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As you know, there is still no final and reliable conclusion about the purpose for which these megaliths were created, but some scientists agree on one thing: dolmens are variants of tombs. It is also not clear why megalith builders needed to spend so much effort and energy on building dolmens for burial, when more suitable and less labor-intensive structures could have been built for this purpose.
In individual megaliths, scientists have found the remains (not necessarily entire) of approximately 16 people. There have been cases of cremation. Different methods of burial indicate the characteristics of the cultures of peoples.
In the Caucasus, as a rule, in river valleys, almost all types of burials are found in small areas. This is explained by 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. Individual megaliths were filled with various products. And in one of them, located on the Asha River, in the valley, scientists discovered a bunch of dog paws.
However, despite all the existing differences, the parameters of the structures practically do not change. The fact that there are virtually no designs or decorations on the dolmens indicates that the structures are unlikely to have been tombs. And the presence on some of the convex signs, for the depiction of which the megalith builders had to remove a layer of stone from the entire surface of the slab, suggests that letters and drawings are absent on the dolmens not because they did not know how to make them. There was simply no need for it.
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 climatic conditions The Caucasus makes this place not as favorable as, for example, Egypt or Greece. Dolmens, as a rule, were built in mountainous areas where snow sometimes falls, and in some areas it does not melt throughout the winter. Naturally, food here is not so easy to obtain, since delicious juicy fruits that can be picked from the tree at any time are out of the question.
At the time of the construction of the dolmens, the life of the people inhabiting the territory of the modern Caucasus was hardly easier than it is now. Quite the contrary.
However, instead of getting food for themselves, local residents spent huge amount energy and time for the construction of stone structures of unknown purpose. And this cannot be called an isolated case; a lot of dolmens were built, and even now more and more of them are being found.
One can, of course, assume that large groups of people were involved in the construction of megaliths, but in this case a legitimate question immediately arises: where are the traces of large settlements, cities, fortresses, etc.?
It turns out that a 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 Farsa River valley, many monuments from different eras were found.
To today researchers cannot determine by what principle the dolmens are located. Many structures are oriented approximately along the water flow line. However, there are also dolmens directed into the slope, and megaliths, the direction of which is completely indeterminable - they “look” in an unknown direction.
Today they are underway scientific works by measuring dolmens relative to their orientation at 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 stream. The work of T.V. Fedunova on measuring the megalith in Guzeripl is interesting.
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 hole of the dolmen. The structure in Guzeripl has a special stone inside on which rays fall rising sun. The orientation of the dolmens is entirely dependent on the location of the ridges surrounding the valleys.
However, research in this area has been carried out relatively recently, the results are still limited, so it is impossible to say with complete confidence anything definite about the direction of the megaliths.
The scientific work of researchers in this area is greatly hampered by natural factors: densely forested slopes and a rather harsh climate. To complicate matters further, any measurements can only be taken if the clouds allow it. Taking into account that the equinox and solstices do not occur 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., and not always beneficial influence people changed the original orientation of many dolmens. Some archaeologists are still inclined to think that this pattern, that is, the factor of megalith orientation, is most likely secondary. The likelihood that people built dolmens only for the sake of solar observations or as solar observatories is quite small, since the direction could be fixed simply by placing two stones as is done in menhirs. It is also very unlikely that people spent so much time and effort to build megaliths that would make it easier to determine orientation.
The method of constructing dolmens also remains unclear. Of course, it is difficult to put two large blocks of stone on top of each other, but that is not the point. Two Americans have already proven that this operation can be carried out without help modern instruments and no more than two hours. The main question is how people transported huge boulders and rocks from many kilometers away, because they often 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.
The quality of fit is amazing too. building material. How did ancient people, not possessing even a hundredth of modern means, flawlessly 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 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 for the Sukhumi Museum. We decided to choose a small megalith. A crane was connected to it, but no matter how much they attached the steel cable to the cover slab, it was not possible to move the multi-ton structure. I had to resort to using a second crane. With the joint efforts of both cranes, they managed to lift the dolmen off the ground, but very soon they realized that it was impossible to hoist it onto a truck. Some time later, when a more powerful machine arrived, the dolmen was transported piece by piece to Sukhumi.
