The most famous cromlech. Megalithic structures: types and types. When were created

2.6. Dolmens and their secrets Many have heard of such structures as dolmens. But few people know by whom and why they were created. There is no exact answer to this question to this day. Their creators disappeared without leaving any other traces. Scientists believe that the approximate age of these

Dolmens Places of power remained from the paganism of Russia. Christian churches and temples were built on many of them. I happened to meet one of these places in the Krasnodar Territory. I have already heard about dolmens before. It was said that in this way, having reached spiritual strength, they passed away

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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, for burial, megalith builders had to spend so much effort and energy on the construction of dolmens, when more suitable and less labor-intensive structures could be built for this.

In some megaliths, scientists have found the remains (not necessarily entirely) of about 16 people. There were cases of cremation. Different methods of burial indicate the peculiarities of the cultures of the peoples.

In the Caucasus, as a rule, in river valleys, practically all types of burials are found in small areas. This is due to the fact that reburials often took place at 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 foods. And in one of them, located on the Ashe River, in the valley, scientists found a bunch of dog paws.

However, with all the existing differences, the parameters of the structures practically do not change. The fact that there are practically no drawings or decorations on the dolmens indicates that the buildings were unlikely to be tombs. And the presence of convex signs on some, for the image 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. It just wasn't necessary.

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 the climatic conditions of the Caucasus make 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 is not so easy to get here, because delicious juicy fruits, which can be picked from the tree at any time, are out of the question.

At the time of the construction of dolmens, the life of the people inhabiting the territory of the modern Caucasus was hardly easier than it is now. Quite the opposite.
However, the locals, instead of finding food for themselves, spent a huge amount of time and effort on the construction of stone structures of unknown purpose. And this cannot be called an isolated case of dolmens, a lot of them were built, and now more and more of them are found.
One can, of course, assume that large groups of people were engaged in the construction of megaliths, but in this case, a legitimate question immediately arises: where, then, 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, in the valley of the Farsa River during excavations, many monuments from different eras were found.
Until now, researchers have not been able to identify the principle by which dolmens are located. Many structures are oriented approximately along the water flow line. However, there are dolmens, directed towards the slope, and megaliths, the direction of which is completely beyond any definition - they "look" in an unknown direction.

Today, scientific work is underway to measure dolmens in relation to their orientation to 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 Neozhidanny stream. The works of T.V. Fedunova on the measurement of the megalith in Guzeripl are 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 the rays of the rising sun fall. The orientation of the dolmens is entirely subordinated to the location of the ridges surrounding the valleys.
However, research in this area is relatively recent, there are still few results, so it is impossible to state with complete certainty something definite about the direction of the megaliths.

The scientific work of researchers in this area is greatly hampered by natural factors: these are densely forested slopes and a rather harsh climate. To make things even more complicated, any measurements can only be made if the clouds allow. Taking into account that the equinox and solstice do not happen 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., as well as the not always beneficial human influence, have changed the initial orientation of many dolmens. Some archaeologists are still inclined to think that this regularity, that is, the factor of orientation of the megaliths, is most likely secondary. The probability that people built dolmens only for the sake of solar observations or as solar observatories is rather small, since the direction could be fixed simply by placing two stones as it is done in menhirs. It is also very unlikely that people spent so much time and energy building megaliths that would make it easier to determine the orientation.

The very method of constructing dolmens also remains unclear. Of course, it is difficult to put two large boulders on top of each other, but this is not at all the case. Two Americans have already proved that this operation can be carried out without the help of modern instruments and in no more than two hours. The main question is how people delivered huge boulders and rocks for many kilometers, because often they 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 the fit of the building material is also amazing. How did the ancient people, not possessing even a hundredth share of modern tools, flawlessly fit multi-ton slabs to each other, while observing almost absolutely exact proportions, despite the fact that the processing of the inner invisible surfaces was rather rough, and all the 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 brought up to it, but no matter how much the steel cable was attached to the cover plate, it was not possible to move the multi-ton structure. I had to use a second crane. By 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 car arrived, the dolmen was transported in parts to Sukhumi.

In the city, scientists faced a much more difficult task: reassembling the structure. All the efforts of the people were not crowned with success; this was only partially accomplished. When the cover plate was lowered onto four walls, it was not possible to unfold it in such a way that their edges entered the grooves located on the inner surface of the roof. There was a large gap between the walls and the roof, although initially the slabs were fitted so tightly to each other that it was impossible to place even a knife blade between them.

Some researchers consider megaliths to be ultrasound emitters. But this interpretation of dolmens can only be attributed to sandstone buildings. And then what about dolmens built of limestone (but not in the Caucasus) or of granite (in the area of ​​the Cutted Kurgan summit), and finally, megaliths under the mounds?
This means that we can draw the following conclusion: it is not yet possible to classify dolmens by their orientation or construction method - there is too little information for this, people are just beginning to lift the veil hiding the secrets of dolmens from us.

Therefore, while 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 generally dolmens.
The structure consists of a stone table, on which two side wall slabs were usually installed, and two more slabs were inserted into the grooves between them - front and back; the entire structure was covered with a roof, which sometimes could have different types of grooves.

Sometimes the side walls and roofs of some megaliths protruded forward, forming a portal. Often, in order to press the walls more tightly, untreated slabs or just stones were placed on the sides of the dolmens. For the same purpose, the back of the dolmens often burst into the slope. Sometimes the front wall of the megaliths was given a convex lenticular shape, as, for example, a dolmen looks like under Gelendzhik in the 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. In this megalith, the side walls form a slope, giving the 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, however, dolmens with semi-ellipses, triangular with rounded edges and square holes are often found. Some megaliths were built without holes at all. Such structures can be considered dolmens only conditionally, and even then only in those cases when they are located among other dolmens (for example, a group of megaliths on the Nihetkh ridge).

