In the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions, local historians have discovered about 350 dolmens - small houses made of stone. Disputes about why the ancient people made these structures have been going on for a long time. But even archaeological science cannot explain their purpose.
A similar picture is observed all over the world (dolmens, also called megaliths, are found almost everywhere there are mountains). Foreign researchers also did not come to a common opinion.
Some argue: these are ritual, religious buildings, as if there is a special energetic aura near them. Others see them as ordinary tombs, burial places for the dead. Without trying to polemize with anyone, I will point out the facts that lie on the surface and, in my opinion, prove that ancient people built dolmens to survive in harsh conditions.
U-shaped houses
Several years ago I happened to visit an unusual exhibition in the Verkhnyaya Pyshma library dedicated to dolmens. It was organized by Yekaterinburg ethnographers, full members of the Russian Geographical Society Alexey Slepukhin and Natalia Berdyugina. The exposition also told about the local historian Anatoly Bodrykh, who was the first to pay close attention to dolmens. From the end of the fifties, in the vicinity of Verkhnyaya Pyshma and Sredneuralsk, he discovered several "groups of mysterious stone houses" in the forest. All of them were U-shaped, made of rectangular granite slabs about 15 centimeters thick, three of which were installed vertically on the edge and dug in, and covered with “tabletops” on top (by the way, the word “dolmen” means “stone table”). Their faces were facing west or southwest,that is, they looked down, downhill, and from the end, from the east, were covered with slabs. The height of the houses did not exceed 120-130 centimeters, a person of average height in them is able to sit only sitting, squatting or lying down. They also differed somewhat in width and length. But even in the most spacious building, no more than two or three people could fit. And then back to back.
In 1973, the researcher turned to the Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences with a request to study the finds, but scientists dismissed this venture: they say, our region is metallurgical, stone buildings, most likely, furnaces of ancient metallurgists. Only in the early 2000s, the archaeological laboratory of the Ural State University, now the Ural Federal University, showed interest in dolmens. During the 2001 and 2002 seasons, her staff discovered and described seventeen more structures.
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What does ceramics say?
At first, Bodrykh was inclined to believe that dolmens were burial places of the dead, and after a while he called them crematoria. He was prompted to do this by excavations, when, together with archaeologists, he found small mineralized bones, remains of charcoal and pieces of ceramics in two or three dolmens (far from all). Whose bones, human or animal, unfortunately, could not be identified. Nevertheless, Bodrykh adhered to the version that corpses were burned in dolmens. Scientists of USU neither deny nor support this point of view.
Our ancestors were developed and quick-witted. They knew thousands of ways to outwit the beast and still be safe and sound.
Bones are an essential find. And ceramics says something. But do they provide a clue? Both, in my opinion, indicate only the cultural layers in the soil, to different eras. After all, wild animals could have brought bones into dolmens when the ancient people no longer lived here, that is, much later. The same applies to ceramics: in the time of the Demidovs, lumberjacks who harvest the forest had the opportunity to adapt structures into pantries for storing food. Why not? It is even logical to assume that at some period under some circumstances people used dolmens to bury the dead.
Alone and with a weapon
The age of the megaliths in the Urals, according to scientists, is at least six to seven thousand years. If we take the site of an ancient man "Kolmatsky ford" in the upper reaches of the Iset - the closest to the dolmens discovered by Bodrykh and his assistants, then it dates back to the fourth millennium BC. e. In this regard, there is reason to believe that dolmens appeared in this area at the same time. Have any objects been found to prove this, corresponding to the age of the dolmens?
Yes! And in large numbers - stone and bronze arrowheads and spears. They are in almost every Ural local history museum. Bodrykh himself found them. Note, an avid hunter. But for some reason I did not pay attention to this fact, as, incidentally, did other researchers. Why? Apparently, they considered it natural: the ancient inhabitant of the taiga could not do without weapons. Perhaps, over time, Anatoly Arkhipovich would have looked at the dolmens from a different point of view, but, unfortunately, this was the end of his research: he soon passed away …
According to other researchers, dolmens could only serve to bury the remains of cremation. Like this. Not even a crematorium, but just a place where the ashes were placed. It is clear that you cannot light a large fire in a cramped artificial grotto. Hence the conclusion.
It turns out that somewhere the corpse was burned, and then the ashes were buried? But was it worth the ancient inhabitants to build such complex structures for this purpose? Move heavy slabs, adjust them to size? This is hellish work! And all in order to remove the ashes of the deceased in the crypt?
The archers did not sleep
For the first time I happened to get acquainted with dolmens twenty years ago, but not in the Urals, but on the Black Sea, in the Gelendzhik region. These megaliths differ markedly from the Ural ones. In the literature they are called Caucasian. They are made of well-hewn slabs, but not granite: the stone is softer. And therefore the quality of construction is much better. They are larger in size. They look like real solid houses. The guide jokingly compared them even to bunkers and bomb shelters. I was not too lazy, I climbed into one of the dolmens. You can stand in it almost to its full height. Visibility from the inside is also great. For some time, sitting down in front of the hole, I felt like an ancient hunter, waiting for prey.
The main question that the guide was asked was: what was the purpose of their construction? Referring to local researchers, he said: in ancient times, noble persons at the head of communities, as well as sorcerers and shamans who performed ritual rituals near them, were buried in houses.
I bought a brochure about local megaliths. It turns out, among other things, archaeologists at one time discovered more than a hundred arrowheads, spears and their fragments near the dolmens! Just like in the Urals! And then a guess dawned on me: is it not hunting "skradki"?
What? The whole life of primitive people was subject to hunting. There are even calculations by archaeologists that the average adult man consumed at least two kilograms of meat per day. This means that a community of one hundred souls needed to hunt at least one large elk every day.
It has long been noticed: animals, birds react exclusively to moving objects. If a person does not move, they will come up or fly up close to him. Such features in the behavior of animals, of course, were no worse than modern hunters, and ancient people knew. Living in the midst of nature, being a part of it, they were great trackers.
Arranging round-ups, paddocks, watching for animals on migration paths, near dens, they saw that most often the best result is hunting from a shelter. But, in order to inflict a slaughter wound, it was required to let the same giant deer, elk or bear almost close. It was not safe. The wounded beast could go on the attack. And then not good enough. Hunting tragedies in ancient times must have happened often. I had to protect myself. How?
I think this is what made our distant ancestors build "skradki". At the same time, they approached the solution of the problem in a comprehensive manner, taking into account the habits of animals. For animals and birds, the stone house itself is not a threat. For them, it is no different from another natural object. Therefore, they can come close to him, which is what the shooter needs. However, the shelling sector from inside the dolmen does not always allow one to strike. We have to crawl out of the shelter. But, finding himself, the hunter is in danger. Then he disappears into the shelter, blocking the entrance with a vestibule. The beast, sensing a man, could walk in circles, snort menacingly, even bang its hoof on a boulder. But I can't get it. At this time, other archers were not asleep, unleashing a lot of arrows at him from their hiding places. Hunting is a collective affair. This, by the way, explains the factthat dolmens were built compactly, several pieces at once in one place.
In a word, a dolmen is a complex structure. It was a "skradok" to watch for prey, a shelter to provide security, and a stone tent to protect from rain and bad weather.
We often underestimate the performance of our ancestors. Meanwhile, they were developed and quick-witted. And even more so in such a matter as organizing hunting. They lived by this and knew thousands of ways to outwit the beast and at the same time remain safe and sound.
Anatoly Gushchin