Dolmens are one of the most amazing mysteries of the planet. Huge stone structures of impeccable geometric shape, built thousands of years ago, who created them and why? Why did the ancient people need to make tremendous efforts for cutting down, the most complicated “transportation, processing of the strongest blocks and their incredible installation in strict order? There is no answer to these questions yet.
Dolmens are called ancient megalithic (from the Greek. "Mega" - huge. "Cast" - stone) structures of a certain shape. In its simplest form, these are three stones set in the shape of the letter P.
The origin of the word "dolmen" is associated with a historical delusion:
The French archaeologist Voden, who did not know the true age of the structures, attributed them to the Celts, in the Celtic dialect "dol" means table, "men" stone).
In reality, dolmens are much older: from 8000 BC. in India before 1400 BC in the Caucasus. Although the dating is inaccurate, and scientists suggest that the buildings may be even older.
Megrelians called dolmens "odzvale", "sadzvale" (containers of bones), as well as "mdishkude" (houses of giants), Abkhazians - "adamra" (ancient burial houses).
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Dolmens can be seen in England, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Africa and even in India and Korea; there are many well-preserved dolmens in Russia and the North Caucasus.
The Adyghe people used the word "ispun" ("ispun", "spyun") for their designation, which means "house of a dwarf". According to legend, in ancient times, tribes of dwarfs and giants lived in the mountains. Small and weak dwarfs were not able to build their own dwellings to hide from the weather. The giants, looking at how hard life is for them, took pity on their tiny neighbors.
Each giant easily broke a stone slab in the mountains and, carrying it on his shoulders, carried it to the place of construction. Instead of doors, a rectangular or arch-shaped hole was punched in the front plate. Through them, the dwarfs allegedly entered the "house" astride hares.
This is just one of many legends regarding the origin and construction of dolmens. What was the real way of their construction and purpose - scientists can only guess.
Burials were found in many dolmens: ancient bones, household items - arrowheads, amber beads, flint axes, shards of ceramic dishes. All these finds belong to different historical eras, from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, so it is difficult to determine the exact period of the dolmens' origin.
But the version about using them for ritual purposes has found many supporters.
In her favor is the fact that sometimes the builders imitated the entrance using fake plugs, while the real one was on the other side.
It is very much like trying to protect graves from desecration.
And if this is so, then it is quite understandable why the entrances are oriented to the cardinal points - this is how ancient people performed religious rituals associated with the cult of the dead. However, many modern researchers say that they began to arrange burials in dolmens much later, when the original purpose of the mysterious structures had already been forgotten.
Sometimes, on the roofs of dolmens, there are round platforms with bumpers along the edges, casting a shadow in clear weather.
It is possible that in this way the priests observed the Sun and made the calendar.
Or maybe these heavy stone buildings served as a kind of symbol of the power of the people, such as temples or tombs?
There are a lot of assumptions about how the builders of dolmens moved the stone masses.
Some researchers are convinced that the dolmens were collected from erratic boulders carried by glaciers over considerable distances. The builders rolled natural boulders on wooden rollers using leather belts, and to install the top slab they made a mound of sand and clay.
Perhaps a certain number of dolmens could have been collected in this way. But it is very doubtful that the last ice age left our ancestors hundreds of thousands of identical plates 2x3 meters in size.
Most likely, the builders mined the material in the quarries.
According to the researcher Yu. N. Voronov, “the slabs were broken out with the help of wooden pegs, driven into holes, hollowed out along the contour. The pegs were poured with water: swelling, they broke off slabs of the required size."
Despite the popularity of this version, it remains unclear where the traces of holes and chips have gone, which should have remained from the work.
Trying to solve this riddle, scientists set up an experiment to build a dolmen. The experiment showed that not so many people were required to erect a stone structure; the ability to use the simplest tools was also required. But then why weren't other buildings erected in this way? Why were dolmens needed in such quantities?
The experimenters themselves believe that everything is rather trivial: dolmens were used to store food and weapons. Unfortunately, this hypothesis is weak - the dolmens are located too far from the supposed settlement sites.
But every year scientists receive more and more reliable information that will one day allow them to solve the riddle of dolmens.