusalem.

When were they created?

Most of the megalithic objects located in Great Britain, Ireland and other countries of Western Europe date back to the 5th-4th millennium BC. e. The most ancient megalithic structures located on the territory of our country date back to the 4th-2nd millennia BC.

The whole variety of megalithic structures can be conditionally divided into two large groups:

• funeral;
• non-funeral
• profane;
• sacred.

If everything is more or less clear with funerary megaliths, then scientists are building hypotheses about the purpose of profane structures, such as various gigantic calculations of walls and roads, combat and residential towers.

There is no accurate and reliable information about how ancient people used sacred megalithic structures: menhirs, cromlechs and others.

What are they like?

The most common types of megaliths are:

• menhirs - single, vertically installed stele stones up to 20 meters high;
• cromlech - the union of several menhirs around the largest, forming a semicircle or circle;
• dolmens - the most common type of megaliths in Europe, are one or more large stone slabs laid on other blocks or boulders;
• covered gallery - one of the varieties of dolmens interconnected;
• trilit - a stone structure consisting of two or more vertical and one horizontally laid stones on top of them;
• taula - a stone structure in the form of the Russian letter "T";
• cairn, also known as "gurii" or "tour" - an underground or ground structure, laid out in the form of a cone of many stones;
• stone rows are vertically and parallel blocks of stone;
• seid - a stone boulder or block, installed by one or another people in a special place, usually on a hill, for various mystical ceremonies.

Only the most famous types of megalithic structures are listed here. Let's take a closer look at some of them.

Translated from Breton into Russian, it means "stone table".

As a rule, it consists of three stones, one of which lies on two vertically installed ones, in the form of the letter "P". During the construction of such structures, ancient people did not adhere to any single scheme, therefore there are many options for dolmens that carry various functions. The most famous megalithic structures of this type are located on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Africa and Europe, in India, Scandinavia, and the Caucasus.

Trilith

One of the subspecies of the dolmen, consisting of three stones, scientists consider trilith. As a rule, such a term is applied not to separately located megaliths, but to monuments that are components of more complex structures. For example, in such a famous megalithic complex as Stonehenge, the central part consists of five triliths.

Another type of megalithic buildings is the cairn, or tour. This is a cone-shaped mound of stones, although in Ireland this name means a structure of only five stones. They can be located both on the surface of the earth and under it. In scientific circles, cairn most often means megalithic structures located underground: labyrinths, galleries and burial chambers.

The oldest and simplest type of megalithic structures are menhirs. These are single, vertically massive boulders or stones. Menhirs differ from ordinary, natural stone blocks by their surface with traces of processing and by the fact that their vertical size is always larger than the horizontal one. They can either stand alone or be part of complex megalithic complexes.

In the Caucasus, menhirs were shaped like fish and called vishap. On the territory of modern France, in the Crimea and the Black Sea region, quite a lot of anthropomorphic magalites - stone women - have been preserved.

Post-megalithic menhirs are also runic stones and stone crosses created much later.

Cromlech

Several menhirs, set in the form of a semicircle or circle and covered with stone slabs on top, are called cromlechs. The most famous example is Stonehenge.

However, in addition to round ones, there are cromlechs and rectangular ones, as, for example, in Morbihan or Khakassia. On the island of Malta, the cromlech temple complexes are built in the form of "petals". To create such megalithic structures, not only stone was used, but also wood, which was confirmed by the finds obtained during archaeological work in the English county of Norfolk.

"Flying Stones of Lapland"

Strange as it may sound, the most common megalithic structures in Russia are seids - huge boulders mounted on small stands. Sometimes the main block is decorated with one or more small stones, folded into a "pyramid". This type of megaliths is widespread from the shores of Onega and Ladoga lakes up to the coast of the Barents Sea, that is, throughout the whole part of Russia.

On and in Karelia, there are seids ranging in size from several tens of centimeters to six meters and weighing from tens of kilograms to several tons, depending on the rock from which they were made. In addition to the Russian North, quite a few megaliths of this type are found in the taiga regions of Finland, northern and central Norway, and the mountains of Sweden.

Seids can be single, group and massive, including from a dozen to several hundred megaliths.

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As you know, there is still no final and reliable conclusion about the purpose for which these megaliths were created, however, some scientists agree on one thing: dolmens are variants of tombs. It is also not clear why, for burial, megalith builders had to spend so much effort and energy on the construction of dolmens, when it was possible to build more suitable and less labor-intensive structures for this.

In individual megaliths, scientists have found the remains (not necessarily entirely) of approximately 16 people. There were cases of cremation. Different ways of burial indicate the peculiarities of the cultures of the peoples.

In the Caucasus, as a rule, in river valleys, in small areas, almost all types of burials are found. This is due to the fact that reburials often occurred in different time periods. By the way, this was allowed not only in the Caucasus, but also in European countries.
There are dolmens in which there are simply no traces of burial. Separate megaliths were filled with various products. And in one of them, located on the Ashe River, in the valley, scientists discovered a bunch of dog paws.

However, with all the existing differences, the parameters of the structures practically do not change. The fact that there are practically no drawings or decorations on the dolmens indicates that the structures were unlikely to be tombs. And the presence of convex signs on some, for the image of which the megalith builders had to remove a layer of stone from the entire surface of the slab, suggests that the letters and drawings are absent on the dolmens not because they were not able to make them. It just wasn't necessary.