In the city, scientists faced a much more difficult task: reassembling the structure. All the efforts of 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 rotated so that their edges fit into the grooves located on inner surface roofs. There was a large gap left between the walls and the roof, although initially the slabs were fitted so tightly to each other that it was impossible to fit even a knife blade between them.
Some researchers consider megaliths to be ultrasound emitters. But such an interpretation of dolmens can only be attributed to sandstone buildings. But then what about dolmens built from limestone (but not in the Caucasus) or from granite (in the area of the top of the Razrublenny Kurgan), and finally, with megaliths under the burial mound?
This means that we can draw the following conclusion: it is not yet possible to classify dolmens by their orientation or method of construction - there is too little information for this, people are just beginning to lift the veil that hides the secrets of dolmens from us.
Therefore, for now, scientists divide megaliths in the most primitive way - by their appearance.
Tiled dolmens are more common than others. These megaliths can be located anywhere in the Caucasus where there are dolmens.
The structure consists of a stone table, on which two side wall slabs were usually installed, and two more slabs - front and back - were inserted into the grooves between them; the entire structure was covered with a roof, which could sometimes have grooves of different types.
Sometimes the side walls and roofs of some megaliths protruded forward, forming a portal. Often, in order to press the walls harder, untreated slabs or simply stones were placed on the sides of the dolmens. For the same purpose, the back part of the dolmens was often dug into the slope. Sometimes the front wall of the megaliths was given a convex lens-shaped shape, for example, the dolmen looks like near Gelendzhik in Shirokaya Shchel.
The megaliths of the Pshada River basin near Gelendzhik, according to scientists, were built from a construction point of view of the highest quality and reliability. The side walls of this megalith form a slope, creating a false impression of a vault.
An opening was made on the facade of the building, which was closed with a stone plug. Usually it had a rounded shape, but dolmens with semi-ellipsoidal, triangular with rounded edges and square holes are often found. Some megaliths were built without any holes at all. Such structures can be considered dolmens only conditionally, and then only in those cases when they are located among other dolmens (for example, a group of megaliths on the Nikhet ridge).
There are structures with portal galleries made from individual slabs. Such dolmens were discovered in Solokh-aul, in the Three Oaks tract.
If in Europe such galleries are quite long, then in the Caucasus they are short variations, consisting of one section; unfortunately, they are all already dilapidated.
The next type of buildings are megaliths, consisting of individual brick blocks of sufficient large size covered with a slab on top, just like ordinary tiled dolmens. This option is called composite. These structures are most often round in shape, the 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 L-shaped, carefully selected blocks, such as the dolmen on Mount Nexis.
Researchers have also found many megaliths of transitional types, having features of both tiled 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 half like tiled ones - the facade part, and the other half of similar structures are made of blocks different sizes, which are also poorly processed.
In rocky areas, dolmens were carved directly into the rocks. Scientists have discovered many similar buildings south of Pshada. Naturally, this is both a beautiful and not too complicated option for building 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 Tsuskhvadzh and Shakhe rivers, such structures make up the majority. However, further south, in Abkhazia, there are none at all.
How were such megaliths constructed? First, a chamber was carved into the top of the rock, which could have any shape, often it was a false vault. The entire structure was covered with a roof. A hole was made in the front of the rock, which was subsequently plugged with a stone plug. Researchers call dolmens built in this way trough-shaped.
The front part of the megalith could have been processed by the most in various ways. Sometimes it was an imitation of the front part of an ordinary tiled dolmen. The similarity can be found in the characteristic projections of the front wall, which are similar to the side walls of a tiled dolmen, protruding forward. This suggests that trough-shaped dolmens arose much later than tiled ones. But it should be noted that there are also trough-shaped dolmens that have absolutely nothing in common with tiled dolmens (for example, the megalith on the Vinogradny stream in the valley of the Tsuskhvadzh River, as well as the pyramidal dolmen in Mamedova Gap). It often happens that the portal element of the megalith is much larger size inner chamber.
