The Leso-Kyafar farm lies ten kilometers from the village of Storozhevoy, the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. Tourists visit these places so often that it is impossible to go off the beaten track. Having passed the village, you find yourself in the land of unafraid birds, but you quickly realize that the Kafar valley was densely populated in the past centuries. Remains of settlements, ruins of temples, burial mounds are found in a vast area up to the Lower Arkhyz.
Everywhere are the ruins of ruined stone buildings, piled dry of hewn stone. A massive rock and rocky outlier with steep walls rises along the way. A carefully carved staircase leads to the massive rock. On the site there is a sandstone slab on four stones, next to it is a cup stone. An ancient settlement is located a little further. The foundations of buildings and security posts, a fortress wall have been preserved.
But of particular interest are eleven dilapidated dolmens, the origin of which is not fully understood. Most of them are located on Mount Jordan, to which you have to walk from the farm along a path beaten by hundreds of feet for about four kilometers. Today dolmens are extremely popular. These are unusual structures, reminiscent of huge birdhouses, built of massive sandstone slabs, with a round entrance located half a meter from the ground.
We found only mossy stone beams, blocks, slabs between the forest trees. There are no whole dolmens on Kafar. The front parts of our dolmens in most cases consist of a slab with a round hole. But we also met here the collapse of such a building of two slabs, each with half a manhole cut out, and when combined, they give a perfect circle. In the Middle Ages, individual parts of dolmens were decorated with crosses, stylized circles and triangles, the ceiling was changed, making it a gable of ribbed beams laid in several tiers, but, in general, these are monuments of the Bronze Age. All agree on this.
Heroic huts
One of the dolmens, discovered near the Kyafar River, was transported by archaeologist Leonid Glushkov to Stavropol and installed in the courtyard of the regional museum. All four sides of this dolmen are covered with relief images - there are dragons, dogs, and human figures performing ritual libations. The theme is Christian. Scientists believe that the reliefs on the Stavropol dolmen were left by the Alans, who buried their dead in dolmens. Dolmens were revered by the highlanders of the Kuban and the Black Sea region, the Cossacks called dolmens "heroic huts", the Adyghe and Abkhazians - "spyun", "dwarf houses", Abkhazians - "keuezh" and "Adamra" - "ancient burial houses", Mingrelians called them "sadavale" "-" a receptacle for bones. " There are many dolmens in the Caucasus, together with about three thousand destroyed. The vast majority are similar in design,and in appearance they hardly differ from each other.
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Assumptions and hypotheses
Scientists and researchers put forward a variety of hypotheses about the origin and purpose of these structures. In addition to the academic interpretation of dolmens as a kind of burial structures, that is, tombs, many alternative versions have appeared. And, indeed, the very mysterious sight of the dolmen, multiplied by its age, simply forces the incorrigible homo sapiens to reflect on its riddle.
However, most hypotheses cannot be called otherwise than insane. According to one version, these are astronomical structures like Stonehenge. Vladimir Megre speaks of dolmens as a monument to great self-sacrifice. People of the past supposedly had the opportunity to use all the wisdom of the universe. However, humanity began to lose this wisdom, moving to the technocratic path of development. But the sages knew that people would want to go back to basics. At the direction of the leaders of the tribes, people began to build heavy chamber-tombs, where the wisest went. Complete isolation made it possible for meditation into eternity, then the spirit remained forever in the dolmen. Through them you can contact the Intellect of the Universe. To do this, one had to sit at the camera and think … Some believe that dolmens are capable of generating low-frequency vibrations,having an adverse effect on a person. A dolmen, installed, for example, in a strategically important zone, did not allow enemies to penetrate this dead place, causing them to lose consciousness or death … According to other theories, there is a portal that opens the door to another world, another dimension. The dolmens of the Caucasus are these very doors to another world … There is a version that these structures were used for meditation and enlightenment of the priests, who entered into a trance in them and began to utter prophecies. They say that almost everyone who comes to the dolmens has emotional outbursts, anxiety, irritation, and inappropriate behavior. In short, there is still no consensus on this issue.did not allow enemies to enter through this dead place, causing them to lose consciousness or death … According to other theories, there is a portal that opens the door to another world, another dimension. The dolmens of the Caucasus are these very doors to another world … There is a version that these structures were used for meditation and enlightenment of the priests, who entered into a trance in them and began to utter prophecies. They say that almost everyone who comes to the dolmens experiences emotional outbursts, anxiety, irritation, and inappropriate behavior. In short, there is still no consensus on this issue.did not allow enemies to enter through this dead place, causing them to lose consciousness or death … According to other theories, there is a portal that opens the door to another world, another dimension. The dolmens of the Caucasus are these very doors to another world … There is a version that these structures were used for meditation and enlightenment of the priests, who entered into a trance in them and began to utter prophecies. They say that almost everyone who comes to the dolmens has emotional outbursts, anxiety, irritation, and inappropriate behavior. In short, there is still no consensus on this issue.that these structures were used for meditation and the enlightenment of the priests, who entered into a trance in them and began to utter prophecies. They say that almost everyone who comes to the dolmens experiences emotional outbursts, anxiety, irritation, and inappropriate behavior. In short, there is still no consensus on this issue.that these structures were used for meditation and the enlightenment of the priests, who entered them into a trance and began to utter prophecies. They say that almost everyone who comes to the dolmens experiences emotional outbursts, anxiety, irritation, and inappropriate behavior. In short, there is still no consensus on this issue.