Next, you need to pay attention to the labor costs associated with the construction of megaliths.
Researchers attribute the construction of dolmens to the Bronze Age (3-6 thousand years ago). In those days, there were tribal communities and nomadic tribes. It should be noted that the climatic conditions of the Caucasus make this place not as favorable as, for example, Egypt or Greece. Dolmens, as a rule, were built in mountainous regions, where snow sometimes falls, and in some areas it does not melt throughout the winter. Naturally, food is not so easy to get here, since there can be no talk of tasty juicy fruits that can be picked from a tree at any time.

At the time of the construction of dolmens, the life of people inhabiting the territory of the modern Caucasus was hardly easier than now. Rather the opposite.
However, local residents, instead of earning their own food, spent a huge amount of time and energy on the construction of stone structures of incomprehensible purpose. And this cannot be called an isolated case of dolmens, a lot of them were built, and now they are being found more and more.
It can, of course, be assumed that large groups of people were involved in the construction of megaliths, but in this case a legitimate question immediately arises: where then are the traces of large settlements, cities, fortresses, etc.?

It turns out that the people capable of creating megalithic structures, the construction of which requires considerable knowledge, skills and experience, at the same time did not have large stone houses and temples.
In the area of ​​​​the village of Dakhovskaya on the Belaya River, scientists discovered a settlement that, in many ways, belongs to the culture of megalith builders. In addition, during excavations in the valley of the Farsa River, many monuments of different eras were found.
Until today, researchers cannot identify the principle by which dolmens are located. Many structures are oriented approximately along the line of water flow. However, there are also dolmens directed to the slope, and megaliths, the direction of which is absolutely not amenable to any definition - they “look” in an incomprehensible direction.

Today, scientific work is underway to measure dolmens regarding their orientation to different phases of the solstice. Mikhail Kudin and Nikita Kondryakov have already published the results of their research on individual dolmens located in the upper reaches of the Unexpected Creek. Interesting are the works of T. V. Fedunova on measuring the megalith in Guzeripl.

The meaning of the theory being developed is that on a certain day (for example, the day of the equinox or solstice), the first ray of the sun rushes directly into the opening of the dolmen. At the building in Guzeripl, there is a special stone inside, on which the rays of the rising sun fall. The orientation of the dolmens is entirely subordinated to the location of the ridges surrounding the valleys.
However, research in this area has been carried out relatively recently, there are still few results, so it is impossible to state with complete certainty something definite about the direction of megaliths.

The scientific work of researchers in this area is strongly hampered by natural factors: these are densely forested slopes and a rather harsh climate. To make matters worse, any measurements can only be made if the clouds allow. Taking into account that the equinox and solstice do not happen so often, it can be assumed that scientists will not come to final conclusions soon.
It should also be noted that various natural influences - such as earthquakes, tree growth, etc., as well as the not always beneficial influence of man, have changed the original direction of many dolmens. Some archaeologists are still inclined to think that this pattern, that is, the orientation factor of megaliths, is most likely secondary. The likelihood that people built dolmens only for the sake of solar observations or as solar observatories is rather small, since fixing the direction could simply be done by placing two stones in the way it is done in menhirs. It is also very unlikely that people spent so much effort and time building megaliths that would make it easier to determine the orientation.

The very method of building dolmens also remains unclear. Of course, it is difficult to put two large boulders on top of each other, but that's not the point at all. Two Americans have already proven that this operation can be carried out without the help of modern tools and in no more than two hours. The main question is how people delivered huge boulders and rocks for many kilometers, because often they had to cover a distance of more than fifteen kilometers. Moreover, it should be noted that this happened in a mountainous, densely populated area, where even with a much lighter load it is not at all easy to move around.

The quality of the fit of the building material is also amazing. How did the ancient people, not possessing even a hundredth of modern means, perfectly fit multi-ton slabs to each other, while maintaining almost absolutely exact proportions, despite the fact that the processing of internal invisible surfaces was rather rough, and all the work was done with stone tools?

In the middle of the 20th century, a group of researchers wanted to deliver one of the dolmens from Esheri to the Sukhum Museum. We decided to choose a small megalith. A crane was connected to it, but no matter how much the steel cable was attached to the cover plate, it was not possible to budge the multi-ton structure. I had to resort to the help of a second crane. With the joint efforts of both cranes, the dolmen was able to be torn off the ground, but very soon they realized that it was impossible to put it on a truck. Some time later, when a more powerful machine arrived, the dolmen was transported in parts to Sukhumi.

In the city, scientists faced a much more difficult task: reassembling the structure. All the efforts of the people were not crowned with success, this was only partially achieved. When the cover plate was lowered onto the four walls, it could not be turned in such a way that their edges fit into the grooves located on the inner surface of the roof. There was a large gap between the walls and the roof, although initially the plates were fitted together so tightly that even a knife blade could not be placed between them.

Some researchers consider megaliths emitters of ultrasound. But such an interpretation of dolmens can only be attributed to sandstone buildings. But then what about dolmens built of limestone (but not in the Caucasus) or granite (near the top of the Razrubenny kurgan), and finally, with megaliths under the mounds?
So, we can draw the following conclusion: it is not yet possible to classify dolmens according to their orientation or construction method - there is too little information for this, people are just beginning to lift the veil that hides the secrets of dolmens from us.

Therefore, while scientists share megaliths in the most primitive way - according to their appearance.
More often than others, tiled dolmens are found. These megaliths can be located anywhere in the Caucasus, where there are dolmens at all.
The design consists of a stone table, on which two side slabs-walls were usually installed, and two more slabs were inserted into the grooves between them - front and back; the whole structure was covered with a roof, which sometimes could have grooves of various types.

Sometimes the side walls and roofs of some megaliths protruded forward, forming a portal. Often, in order to press the walls harder, raw slabs or just stones were placed on the sides of the dolmens. For the same purpose, often the back of the dolmens broke into the slope. Sometimes the front wall of the megaliths was given a convex lenticular shape, for example, the dolmen near Gelendzhik in the Wide Slit looks like this.