Archaeologists discovered a large group of structures that later began to be considered by specialists to be false portals. On the front wall of these structures, in place of the hole plugged with a stone plug, a bulge was carved, simulating such a hole. The front side of such dolmens was often excellently processed, and the trough-shaped buildings had portal projections. The holes in these megaliths were cut from the back.
False-portal megaliths, which were created according to the classical schemes of tiled dolmens, were discovered in the upper reaches of the Neozhidannye stream 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, a dolmen located near the village of Maryino in the valley of the Psezuapse River has a hole made in the side wall.
Individual trough-shaped dolmens were processed from all sides until the structure was given a rectangular shape. This seemed to imitate tiled structures (such as the megalith in the village of Kamenny Quarry near Tuapse).
It happened that dolmens were given a rounded shape (the village of Shhafit on the Asha River, the village of Pshada, the Wolf Gate). However, for many megaliths, only the front part was ground, leaving most of the rock untouched.
Researchers have discovered two megaliths in the Caucasus, which are characterized as trough-shaped in reverse. This means that a chamber was first ground out in the rocky ledge, a hole was cut out, and only after the operations were completed, the structure was turned over and placed on the 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 discovered 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 operator turned it over and threw it down.
There is another type of dolmen, which is represented in the Caucasus, although in a single copy. It is a real monolith. To construct such a megalith, the entire chamber was carved through a hole in one rock, after which it was plugged with a stone plug. Until recently, there were three such buildings, but, unfortunately, two of them were destroyed for economic 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 Tsushvadzh 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 discovered on a structure located in the same valley on the Vinogradny stream, one of the holes being hollowed out in the slab that is the 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 to each other by an underground passage (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 burial mounds. This is the Psynako-1 complex, found on the Pshenakho River near the village of Anastasievka - a dolmen with a dromos (narrow underground passage).
The megalith was created as follows: the tiled dolmen was very carefully lined with small stones, and clay was poured on top; an underground gallery was built to the entrance, the walls and ceiling of which were made of small stone slabs of irregular shape (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 an archaeologist from Tuapse local history museum M.K. Teshev. The long work of the bulldozer operators was justly rewarded: a dolmen was found inside the mound. Based on the results of studies of this megalithic structure, the complex on the Pshenakho River can rightly be placed on the same level as 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 discovered 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-up pile of stones, from which it is impossible to determine anything.
In the Arkhipo-Osipovka area, another burial mound complex was discovered with by underground passage in the form of a gallery. 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 the hole made in it consists of a single slab. Excavations of this structure are currently being carried out by archaeologist from Moscow B.V. Meleshko.
There are dolmens located inside stone towers; they were discovered in the Vasilyevka area (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.
Individual dolmens were built on special embankments. Most often, such megaliths are found in the upper reaches of the Unexpected stream near Lazorevsky and the Ashe valley and groups above the villages of Bzych on the Shakhe River.
Megalith builders often surrounded dolmens with stone fences called cromlechs. Interesting are cromlechs in the form of mounds of stones located around dolmens and having a rounded shape (of the Psynako-2 complex).
Here diverging rays, which were lined with small stones, clearly appear. The fact that the cromlechs are very well preserved suggests that they were made later than the dolmens themselves.
There are also classic cromlechs made up of poorly processed or unprocessed vertical stones (for example, a megalith in the area of the Unexpected stream or in Guzeripl, etc.).
There are also dolmens that have small courtyards, as if continuing the structure. 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
CairnsMegaliths (from Greek. μέγας - "big", λίθος - "stone"). They are divided into menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs and so-called covered alleys - depending on their architecture. Menhirs (Breton "high stones") are lonely standing stones up to 20 m high, which resemble pillars or steles. A dolmen (Breton “stone-table”) looks like a gate made of huge stone slabs. A cromlech (Breton "circle of boulders") is a circle of individual vertical stones. Sometimes cromlechs have a more complex structure - the stones that make them up can be covered in pairs or three at a time with horizontal slabs, like a roof. In the middle of the circle a dolmen or menhir can be installed.
