What is cromlech? This is one of the varieties of megalithic buildings related to the Neolithic and Bronze Age. They are found in Europe, Asia and America. They consist of huge detached stones, the height of which reaches 6-7 meters. Sometimes cromlechs, photos are presented below, have bearing ceilings in the form of a beam of stone. They can form concentric circles - one or more.
What is cromlechs: definition
This is an ancient structure, which, as indicated above, most often refers either to the Late Neolithic or to the early Bronze Age. It is a group of stones of oblong shape and stand upright in the ground. Boulders form one or more circles that are concentric (having different radii and described from a single center).
Often, such designs are classified as megalithic. Megaliths are understood to mean large hewn stones, including those that were not used for the construction of monuments and burials.
From Welsh, the term is translated as follows: crom is “curve”, “bend”, and llech is “stone slab”, “pavement”. In Breton, crom is “circle,” and lech is “stone.” To understand the meaning of the word "cromlech" will help the description of its accompanying structures.
Internal objects
Sometimes in the center of the structure is another object, for example:
- Rock.
- Mengir (in Breton, men - “stone” and hir - “long”). The simplest of megaliths, having the form of a wild, roughly processed stone or stone block, established by man. Its vertical dimensions are much larger than horizontal.
- Cairn (from the English cairn - "pyramid"). An artificial structure that looks like a pile of stones, often having a conical shape.
- Dolmen (from Breton taol maen - “stone table”). These are ancient cult constructions, bearing the character of funerary. They belong to the category of megaliths. Their name is associated with the appearance of structures common to the European continent. This is a slab raised on stone supports and resembling a table.
- Gallery.
- Megalithic complex.
Considering what “cromlech" is, it is necessary to say about why they were built.
Appointment
The construction goal is not always clear. One of the well-known applications is ritual, it could be an “open-air temple” when ancient people protected the sacred space for them.
Some of the cromlechs record astronomically significant directions. This suggests that they were used as observatories. With their help, the positions of the Sun and the Moon were observed and recorded, while pursuing both calendar and ritual events.
There are cromlechs whose purpose is purely technological. For example, some mounds were lined with rocks and stones to prevent the spread of artificial hills. Many of the objects carried several functions simultaneously. Continuing consideration of the question of what “cromlech" is, it is necessary to understand how they were erected.
Variety of shapes and materials
The stones that make up cromlech are oblong, like menhirs, or boulders that are completely devoid of shape. For technological purposes, as a rule, used flat plates.
Most often, cromlechs were round or oval, but others were also found. For example, rectangular structures were found in Khakassia, and megalithic temple structures in the form of petals in Malta.
Stone was not the only building material. Evidence of this is found in the quicksand of Norfolk County in England cromlech made of wood.
Spread
Understanding what “cromlech" is, it would be advisable to mention where they were found. They are found almost throughout Eurasia. Their greatest concentration is observed on the British Isles and on the Brittany Peninsula. The most impressive and widely known representatives of this group are cromlechs Stonehenge and Avebury.
In Russia, they are present in all places. These are objects associated, for example, with the cultures of the Caucasus, Maykop, Kem-Obinsky. Of great interest is the megalithic monument belonging to the Eneolithic era, located in the west of Alushta.
Priest's burial
Alushta cromlech refers to the culture that existed on the territory of Eurasia in the fourth and third millennia BC. e. Its carriers were boreals, from whom the Indo-Europeans later descended. In the 19th century, during the excavation of the mound, a cromlech was found, in the center of which was a stone grave box. As scientists suggest, this is the burial of the priest, relating to the sixth - fifth century BC. e. Here are the remains of ceramics, funeral feast, bones.
Kromlekh has the appearance of a low mound, the diameter of which is about six and a half meters. It is strengthened at the base by means of a perfectly regular ring, consisting of huge stones placed on the edge. These are 29 boulders, whose height is in the range of one and a half to two meters.
Inside the ring are many small stones, which resembles a pavement. Inside heaped a bunch of large specimens. Among them is a two-meter post, erected on the eastern side, two meters from the edge. The space surrounding the monument is littered with stones. Two large ones form the entrance, located on the western side.
According to researchers, the shape of the mound is nothing more than a reflection of the idea of the ancient peoples who lived in Europe about the afterlife and rebirth from the dead. This is an eternal secret that worried people at all times. The convex hill symbolizes the female womb - the womb of Mother Earth. Inside it is buried a baby who is destined to be born again.