The megaliths of the Pshada river basin near Gelendzhik, according to scientists, were built with the highest quality and reliability from a construction point of view. In this megalith, the side walls form a slope, giving the false impression of a vault.
An opening was made on the facade of the building, which was closed with a stone cork. Usually it had a rounded shape, but dolmens are often found with semi-ellipsoid, triangular with rounded edges and square holes. Some megaliths were built without holes at all. Such structures can be considered dolmens only conditionally, and even then only in those cases when they are located among other dolmens (for example, a group of megaliths on the Nihekh ridge).

There are designs that have portal galleries made of separate slabs. Such dolmens were found in Solokh-aul, in the tract Three Oaks.
If in Europe such galleries are quite long, then in the Caucasus they are short variations, consisting of one section, unfortunately, all of them are already dilapidated.

The next type of buildings are megaliths, consisting of separate blocks-bricks of a fairly large size, covered with a slab on top, as well as ordinary, tiled dolmens. This option is called composite. These structures are most often rounded, blocks of such megaliths have a slightly rounded shape (for example, a group of dolmens in the valley of the Zhane River, the Psynako-2 group and some others).
There are also rectangular composite dolmens built from carefully selected L-shaped blocks, such as, for example, the dolmen on Mount Neksis.

The researchers also found many megaliths of transitional types, which have the features of both slab and composite structures. In such dolmens, only the facade wall is solid, and all the rest are built from blocks (one of such buildings was found in Sochi). Other dolmens (for example, in Guzeripl in the upper reaches of the Belaya River) are built up to half as tiled - the front part, and the other half of such structures are made up of blocks of different sizes, which are also poorly processed.

In rocky areas, dolmens were carved right into the rocks. Scientists have discovered many similar buildings south of Pshada. Naturally, this is both a beautiful and not too complicated version of the construction of megaliths. Three dolmens built in this way were found on Pshad, and in the vicinity of the city of Sochi, in the valleys of the Tsushvadzh and Shahe rivers, such structures make up the majority. However, further south, in Abkhazia, there are none at all.

How was the construction of such megaliths carried out? First, a chamber was carved at the top of the rock, which could have any shape, often it was a false vault. From above, the entire building was covered with a roof. A hole was made in the front of the rock, which was subsequently plugged with a stone cork. Dolmens built in this way are called trough-shaped by researchers.

The front part of the megalith could be processed in a variety of ways. Sometimes it was an imitation of the front part of an ordinary tiled dolmen. The similarity can be found in the characteristic ledges of the front wall, which are similar to the side walls of a tiled dolmen projecting forward. This suggests that trough-shaped dolmens arose much later than tiled ones. But it should be noted that there are also such trough-shaped dolmens in which there is absolutely nothing in common with tiled ones (for example, the megalith on the Grape Creek in the valley of the Tsuskhvadzh River, as well as the pyramidal dolmen in the Mamedova Shchel). It often happens that the portal element of a megalith is much larger than the size of the inner chamber.

Archaeologists have discovered a large group of structures, which later began to be considered false portal specialists. On the facade wall of these structures, in place of a hole plugged with a stone cork, a bulge was carved to imitate such a hole. The front side of such dolmens was often excellently processed, and trough-shaped buildings had portal ledges. Holes in these megaliths were cut from behind.

False portal megaliths, which were created according to the classical schemes of slab dolmens, were found in the upper reaches of the Unexpected Creek near Lazorevsky. As a rule, false portal megaliths were built according to the same scheme as trough-shaped dolmens. However, there are exceptions. For example, at a dolmen located near the village of Maryino in the valley of the Psezuapse River, a hole was made in the side wall.
Separate trough-shaped dolmens were processed from all sides until the structure was given a rectangular shape. This, as it were, imitated slab constructions (as, for example, the megalith in the village of Stone Quarry near Tuapse).

It happened that the dolmens were given a rounded shape (the village of Shkhafit on the Ashe River, the village of Pshada, the Wolf's Gate). However, for many megaliths, only the front part was turned, while most of the rock remained intact.

Researchers have discovered two megaliths in the Caucasus, which are characterized as trough-shaped in reverse. This means that a chamber was first carved in a rocky ledge, a hole was cut out, and only after the operations were completed, the structure was turned over and placed on a stone floor. But it should be clarified that there is only one reliable example of this kind of megalith. This is a dolmen located in the valley of the Ashe River. Regarding another inverted dolmen found on the Pshenakho River (Psynako-3), it must be said that, according to local residents, it originally had a roof, like all ordinary megaliths, but some bulldozer turned it over and threw it down.

There is another type of dolmen, which is represented in the Caucasus, however, in a single copy. It is a real monolith. For the construction of such a megalith, the entire chamber was carved through a hole in one rock, after which it was plugged with a stone cork. Until recently, there were three such buildings, but, unfortunately, two of them were destroyed for the sake of household needs. Now there is only one magnificent example of a monolithic dolmen, it is located in the Caucasus, on the Godlik River near the village of Volkonka.

Scientists have not yet been able to develop a clear classification, since there are numerous retreats and transitional variations of megalithic structures.
There is evidence (unfortunately, not yet verified) that in the valley of the Tsuskhvadzh River there is a two-chamber megalith built on the principle of a trough-shaped dolmen and having two holes.
In addition, two holes were found on a structure located in the same valley on the Vinogradnoye stream, and one of the holes was hollowed out in a slab that is a roof. By the way, on Pshad there are ruins of a tiled dolmen also with a hole made in the roof.