Megalith in the Ashe River Valley
(Caucasus)
IN lately interest in megaliths has increased again after the discovery of megalithic structures at the bottom Atlantic Ocean 40 kilometers from the Bahamas.
The oldest of these structures date back to the eighth millennium BC.
Megaliths belong to different eras. They were built many thousands of years ago, and they were built on the islands of Polynesia just a few centuries ago. Many megalithic monuments have been found on the islands of Polynesia: dolmens, majestic but already destroyed by time temples, canals. The Polynesians attribute the construction of these structures either to white, red-bearded gods who came from the ocean, or to dwarfs, menehunes, who descended from the flying three-tiered island of Kuaihelani.
Dolmen. Caucasus
Many megaliths are also found in Australia. Their construction is attributed either to the mysterious Wonjins, who came from the sea and are depicted as creatures without mouths, with halos around their heads, or as dwarfs.
Adyghe people call Caucasian dolmens “syrp-un”, which means houses of dwarfs. Ossetians have a legend about a people of dwarfs - Bitsenta, who are endowed with supernatural traits. For example, the bicenta dwarf is capable of knocking down a huge tree with one glance. According to legend, dwarfs live in the sea. In addition, Ossetians claim that the ancestors Caucasian peoples- the mythical Narts also came out of the sea and gave people culture.
The megaliths of Britain are surrounded by amazing romantic legends. At night, legends say, at certain times of the year, the hills open up and the strange unearthly light pouring from them attracts random companions to the land of the dwarf seedlings, who went underground in ancient times. The Idas also live somewhere far away in the ocean on the islands of the Promised Land. They possess wisdom and countless treasures.
Megaliths of Scotland
Irish sagas often contain references to megaliths. Thus, in “The Disease of Cuchulainn” the menhir is credited with the ability to communicate between a person and the Sids.
Megalithic structures in Scotland date from the Middle Neolithic, Late Bronze Age, around 3500 - 1000 BC. e. Their sizes vary widely, some can cover the area of a small village, others 10 feet in circumference. They were built, like Stonehenge, from huge limestone (or other) slabs that were moved to the construction site. In the 5th and 9th centuries, the church issued decrees to destroy these monuments, seeing in them pagan heresy and echoes of past beliefs. Indeed, back in the 18th century, young married couples came to the “temple of the moon,” or as it was also called “Wodan’s stone,” to ask Wodan for happiness, wealth and prosperity. They stood on opposite sides, took each other by the right hand and swore loyalty and love. This oath was considered so serious that those who broke it were expelled.
Menhirs of the Karnak complex
The article uses materials from the site:
Menhirs Dolmens Cromlechs - the words themselves reek of something stone and very old. Accompanying us to the Breton town of Lokmariaquer, our friends said:
The town, of course, is small, but you won’t be bored - there are only dolmens and menhirs around. There will be something to do.
Indeed, literally at every step, as soon as we left the city (and it ended before it even began), we discovered huge stones: some stood like pillars, others were piled one on top of the other like giant tables, and still others were built into entire galleries . Legends have been formed about these stones for centuries, if not millennia, and, what is most amusing, they are still being formed, however, under the guise of unconfirmed supposedly scientific hypotheses.
Menhirs Dolmens Cromlechs - messages?
For a long time it was believed that all these structures (they are found in Western Europe, as well as in some places in the Caucasus) were erected by the Celts - a stern and warlike people. These stones supposedly served as temples under open air, and the Druids, the priests of the Celts, performed bloody sacrifices near them.
Well, many still think so, although it has been proven that the mysterious stones have been on the earth for more than three thousand years, and some are even older - archaeologists call the date 4800 BC. And many tribes, which we call Celts, appeared much later - in the middle of the first millennium BC. In addition, if we talk about those giant stones that are located in Great Britain and France, then, most likely, they were actually used by the Druids, who replaced the more ancient priests unknown to us; after all, these buildings were built as pagan temples, but a holy place is never empty, and each new religion uses it in its own way. But here’s the problem: in the Caucasus, for example, there were no traces of Druids, so where did such stones come from? However, in science fiction and non-popular science books you can find the most unexpected explanations for everything. For example, that the Druids are aliens sent to us or miraculously surviving inhabitants of Atlantis. If so, then anything is possible...