The area where dolmens are located is always full of tourists. Lovers of ancient secrets often visit these lands, there are many mystics and patients who are being treated by the "energies of the Cosmos" and simply curious people eager to find an explanation of the "riddle of dolmens". Many argue that, approaching the dolmen, they feel dizziness, weakness, headache, or, conversely, lightness in the body. People who are not exalted do not notice anything like that. Unfortunately, there are also tragic cases. Old-timers talk about how some diabetics sometimes believed in the “healing power of dolmens” so much that they stopped injecting insulin. It ended in a coma.
If you think about it …
As for the riddle of dolmens, we will state one theory, which is quite sensible and devoid of a touch of mysticism. To do this, we must assume that our ancestors of the Bronze Age were not "supermen", but simply - reasonable people, no more stupid than us. For what purpose did they build multi-ton buildings? Why did they endure considerable difficulties, diverting their strength from everyday affairs? After all, it is clear that all the men of the tribe were involved in this hard work. Think about it: it was necessary to beat off a massive slab of sandstone from the rock, squeezing wooden stakes into the holes and pouring water on them so that the swollen wood would raise the edge of the slab, then roll it on logs sometimes miles away … For the enlightenment of future tribes?
The answer is simple - it means that it was the most important thing, about the life and death of people. Well, the question of death has already been addressed. Burial grounds. But in all cultures, the deceased were separated from the living, why are dolmens found not in secluded places, but where people lived?
So, we are talking about life. This is food. The people of the Bronze Age were dependent on their food crafts and hunting, on the vagaries of the weather and harvests, much more severely than the peoples of later eras. The fish goes to spawn - there are many of them. But where to store dried fish stocks in case of famine and cold weather? Summer gives an abundance of fruits, berries and mushrooms. Where to save them for the winter? Where to store dried meat and how to ensure its safety? Where did the dolmen builders store flour and grain, if we assume that they were engaged in agriculture? Are not these structures, which only a madman would call masterpieces of architecture, - ordinary conservation warehouses for food supplies of the Bronze Age?
Hence the size, because the dolmen was designed to provide food supplies for several dozen, or even hundreds of people. Therefore, there are several of them in the parking lot: storing berries and fish in one place led to the understanding that separate tanks were needed for different needs. If dolmens are generally tribal food warehouses, then their size is doubly justified: so that no one breaks, sneaks inside and tries to steal public supplies. This hypothesis gives an explanation for the removable cork - it was opened and closed, taking out food. The deceased does not need a cork - he will not come out … One or two men could not open such a cork - the power of blocking the hole initially protected from thieves, because "everyone has needs, and the herring is for the model …"
The tribe could not make the lives of children dependent on a successful hunt. Food reserves - dolmens - were necessary and had to be guarded. Hence their position - next to people. It is possible that not only food supplies, but also children were hidden behind the strong walls of dolmens in case of danger of a raid by a neighboring tribe. Their functions could also be security. In addition, dolmens kept stocks of meat from wild animals that would inevitably come to smell. Neither the bear nor the wolf can get meat from the dolmen. The bear is used to digging a den, the walls against it should be meter high. And in the dolmen, where a person can barely fit, they obviously kept salt - it was worth its weight in gold, and if the cattle reached it, they would lick it all in an instant. They could store there honey, which bears are also very eager for, and rare medicinal herbs, and the tribal totem.
To the disappointment of the mystics
There are also some other questions. If you look at the location of the dolmens on the map of the Krasnodar Territory, you will immediately notice that, unlike ours, they are built in a chain. But this is easy to explain: these were the places of roaming. Not all tribes were sedentary; some went after their cattle in the pastures. Our Karachai-shepherds still wander today. Cows and horses gobble up the grass in the pasture in a day, and the shepherds drive the herd further, where there is grass. After a week or two, when the grass eaten by the cattle grows back, they return to their old pastures. Here is a chain for you - the paths of the nomads. That is why dolmens were built at the campsite. Today, shepherds are built on these parking lots - houses where shepherds can cook something and spend the night.
Another question arises. Some of these dolmens are built over gorges in places that are completely impassable for livestock. But there is nothing to be surprised at. If our ancestors domesticated mountain goats, these horned beasts are able to climb any spur, walk along a palm-wide path, they calmly eat at an altitude of 1500 meters above sea level. Sheep will also walk along any gorge. They jump three meters over the spurs. It's just that many today have little idea of the life of nomadic tribes. There is nothing mysterious about dolmens - everything is expedient there, they would still be needed today, civilization just came, there is transport, it is easier for the shepherds to bring food than to store it somewhere. But if you extrapolate their position to the Bronze Age, everything falls into place.
It is clear that centuries later, the primary, utilitarian purpose of these buildings was forgotten, and the new tribes who came to this land animated, deified, filled with mysticism what was originally just a need. And it would be good for specialists to check not mystical radio waves supposedly emanating from the dolmens, but to carry out simple, but much more reasonable studies: how much food can be preserved in a sealed dolmen? Will there be flour there? Does the fish grow moldy? Is the meat preserved? Perhaps the results will clarify a lot - and then mystics of all stripes will have to fall into trance exclusively on the pyramids of Egypt …
Olga MIKHAILOVA