Near the village of Novosvobodnaya, researchers discovered a multifaceted trough-shaped megalith. In the same area, but in another large group of megaliths, there are two dolmens connected by an underground passage (the Bogatyrskaya road on the Fars River). However, it should be noted that, to the great regret of scientists, these dolmens, like many other megaliths, were torn apart by a tractor.

Another type of dolmens is under mounds. This is the Psynako-1 complex, found on the Pshenakho River near the village of Anastasievka - a dolmen with a dromos (a narrow underground passage).
The megalith was created as follows: the tiled dolmen was very carefully overlaid with small stones, and covered with clay from above, an underground gallery was led to the entrance, the walls and ceiling of which were made of small irregularly shaped stone slabs (most likely it was originally different). Psynako-1 reaches five meters in height and is lined with a cromlech - a stone fence.

This mound was found by the archaeologist of the Tuapse Museum of Local Lore M. K. Teshev. The long work of the bulldozers was justly rewarded: a dolmen turned out to be inside the barrow. According to the results of studies of this megalithic structure, the complex on the Pshenakho River can rightly be put on the same level with the most significant Western European structures of this kind.
The first who began to study the orientation of dolmens relative to the position of the Sun was M.K. Teshev. An archaeologist from Tuapse traced the relationship between the position of the Sun in the sky above the valley and the stone rays found around the mound.

But the scientist did not have time to complete the research. Now the megalithic complex on the Pshenakho River is a torn pile of stones, from which it is impossible to determine anything.

In the area of ​​Arkhipo-Osipovka, another burial mound complex with an underground passage in the form of a gallery was discovered. This megalith is not tiled. Its walls are lined with small stones that have a flat shape. Only the front part of the dolmen with a hole made in it consists of a single slab. Excavations of this structure are currently being carried out by an archaeologist from Moscow, B. V. Meleshko.

There are dolmens located inside stone towers, they were found in the Vasilyevka region (Ozereyka valley near Novorossiysk). Perhaps these complexes were originally simply covered with earth. Although this version has not yet been confirmed, since in many cases the structure of the surrounding area excludes such a possibility.
Separate dolmens were built on special embankments. Most often, such megaliths come across in the upper reaches of the Unexpected stream near Lazorevsky and the Ashe valley and a group above the villages of Bzych on the Shakh River.

Often, megalith builders surrounded the dolmens with stone fences called cromlechs. Cromlechs are interesting in the form of mounds of stones located around the dolmens and having a rounded shape (the Psynako-2 complex).
Here, divergent rays are clearly visible, which were lined with small stones. The fact that the cromlechs are very well preserved suggests that they were made later than the dolmens themselves.

There are also classic cromlechs, composed of poorly processed or unprocessed vertically placed stones (for example, a megalith in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Unexpected stream or in Guzeripl, etc.).
There are also dolmens that have small courtyards, as if continuing the construction. Well-crafted bricks and stone blocks were used to create these courtyards.

An example of such a structure is a tiled megalith in Dzhubga. The courtyard of this dolmen is paved with two rows of huge blocks. The entrance to it is dug into the ground and goes through the front row. Apparently, this courtyard originally had an elliptical shape.

As soon as the sedentary (agricultural) way of life, which became the result of an increase in the temperature of the earth's surface, made it possible to improve living conditions and create an opportunity for the collective work of large groups of people, it became possible to proceed to architectural structures. From this distant era, called the Neolithic, or the era of polished stone, came the remains of earthly and water (pile) dwellings, traces of earthen fortifications (fortifications), tombs (artificial caves, dolmens, covered alleys) and, finally, probably religious buildings - menhirs , cromlechs, cysts (dolmens) and alleys of stones (alignemans). The use of stone as a building material was initially limited due to the fragility of flint tools and their fracture upon impact. Even bronze tools could not be hard enough to work well with stone. More often they used the alignment of faces with the help of a rough bead. Stone architecture could have arisen only in the megalithic era, when buildings were built from large blocks. Such masonry always preceded the masonry of small stones - the result of a low level of development of tools.

Probably, thanks to technical improvements, the builders of the last era of the Neolithic era were still able to reduce the size of the materials they used. At first, progress was limited to props. Then the walls began to be erected from coarse small stones, filling the voids with rubble and earth. The roof required huge stone slabs. Then there was a revolution caused by the invention of a false code. This innovation made it possible to reduce the size of the openings of buildings, and, consequently, the size of the stone slabs that serve as their roofs. Thus, over the course of several centuries, a rudimentary architecture gradually arose and established itself, common, at different latitudes, to all civilizations of the ancient world - from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, from Scandinavia to Sudan. They are found in various places on the globe: in the Crimea, the Caucasus, Northern and Western Europe (France, England, Denmark, Holland), the Balkan Peninsula, Iran, India, Korea, North Africa and other places. . The enormous work of moving and installing boulders was carried out by the combined efforts of a large number of people in the primitive communal form of labor organization.

Megillithic buildings (gr. mega + litos, "huge stone") - structures of huge blocks of roughly processed stone. They are found almost everywhere in the world except Australia. They were erected during the Copper and Bronze Ages with the advent of metal tools. Apparently, the megaliths were communal structures. Their erection was a most difficult task for primitive technology, and their erection required the joint efforts of a large number of people. They are represented by four groups: menhirs, alinemans, dolmens and cromlechs.

Menhir (Breton. men + hir, "long stone") - a huge block of stone, a rounded pillar or slab, vertically dug into the ground. The average height ranges from 4 to 5 meters. They were located singly or in groups, alleys. The largest of them was found in Lokyamaryaker (province of Brittany, western France). Its total length is 22.5 meters (of which 3.5 meters were originally dug into the ground), weight is about 330 tons (Fig. 1.10).