But real scientists courageously admit their own ignorance: we don’t know, they say, what the names of the peoples who built these structures were called, we don’t know. why and how these buildings were used. We can only establish their age and assume that they are somehow connected with cult activities. This is not as interesting as the hypotheses of romantic pseudoscientists. But. at least honestly.
In fact, no one even really knows what to correctly name these ancient monuments. Standing stones are usually called menhirs. Those that look like tables are dolmens. Stones arranged in a circle, like the English Stonehenge, with cromlechs. Any guidebook says that these words are Breton, the first means “long stone,” the second “table-stone,” and the third “rounded place.” This is true and not true. Yes, the word "menhir" came into French. and after him to all others from Breton. But in the Breton language there is no such word, and a standing stone is designated by a completely different word “pelvan” - “pillar stone”. How did this happen? The point is this: when scientists, and simply lovers of antiquities, first became interested in these outlandish structures (and this was back in early XIX century). they decided to ask the local population what these strange things were called. Local population It was difficult to speak French in those days.
So from the very beginning there were continuous misunderstandings and misunderstandings between the bearers of the local tradition and the researchers.
Further - more. Those “new legends” that romantic writers created in their works - about druids and singer-bards who drew their inspiration in the shadow of menhirs - have nothing in common with those legends that Breton peasants passed on from mouth to mouth. The peasants simply believed that these stones were magical. And how could it be otherwise, because at first they served the pagans, and when Christianity came to Brittany, the old stones did not disappear along with the old religion. The first priests were smart people and they understood that since the local residents were accustomed to worshiping idol stones for thousands of years, it was stupid, if not dangerous, to try to convince them overnight that this was a sin. And instead of fighting the pagan stones, the priests decided to “tame” them, as priests of other religions had done more than once. The springs, which were considered magical even in ancient times, became sacred. Most often, it was enough to carve a cross on the top of the menhir. Sometimes they didn’t even do this: just some ancient ceremony with a procession to the stone turned into a religious procession. And the wolves are fed, and the sheep are safe. And what people tell about strange stones in fairy tales and legends is natural.
The alley of dolmens, which is located in Verkhnyaya, not far from the town of Esse, called “fairy stones,” has always been surrounded by special reverence. They say that in order to build it, the famous Merlin, by the power of his magic, carried heavy stones from afar. Interestingly, archaeologists confirm with surprise: the multi-ton slabs that make up the alley actually traveled many kilometers before they were installed near Essa. But how did they do it? And who, and most importantly, why was it needed?
According to another legend, fairies built this stone alley. Each of them had to bring three huge stones at a time for construction - one in each hand and one on the head. And woe to that fairy who does not hold at least one stone. Having dropped it to the ground, she would no longer be able to pick it up and continue on her way - she had to return and start all over again.
They say that those who built this alley are not averse to joking with people even now. Many try to count how many stones are in the building, and everyone names their own number - some forty-two stones, some forty-three, and some forty-five. Even if the same person undertakes to count them several times, he will not succeed; each time the number of stones will be different. “Don’t joke with the devil’s power,” they said in the old days, “no one has ever been able to count these stones. You can’t outwit the devil.”
But the lovers believed that the fairies would help them choose their destiny. In the old days, young men and women came to the alley of ancient stones on the night of the new moon. The young man walked around them on the right, and the girl on the left. Coming full circle, they were dating. If both counted the same number of stones, then their union should have been happy. If one of them counted one or two stones more, then their fate was far from cloudless, but, in general, happy. Well, if the difference between the two numbers turned out to be too big, then, according to legend, it was better not to think about the wedding. However, even the fairies’ warnings did not stop the lovers.
There were also legends about menhirs. In the old days they believed that treasures were kept under standing stones. For example, under the menhir near the city of Fougeres. They said that every year on Christmas night a blackbird flies to the stone and lifts it up so that you can see the louis d'or lying on the ground. But if anyone wants to take advantage of this moment and snatch the money, the huge menhir will crush him with its weight.
