Dolmen

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(Redirected from Hunebed)

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

As indicated above, "dolmen" is not the only word used to identify these structures. "Dolmen" means "stone table" in Breton and was first used archaeologically by Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne. The etymology of the German Hünenbett or Hünengrab and Dutch Hunebed all invoke the imagery of giants building the structures. Of other Celtic languages, "cromlech" derives from Welsh and "quoit" is commonly used in Cornwall.

These megalithic tombs are found on the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts. Hunebedden are chamber tombs similar to dolmens and date to the middle Neolithic (Funnelbeaker culture, 4th millennium BC). They consist of a kerb surrounding an oval mound which covered a rectangular chamber of stones with the entrance on one of the long sides. Some have a more complex layout and include an entrance passage giving them a T-shape. It has been suggested that this means they are related to the Passage graves found in Denmark and elsewhere.

In Mecklenburg and Pomerania, large numbers of these graves were disturbed when towns and cities were built. The boulders came in handy for construction and road building. There are still many thousands left today in Europe: for example, more than a thousand on the island of Rügen alone.

Similar tombs can be found all over the world. Korea is said to contain half of the world's total, dating from the 1st millennium BC. The dolmen in Ganghwa is a northern-type, table-shaped dolmen where ancestral rites were held. It is the biggest stone of this kind in South Korea, measuring 2.6 by 7.1 by 5.5 metres.

Dolmens are also present in Syria and Israel, in the Golan Heights.

Over 3000 dolmens and other structures can be found in the North-Western Caucasus region of Russia, where more and more dolmens are discovered in the mountains each year.

T-shaped Hunebed D27 in Borger-Odoorn, Netherlands, recent.	Same Hunebed D27 in 1924.	Dolmen de Axeitos, Galicia, Spain.	Dolmen da Aboboreira, Baião, Portugal.
Poulnabrone dolmen in County Clare, Ireland.	Chûn Quoit, in Penwith, Cornwall, UK.