The appearance of menhirs was not dictated by the vital necessity that forced people to build dwellings or storehouses. They had an idea that was not directly related to the struggle for existence. Nevertheless, considerable efforts were made to extract, deliver and hoist these stones, reaching very significant sizes. Undoubtedly, in this case, one can state some conscious intention to achieve a certain impression that these huge stones produce.

Rice. 1.10. Menhirs ("long stones"): a - the central menhir in Temple Wood (Scotland);

b - Big Menhir in Lokyamaryaker (prov. Brittany, France).

The functional purpose of the menhir is not always clear. It could serve as a boundary sign between the territorial possessions of two tribes, an obelisk, an astronomical sign, etc. Usually stone pillars were installed near the dolmen, so it is possible that they were associated with funeral rites. Some stones are decorated with bowl-shaped recesses and concentric circles (signs of the Sun). Sometimes their tops were painted with red ocher, and totem animals were depicted on the surface. Some stones were given the shape of a person (“stone women”) or an animal (Armenian vishaps, Chinese “bisi”).

alignemans - regular rows of small stones forming parallel roads, alleys. It has been suggested that each menhir was placed in memory of a dead person, or that these were “processional roads”. The most famous are the stone rows in the village of Karnak (province of Brittany, France), set in the III-II millennium BC. e. Here, 2813 menhirs of various sizes are installed in 12 rows up to 2.9 km long.

“Of all the megalithic monuments, the most famous are the rows of stones near the town of Carnac nestled on the sandy shore of a quiet bay on the south coast of Brittany. The stones here are so huge and so numerous that they impress even casual visitors. If you walk a little to the north of the town, you can get into a field where in the thick grass between the rare pines lined up, like soldiers in a parade, lines of menhirs - huge, up to five meters high, oblong stones, set vertically. There are 2935 of them here. They are stretched out in 13 rows four kilometers long. On some of them one can find still undeciphered embossed inscriptions. The construction of megaliths in Brittany, archaeologists date back to the Bronze Age ... " (Fig. 1.12) .

Rice. 1.12. Aligneman Le Meneka (Carnac, Brittany):

a – general panorama of the complex; b - the beginning of the "stone alley".

Local legend says that they are petrified Roman legionnaires. On the eve of Christmas Eve, magic spells lose their power over them for a while - stone warriors come to life and go down to the river to get drunk. Then they turn back to stone. Their other name is "damn fingers".

Dolmen (Celt. tolmen- "stone table") - a monumental tomb of tribal leaders, elders and warriors. They were erected in the Bronze Age (late III - early II millennium BC). Consists of several vertical stones supporting a horizontal stone slab. They served as burial monuments and chambers at the same time. Initially, dolmens were small in size - about 2 m long and about 1.5 m high. Subsequently, they were given large sizes and an approach to them was arranged in the form of a stone gallery up to 15-20 m long. The slabs in such buildings reached several tens of tons in weight. In the western part of the Caucasus, about two thousand dolmens were found, in Algeria - three thousand.

The size of the dolmens can be judged by the following figures. The height of the front wall in the Eschera megaliths is 2.3 m, the width is 3 m, the thickness is 35 cm. The length of the side plates is 3.7 m. 5 tons. The largest dolmen was discovered in Algeria - 15.0 × 5.0 × 3.0 meters. The weight of the slab of its coating is 40 tons.

Dolmens are of two types - tiled and trough-shaped.

Tiled dolmens assembled from six slabs of limestone or sandstone (four walls, roof, floor). The floor is formed by one or more slabs. There are dolmens, the walls of which are masonry of individual stones with an inward overlap to reduce the span, the ceiling of which is made of large slabs. The side walls were supported by limestone fragments. The front wall is usually wider and higher than the back, so the dolmens have a trapezoidal plan. The plates were tightly fitted to each other, fastening was carried out on spikes. The grooves in the side slabs and the corresponding ends of the front and rear slabs are machined with great care in order to maximize the sealing of the tomb. It is believed that this was dictated by the desire to isolate the souls of the dead from the living as tightly as possible. A hole was usually cut in the front wall, closed with a massive stone plug or shutter. Separate fragments of human remains were brought into the tomb through this hole (for example, the skull and bones of the right hand - a “secondary” burial). In addition to bones, a large number of clay vessels were found in the dolmens, which, due to their diminutiveness, are rather symbols intended for sacrificial food, as well as bronze hooks, daggers, belts, beads, spearheads, pendants, buttons, flint arrowheads, etc. etc. (Fig. 1.13).

Rice. 1.13. Tiled dolmens in the Pshada river valley (North Caucasus, Russian Federation)

Trough-shaped dolmens resemble a stone box with a lid (sarcophagus).

In the second millennium BC. e. two new types of dolmen appeared - gallery (corridor) tombs and court cairns .

gallery tomb(English gallery grave, French allee couverte or galerie couverte, German Galeriegrab) is a form of a chamber tomb in which the entrance corridor and the chamber itself do not have pronounced differences. Therefore, the design resembles a megalithic corridor under an oblong embankment. Many local variants of such tombs. are found in Catalonia, France (the culture of the Seine - Oise-Marne), in the British Isles (court-cairn, northern Cotswold tombs, wedge-shaped gallery tombs), in the north up to Sweden, in the east - to Sardinia ("tombs of the giants"), in Southern Italy. Most of the tombs were built in the Neolithic (III millennium BC), they continued to be used in the copper age, when bell-shaped goblets appear. The Sardinian examples belong to the advanced Bronze Age. An example of this structure is the corridor tomb at Bryn Sally Ddu (Ireland)(Fig. 1.14).