And there are also menhirs, who on Christmas night, while mass is being celebrated in churches, themselves go to the stream to drink, and then return to their place. Woe to the one who finds himself on the road of a stone that rushes at great speed and can crush everything in its path. However, as legends say, there are those who like to take risks: after all, in the hole left by the absent menhir, there could easily be a treasure. If you manage to pick it up while the menhirs are at the watering hole, you will live the rest of your life comfortably. True, few managed to survive: the angry menhir usually chased the thief like an angry bull and crushed the poor fellow into a cake.
We, of course, were not going to look for treasures, especially since Christmas was still far away. It was just interesting to look at the stones that they talk and write about so much. First of all, we went to a small open-air museum, where for a modest fee you could see the largest menhir in Brittany - 20 meters long, weighing approximately 280 tons. True, the giant did not stand, as a decent menhir should, but lay on the ground, split into several parts. This most likely happened in ancient times, but no one knows why. Maybe the ancient builders were let down by gigantomania, and they simply could not install the miracle stone and dropped it. Perhaps the stone stood for some time, but then collapsed due to an earthquake. Locals they claim that it was broken by lightning. Who knows what really happened?
By the way, not all menhirs and dolmens are gigantic. Once upon a time, back in student years(I studied in the Breton city of Rennes), a funny incident happened to me. It was in the town of Pont-Labbe, where my friend and I were invited by a classmate, a native of this town. Among other attractions, he decided to show us a whole clearing of dolmens. We all piled into his old Ford and drove a distance that we could easily have covered on foot. Getting out of the car, I began to look around in bewilderment: where were the promised dolmens?
Yes, here they are, they told me. - look around.
And indeed, the clearing was dotted with dolmens. Small: the tallest one reached my knee. I involuntarily laughed, but my guide began to defend the dwarf dolmens, arguing that they are no less ancient than those multi-meter giants that they love to show tourists. I did not deny this, but still the clearing made a somewhat depressing impression on me, and not at all because of the size of the dolmens. I remembered Moscow forest parks after the May holidays: under the dolmens there were candy wrappers, cigarette butts and a countless number of empty bottles, indicating that non-ritual libations were regularly performed here.
Yes,” my guide sighed, “we don’t take care of dolmens and menhirs, they don’t take care of them... It’s nothing, it can be removed, but twenty or thirty years ago we saw enough films about your virgin lands and also began to unite small fields, destroy boundaries... Even menhirs turned up under the hot hand: imagine, a menhir stands in the middle of a field, seemingly not bothering anyone. Not included in the list of monuments due to short. Of course, you can carefully drive around it with a tractor every time, but this requires time, attention, and unnecessary waste of fuel. What about the savings? So they uprooted menhirs that scientists had never even heard of. No one knows how many of these stones have disappeared.
Large menhirs with dolmens are really lucky. They are heavily protected by the state. In Lokmariaker you can’t get close to them: they are fenced off with ropes, and dozens of visitors wander in crowds along the narrow paths, gawking left and right. Outside the city, however, there are underground galleries where you can freely climb. Near each there is a sign and a panel explaining the history of the monument in four languages: French, Breton, English and German.
The most beautiful gallery seemed to me to be in the town of Kerere, at Cape Kerpenhir, about two kilometers from Lokmariaker. We went there early in the morning to enjoy the beauty ancient monument, without clashing heads with their own kind. From the outside, the view is not so great: stone slabs on the top of a small hill, some kind of hole, at the entrance to which there is a small menhir - slightly taller than a man. We go down to the gallery. It smells of salt and dampness, no wonder, because the sea is very close. You have to walk on all fours: over several millennia, the huge slabs have managed to grow thoroughly into the ground. Although, most likely, the gallery’s vaults were not initially very high; people were much smaller: just remember the knightly armor in museums; not every thirteen-year-old boy will fit into it. What can we say about people five thousand years ago! To them, such galleries probably seemed high and spacious. Be that as it may, we, people of the twentieth century, have to protect our heads. IN full height You can straighten up only at the end of the gallery, in a small hall. And only if your height is not above average.