Rice. 1.14. Corridor tomb at Bryn Sally Ddu (after John Wood)

court cairn(English court cairn) - a tomb with a courtyard, a type of megalithic chamber tombs, found in South-West Scotland, as well as in Northern Ireland, hence the alternative name "Clyde Carlingford Tomb". Characteristic features are an elongated rectangular or trapezoidal tomb with a semicircular roofless courtyard on one side. This courtyard gives access to the tomb itself, which is usually a gallery with two or more chambers separated by walls and thresholds. The basic form, sometimes referred to as the "horned tomb", has several variations. The type of "lobster claw" or "enclosed courtyard" provides for wings of the fence that almost interlock in front of the tomb, which form a courtyard of rounded or oval outlines. Sometimes the tomb contains several chambers (or additional ones are attached). Several tombs in County Mayo have side chambers and may be classed as transept gallery tombs.

Cromlech (Breton. crom + lech, "stone circle") - a group of stone pillars set in a circle or along an open curve. Sometimes these buildings consist of several concentric rows of vertically placed stones. The pillars were usually covered with stone beams. A combination of two posts covered by a beam - trilith.

The pillars, sometimes up to 6-7 meters high, formed one or more concentric circles encircling a rounded platform. In the center of the cromlech, there usually stood a menhir, an altar stone, a dolmen, etc. Most likely, the composition of the cromlech served astronomical purposes. It was a solar or lunar observatory, a huge compass or gnomon (sundial). It is also possible that it was a cemetery (the remains of the dead and their belongings were found in some monuments). At the same time, the outer circle of the cromlech was considered a border that the souls of the dead could not cross.

After the works of N. Lockyer, J. Hawkins, J. Wood, A. Tom and others, it was suggested that megalithic structures were used for astronomical purposes, supposedly performing the functions of solar and lunar observatories, the first calculating devices and calendars. There is a certain rationale for this. The development of agriculture and navigation required a clearer periodization of the seasons, the timing of river floods, solar and lunar eclipses, ocean tides. For this purpose, special buildings were needed, called the oldest solar and lunar observatories.

megaliths

Megaliths (from the Greek megas - large and litos - stone) are archaeological monuments built from one or many blocks of wild or roughly processed stone. Megaliths are called: dolmens, tombs with a gallery, massive stone boxes, covered galleries, menhirs, cromlechs, stone alleys, as well as tombs carved into the rocks or dug out in the ground, but following the same plan as those built from large stones. Sometimes megaliths include cyclopean buildings, that is, fortresses, dwellings, and other structures made of stone blocks or dry masonry slabs.

Random photos of nature

Megalithic buildings are widespread in different countries of the world, except for Australia. In Western Europe, they are found in the Iberian, Apennine, on the islands of Malta, Menorca and others. Especially numerous in France and England. Megaliths are also known in North Africa. On the territory of the former USSR, megaliths are found in a number of regions of Siberia, in Ukraine, in the Crimea, and especially in the Caucasus, where all types of megaliths are found. Their purpose is not always possible to accurately establish. Most of them served for burials or were associated with a funeral cult. Megalithic buildings. belong to different archaeological epochs. They mainly appear in the Eneolithic (in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC), in Western Europe they reach their highest development in the Bronze Age. century (with the exception of England, where the megalithic culture remained Neolithic).

In some non-European countries (India, Japan, Indonesia), megaliths continued to be built in the Iron Age. The erection of megalithic structures was a most difficult task for primitive technology. The weight of the covering slabs reached 40 or more tons, and the weight of separate stones sometimes reached 100 or even 300 tons. An example of a complex megalithic structure is Stonehenge in England. In addition to a number of devices: pouring earth, installing levers, rollers, and so on, for the construction of megaliths, it was necessary to connect large masses of people. Apparently, megalithic buildings are communal structures.

Dolmens

this is the name of one type of megalithic (i.e., built of large stones or stone slabs) ancient monuments, similar to stone tables (hence their Celtic name, dolmen, in Brittany) and previously recognized by archaeologists as altars or altars of the Druids, but which were in reality stone tombs of the prehistoric era. In its simplest form, a dolmen was arranged from five stone slabs and represented a kind of stone closed box; on four slabs, placed upright, lay the fifth. A round hole was usually cut in the front transverse vertical plate. Usually a dolmen was arranged on the surface of the earth and a mound was poured over it, subsequently often falling down and destroyed; but sometimes the dolmen was erected on the top of the barrow, or, conversely, it went deep into the ground, settled in a pit. In other cases, dolmens took a more complex form, for example. connected with a narrower corridor of standing slabs or arranged in the form of a large rectangular chamber, in one of the longitudinal sides of which an entrance with a corridor was made (so that the whole structure took the form of the letter T), or, finally, the dolmen turned into a series of longitudinal ones, following one after another. another chamber, sometimes more and more widened and deepened into the ground (allée couverte).