On a panel installed nearby, a plan of the gallery is drawn and two slabs are indicated on which mysterious drawings are carved. However, it is impossible to see them: darkness reigns in the gallery, and only occasionally a ray of sun breaks through the gap between the ceiling tiles. You have to feel your way through, which makes the gallery seem even more mysterious: it turns unexpectedly and ends just as unexpectedly. However, I managed to find the slabs with drawings. Moreover, we managed to photograph them with flash. And only when the photographs were ready, we were able to see the message left to us by the ancient artists.
It is unknown what the ornaments from the Kerere gallery mean, but one of them is very reminiscent of a traditional Breton embroidery motif. It must be assumed that from time immemorial local artisans repeated the ornament once seen by torchlight in the underground galleries. They tell amazing things: for example, on one of the dolmen slabs in Lokmariaker, half of some animal is depicted. The second half is located on the dolmen slab of the island of Gavriniz (which means “Goat Island” in Breton), located four kilometers from Lokmariaker. Scientists suggest that these are two parts of one, once split fourteen-meter stone stele, which was divided between two temples. It’s just unknown how it was possible to carry such a heavy weight across the sea all the way to the island of Gavriniz?
After pitch darkness, the summer sun is blinding. It feels like we have taken a journey into the darkness of centuries - in the literal sense of the word...
Anna Muradova
1. Man's first home was a cave - a shelter created by nature. But Stone Age people lived not only in caves. At the very end of the Neolithic, fortified settlements began to appear - fortifications, earthen hills appear - mounds, where the rich dead were buried.
In the Bronze Age, structures made of huge stones, the so-called megaliths.
There are three types of megaliths:
· Menhirs- vertically placed stones, of various sizes, standing alone or forming entire alleys. The sizes of menhirs range from 1 to 20 meters. Menhirs can be either barely hewn stones or made in the form of monumental sculpture. As a rule, they were not associated with funeral rites, but performed an independent function (for example, they designated the place where some rituals were to be held).
· Dolmens - These are structures made of two vertically placed raw stones, covered with a third. The design of these structures already contains load-bearing and non-supporting parts.
· Cromlechs - stone slabs or pillars placed in a circle. This is the most complex megalithic structure. Sometimes cromlechs surrounded the mound, sometimes they existed independently and consisted of several concentric circles. The most famous and complex of the cromlechs is located in England near Stonehenge (from the English “STONE” - stone, “HAND” - ditch). Appearance The stones have a diameter of about 100 m. Their arrangement is symmetrically directed towards the point of sunrise and sunset on the days of the summer solstice. Undoubtedly, Stonehenge also served for astronomical observations.
Dye. Its types and components.
2. Even in the Paleolithic, three components of any paint were identified.
· Coloring matter, or PIGMENT - of plant, animal and mineral origin. Plant and animal dyes include, for example: roots, leaves, bark, fruits, dried and crushed insects. They produce yellow, blue, green, brown.
· Solvent(liquid) is the base of the paint. It can be water, oil, colorless or white substances. For example, water paints include: watercolor, ink, gouache. The binder in them is vegetable glue. If water-based paint is based on animal glue, then this paint is suitable for decorative and construction work. A mixture of animal and vegetable glue gives birth to tempera.
· Binder, in ancient times - egg yolk, blood, honey.
Until now, paints differ either in the nature of the coloring matter (vegetable, mineral, synthetic) or in the properties of the binder (oil, tempera, encaustic, watercolor, gouache, etc.).
Temple complex of ancient Egypt. The temple as a meeting place of the solar god with people. Structure of an Egyptian temple. Types of Egyptian columns.
1. All mortuary temples were located on the western bank of the Nile. Temples dedicated to the gods, such as Karnak and Luxor, were built on the eastern bank.
Karnak was the main temple of Amun-Ra and the official sanctuary of the country. It was built according to the design of the architect Ineni for several centuries. The temple was rebuilt several times. It is grandiose from all sides: powerful pylons with giant statues of the pharaoh in front of them, an extensive columned courtyard, a hypostyle hall with a whole forest of columns more than 20 m high and more than 3 m in diameter.