The material from which the dolmens were made was different, depending on the area: in Denmark and Brittany - granite blocks, in central and southern France, in Holland, Spain - calcareous. Basically, dolmens are found in deserted and barren places, along the seashores; but it should be taken into account that many of these monuments have been destroyed from time to time or - more often - were plundered by people who used the slabs for other buildings. In Europe, dolmens are common only in the west, namely in Denmark (where large granite chambers in the form of the letter T are found), North-West Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal; in Italy, with a few exceptions in the region of Etruria, they are absent; in Austria, central Germany, Prussia, and also on the Balkan Peninsula; but they were found in small numbers in the Crimea. Outside of Europe, they are known in the sowing. Africa (Algeria, Tunisia) and Asia Minor (Syria, Palestine), also in the Caucasus (especially in the Kuban region) and in India, where similar monuments are still being erected in places (for example, in southern Khassia) and at present over the dead. At one time there was a hypothesis that these monuments were left by a people spreading from Asia, through northern Africa, to the Iberian Peninsula and further to France, Germany and Denmark; but this hypothesis is contradicted by the fact that the northern dolmens (Danish, British) belong, by all indications, to an older era than the southern ones. Some of the Danish and British dolmens contain Stone Age burials (remains of many dead, buried in a sitting position, with stone tools attached to them), while, for example, in the dolmens of central and southern France, next to the flint tips of spears and arrows, Bronze ornaments were also found with bones, and even iron weapons were found in the dolmens of Algeria and the Caucasus. The device of such stone tombs could be an imitation of the custom of ancestors who buried in caves, since the dolmen is a kind of artificial cave or grotto. Some dolmens apparently served as family or ancestral tombs, others were single tombs.

In central France, the builders of dolmens dating back to the beginning of the Metal Age, apparently, belonged to newcomers, compared with the population of the Neolithic era, who buried their dead in caves; this is indicated by the difference in the situation of the burials (in the Neolithic burial grottoes, skeletons were found struck by flint arrows of exactly the same type as those found in the dolmens, which apparently indicates a struggle between the builders of the dolmens and the population buried in the grottoes) , so, in part, and the difference in the shape of the skulls (mainly dolichocephalic in grottoes and meso - or brachycephalic - in dolmens). Dolmens located in Abkhazia, the Circassians consider the dwellings of some people of dwarfs, based, apparently, on the small size of the hole in them (the size of a human head); the Cossacks call them "heroic" graves, since only the heroes could pull off from the mountains, in their opinion, such stone blocks (limestone), weighing 100 or more pounds. In these dolmens, human bones were found, from subjects buried, apparently in a sitting position and distinguished by high stature, strong build and a brachycephalic skull. The bones were found with pottery shards with a rectilinear, nail or wavy pattern, flint scrapers, stone bars, bronze rings, earrings, arrows, pins, mirrors, glass beads. The Bosphorus coin of Riskuporis IV, 215 AD, found in one of the dolmens, is very important in the sense that it makes it possible to determine at least approximately the era of the Caucasian dolmens. Dolmens of the Crimea gave several iron things and, in addition, pointed to traces of cremation.

Menhirs

(Breton men - stone and hir - long) - large unhewn oblong stones, set vertically; one of the types of megalithic structures of different stages of the Bronze Age. They reach 4-5 meters or more in height (menhirs 21 meters high and about 300 tons in weight are found in France). Sometimes menhirs make up long alleys or ring-shaped fences. During the excavations carried out around many menhirs, animal bones, small vessels and shards, and sometimes ash stains were usually found. Often menhirs accompany dolmens. Apparently, menhirs had a cult significance. Most menhirs are in North-Western Europe, they are also found in Asia and Africa. On the territory of Russia, menhirs are common in a number of regions of Siberia and the Caucasus. A characteristic variety of Caucasian menhirs are vishaps. Alleys of menhirs are known in some regions of Armenia (Zangezur, Ashtarak, Koshun-Dash, Kirovakan), where they are called "army stones".

Vishaps

(word of Iranian origin) - stone sculptures (up to 5 meters high), depicting fish or pillars with a ram's skin. Vishals for the first time. discovered in 1909 in the Gegham mountains of Armenia. The Armenians associated these colossal statues with evil spirits and called them "vishaps", that is, demons. Vishaps were located near the beds of ancient canals and lakes for watering cattle. In ancient times, these statues were associated with the deities of fertility (pastures) and water (channels, springs). The time of their manufacture has not been established, most likely, vishaps belong to the 1st millennium BC. e. Vishaps are also found in Georgia, the North Caucasus and Mongolia.

Anatoly Ivanov

Dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs...

Everyone who is interested in archeology or just everything ancient and mysterious must have come across these strange terms. These are the names of a wide variety of ancient stone structures scattered all over the world and shrouded in an aura of mystery. A menhir is usually a free-standing stone with traces of processing, sometimes oriented in some way or marking a certain direction. Cromlech is a circle of standing stones, of varying degrees of preservation and with different orientations. The term "henge" has the same meaning. Dolmen is something like a stone house. All of them are united by the name "megaliths", which translates simply as "big stones". This class also includes long stone rows, including in the form of labyrinths, triliths - structures of three stones that form a semblance of the letter "P", and the so-called sacrificial stones - irregularly shaped boulders with bowl-shaped recesses.

Such archaeological sites are very widespread, literally everywhere: from the British Isles and our Solovki to Africa and Australia, from French Brittany to Korea. The time of their occurrence, modern science refers, in most cases, to the IV-VI millennia BC. This is the so-called Neolithic era, the end of the Stone Age - the beginning of the Bronze Age. The purpose of the structures is the performance of religious rituals or the creation of an astronomical observatory or a calendar in stone. Or all of this together. They were erected mainly by primitive communal tribes engaged in hunting, fishing and primitive agriculture - for the worship of the dead, sacrifices and adjustments

calendar. Such is the point of view of official science today.

Not so simple

It is no secret that the official position of science raises many questions. The first question arises when trying to recreate construction technology. Often it turns out to be so laborious that it puzzles modern man. After all, in many cases, the weight of individual elements of the structure was 5-10 tons, and the place where the rock was mined was located at a distance of tens or even hundreds of kilometers - and this despite the fact that suitable material could be obtained much closer. Transportation of stone blocks over rough terrain, without roads and cars, is a very difficult task. And if it is also mountains, as in the case of the Caucasian dolmens?