Luxor Temple was the second most important in the country. At this place stood Thebes, which was twice the capital of Egypt. The Temple of Amun-Ra in Luxor (architects Amenhotep and Maya) is the most perfect. It is distinguished by a clear layout: two courtyards with porticoes, religious premises and prayer rooms with statues of gods in the depths of the building. In the first courtyard there is a colonnade of 14 columns 20 meters high with capitals in the form of open papyrus panicles. There are about 150 columns in the temple. Ancient Egyptian columns were divided into the following types:
Palm-shaped - a capital in the shape of palm leaves;
papyrus-shaped with open and closed flower;
lotus-shaped – capital in the shape of a lotus flower;
Hathoric - capital in the form of the head of the goddess Hathor.
Thus, in the era of the New Kingdom, a type of temple developed, which consists of three parts:
1. Peristyle- a huge open courtyard surrounded by a colonnade.
2. Hypostyle Hall- closed columned hall.
3. Sanctuary - with Ra's rook in the center.
2. Relief, its meaning and types .
Relief from lat. - lift. This is a type of sculpture. Unlike a round sculpture, which can be walked around from all sides, the relief is located on a plane and is designed mainly for frontal perception (only straight ahead). The relief can protrude above the background plane and go deeper into it. Convex relief - bas-relief and high relief are more common than recessed relief, which is used mainly for seals, etc. Relief with a deep contour and a convex shape was used in Ancient Egypt.
Egyptian reliefs were of three types: slightly convex, slightly recessed in relation to the background, and an incised contour with an untouched background. The image was based on a canon that was strictly followed until the beginning of the New Kingdom. After which a freer handling of the canon appeared.
The high relief has been known since the Paleolithic era. It was popular in the art of the Ancient East, antiquity and the Middle Ages, and received special development in the Renaissance and subsequent centuries.
The most important means of expressive relief is considered to be its ability to recreate complex multi-figure compositions with a perspective construction of spatial plans, landscapes and architectural structures.
At the end of the Neolithic era, the first megalithic buildings appeared. Megaliths are structures of a religious nature made from roughly processed or unprocessed large blocks of stone. There are three main types of megaliths: menhirs, dolmens and cromlechs.
Menhirs are oblong stones, single or forming long alleys. The height of such stones is from 1 to 20 m or more. The Alley of Menhirs in Carnac (Brittany, France) has 2813 stones arranged in 13 rows. They are most common in Western Europe and are apparently associated with the cult of the dead. In some cases, such stones have a clearly marked head and folded arms. (The image of a staff, a mace, a human foot is often found - especially in the Bronze Age (3rd - 2nd millennium BC). - Although the gender characteristics are not indicated, some indirect evidence indicates that these are “stone women.” In France, such considerations are considered to be the personification of the Neolithic “goddess of the dead”).
Dolmens are megalithic structures consisting of several vertical stone blocks covered with a stone slab. In many cases, dolmens were used for burials. The earliest dolmens date back to 4 thousand BC, and are the earliest megaliths.
| Stonehenge |
(The relatively uniform nature of these ancient structures, approximately the same time of their appearance in Europe, some symbols and decorative elements associated with them, including solar signs, a huge number of megaliths and their unusually wide distribution indicate the existence of some homogeneous beliefs that existed among different peoples of Europe, Asia and Africa.)
The possibility of a connection between megalithic structures and the cult of the sun is indicated by the fact that complexes such as Stonehenge are oriented with their main axis to the point of sunrise on the day of the summer solstice.
Dolmens and cromlechs are the earliest types of structures built using vertical supports with a horizontal covering. In these buildings, the techniques most clearly manifested themselves (in comparison with the previous period) architectural composition; geometric shapes, identifying the center, rhythm, symmetry (STONEHENGE).
At the end of the Neolithic, in 4 thousand BC, such burial structures as mounds also appeared - hemispherical earthen mounds above the burial.