A separate issue is the high-precision and sophisticated processing of the surfaces of the monolith and the subsequent installation of the blocks. How could this be achieved, and even in the conditions of a "cruel struggle for survival"?

Neither the binding of certain megaliths to astronomical events, nor the idea of ​​a stone calendar fits in with the image of a “man with a stone axe”. After all, both imply careful observation of nature, comparison and generalization of data that could sometimes be accumulated only for hundreds of years ... In relation to primitive calendars, the term “magic” is often used. Supposed rituals are also associated with magic. But what does this word mean now? Rites, superstitions? Even the very name "megalithic culture", which we often use, reflects our confusion rather than understanding: after all, literally it is simply "the culture of large stones." Questions, questions, questions...

Where to look for answers?

What do we really know about that era far from us in all respects? Where to look for the keys to it? Perhaps, the common features in working with stone indicate the existence of some kind of pra-culture or prehistoric civilization that literally unites the entire globe? Isn't this also evidenced by the similarity of some mythological plots of Polynesia, the Caucasus, Britain - places so far from each other? They sound the motive of a person's connection with the mysterious and more ancient magical people of powerful dwarfs, who can do any job - how can one not recall the fabulous gnomes. There are many similar legends among different peoples that describe construction with the help of a cry, a song, a whistle. Some other myths (which, for example, are shrouded in the creation of the great Stonehenge) speak of the work of the ancient giants.

But what about the dating of these various structures? In most cases, it is based on the radiocarbon analysis of nearby organic remains, such as fires, burials, or animal bones. But this is not the dating of the stone processing itself!

There are certain analogies of the "megalithic culture" with the later civilizations of the ancient world - Egypt, Mesoamerica. There, too, they masterfully handled huge stone blocks, a vivid example of this is the mystery of the construction of the Great Pyramid. Or they processed boulders in such a way that a simple wall became like a puzzle: in Sacsayhuaman, a stone looks like it was easy to cut it (as, indeed, to lift it and install it with great accuracy). Often there is a binding to special points on the horizon associated with the rising and setting of the Sun or Moon, stars or planets, points that reflect the features of their movement in the celestial sphere.

It is believed that the era of megaliths preceded the ancient civilizations. But both the dolmens of the Caucasus and Stonehenge look as if by the time they were built, a lot of experience had already been accumulated in creating such structures ...

No need to go to Stonehenge

Who, having learned about the mysterious Stonehenge, did not light up with the desire to go there and “feel with their own hands” - as if attracting some kind of invisible magnet! But, by the way, many monuments of megalithic culture are literally right next to us. These are Caucasian dolmens, and a complex of stone slabs on the Kulikovo field. Found "cup" stones in the Tver, Yaroslavl, Kaluga regions. And even if all this is still very little studied and not so widely known - does it become less mysterious from this?

As if specifically for lovers of antiquities, numerous (about three thousand!) Dolmens are scattered in the mountain spurs along the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus - in the region of Tuapse, Sochi, Gelendzhik. For the most part, these are granite "houses" with a round manhole. Interestingly, most often the hole is too narrow to climb into it. Sometimes next to such a "house" you can find a kind of "cork" in the form of a truncated cone, exactly matching the hole. Sometimes the "houses" are monolithic, but more often they are composite, made of stone slabs. They may have a kind of "portals" with a "canopy". There are also dolmens of a different shape: instead of a manhole, there is a ledge in the form of a hemisphere. Fragments of cromlechs have been preserved near some dolmens: for example, an open, flattened circle of separate stones adjoins a dolmen from the Kozhokh group.

Separate dolmens, for example, a trough-shaped dolmen from the Mamedov Gorge (on the right bank of the Kuapse River), are processed in such a way that they indicate the point of sunrise over the ridge on the days of the equinoxes. Another feature of this particular dolmen is that in one of the directions it resembles a pyramid with a cut top. The first rays of the Sun, having run along the edge of the pyramid, fell into the middle of the ceiling of the dolmen, when the Sun completely rose above its flat top...

About half a thousand boulders with traces of processing were found in central Russia. Most often they look like lying stone slabs with bowl-shaped recesses, sometimes with a drain, sometimes with several cylindrical recesses or holes. Until recently, it was impossible to say with certainty that there were menhirs or standing stones on the territory of Central Russia. But the discoveries of recent years, in particular, a standing stone near the village of Beloozero, not far from the Kimovsk-Epifan highway, make it possible to talk about the existence of such monuments. The Belozersky menhir can hardly be called an "astronomical instrument" - so far it has not been possible to establish its orientation with the necessary accuracy, although it is possible that it once indicated the direction of the sunrise on the day of the winter solstice. But another similar monument - the Monastyrshchinsky standing slab - can be called such with good reason. It is located in the Rybiy ravine, not far from the village of Monastyrshchina, near the confluence of the Nepryadva and the Don. The plate has a triangular shape. The northern face of the plate is quite flat and even, it is oriented along the east-west axis, that is, it indicates the sunrise on the equinoxes.

Discoveries continue!

Who knows what expedition will discover new traces of ancient cultures, who knows who will be able to stretch new connecting threads between seemingly unrelated facts! Who knows how many more mysteries our land keeps, how many mysteries the ancient stones keep! After all, many discoveries - just in central Russia - have been made over the past few years. And in the Caucasus they continue to find and describe more and more new dolmens ... For those in whom the spirit of adventure and knowledge lives, the world around will never seem boring and gray. For those who truly seek, there will always be enough mysterious and unknown.

The original article is on the website of the magazine "New Acropolis": www.newacropolis.ru

to the magazine "Man Without Borders"