There are constructions with portal-galleries made of separate slabs. Such dolmens were found in Solokh-aul, in the Tri Oak tract.
If in Europe such galleries are quite long, then in the Caucasus they are short variations, consisting of one section, unfortunately, all of them are already dilapidated.

The next type of structures is megaliths, consisting of separate blocks-bricks of a sufficiently large size, covered with a slab on top, just like ordinary slab dolmens. This option is called composite. These structures are most often rounded, the blocks of such megaliths have a slightly rounded shape (for example, a group of dolmens in the valley of the Janet River, a group of Psynako-2 and some others).
There are also rectangular compound dolmens built from carefully selected L-shaped blocks, such as the dolmen on Mount Nexis.

Researchers have also found many megaliths of transitional types, which have features of both slab and composite structures. In such dolmens, only the front wall is integral, and all the rest are built of blocks (one of these structures was found in Sochi). Other dolmens (for example, in Guzeripl in the upper reaches of the Belaya River) are folded up to half as tiled - the front part, and the other half of such structures are made of blocks of different sizes, which, moreover, are poorly processed.

In rocky areas, dolmens were carved right into the rocks. Scientists have discovered many similar buildings south of Pshada. Naturally, this is both a beautiful and not too difficult option for building megaliths. On Pshad, three dolmens were found, built in this way, and in the vicinity of the city of Sochi, in the valleys of the Tsushvaj, Shakhe rivers, such structures make up the majority. However, further south, in Abkhazia, there are none at all.

How was the construction of such megaliths carried out? First, a camera was carved into the top of the rock, which could have any shape, often it was a false vault. From above, 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. Dolmens built in this way are called trough-shaped dolmens.

The face of the megalith could be processed in a variety of 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 appeared much later than tiled ones. But it should be noted that there are also such trough-shaped dolmens in which there is absolutely nothing in common with tiled ones (for example, a megalith on the Vinogradnoye stream in the valley of the Tsushvadzh River, as well as a pyramidal dolmen in Mamedova Gap). It often happens that the portal element of the megalith is much larger than the size of the inner chamber.

Archaeologists discovered a large group of structures that were later considered false portal specialists. On the front wall of these structures, in place of the hole plugged with a stone plug, a bulge was carved to imitate such a hole. The obverse of such dolmens was often excellently worked, and the trough-like structures had portal protrusions. Holes in these megaliths were cut at the back.

False portal megaliths, which were created according to the classical schemes of slab dolmens, were found in the upper reaches of the Neozhidnyi stream near Lazorevskoye. As a rule, false portal megaliths were built according to the same scheme as trough dolmens. However, there are exceptions. For example, a dolmen located near the village of Maryino in the Psezuapse river valley has a hole in the side wall.
Individual trough-shaped dolmens were processed from all sides to give the structure a rectangular shape. This, as it were, imitated tiled structures (as, for example, the megalith in the village of Kamenny Karyer near Tuapse).

It happened that the dolmens were given a rounded shape (aul Shkhafit on the Ashe River, the village of Pshada, Wolf's Gate). However, in many megaliths, only the front part was turned, while most of the rock remained intact.

Researchers have found two megaliths in the Caucasus, which are characterized as trough-like, on the contrary. This means that in the rock ledge, first, a chamber was ground, a hole was cut, and only after the operations were performed, 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 found on the Pshenakho River (Psynakho-3), it must be said that, according to local residents, initially it had a roof, like all ordinary megaliths, but some bulldozer turned it over and threw it down.

There is one more type of dolmen, which is represented in the Caucasus, however, in a single copy. It is a real monolith. For the construction of 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 succeeded in developing a clear classification, since there are numerous deviations and transitional variations of megalithic structures.
There is evidence (unfortunately, not yet verified) that in the valley of the Tsushvaj 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 found on a structure located in the same valley on the Vinogradnoye stream, one of the holes being hollowed out in the slab, which 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 by an underground passage (Bogatyr 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 the kurgan. 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 neatly overlaid with small stones, and covered with clay on top, an underground gallery was led to the entrance, the walls and ceiling of which were made of small stone slabs that have an irregular shape (most likely it was originally different). PSynako-1 reaches five meters in height and is surrounded by cromlech - a stone fence.

This mound was found by the archaeologist of the Tuapse Museum of Local Lore, M.K. Teshev. The long work of the bulldozer drivers was rewarded as they deserved: there was a dolmen inside the mound. According to the results of studies of this megalithic structure, the complex on the Pshenakho River can rightly be placed on the same level with 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 over the valley and the stone rays found 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, by which it is impossible to determine anything.

In the area of ​​Arkhipo-Osipovka, another sub-mound complex with an underground passage in the form of a gallery was discovered. This megalith is not tiled. Its walls are lined with small flat stones. Only the front part of the dolmen with a hole made in it consists of a solid slab. Archaeologist from Moscow B.V. Meleshko is currently excavating this structure.

There are dolmens located inside stone towers; they were found 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.
Separate dolmens were built on special embankments. Most often, such megaliths are found in the upper reaches of the Neozhidanny stream near Lazorevsky and the Ashe valley and in the group above the villages of Bzych on the Shakhe River.

Often, megalith builders surrounded the dolmens with stone fences called cromlechs. Interesting cromlechs in the form of mounds of stones around dolmens and having a rounded shape (complex Psynako-2).
Diverging rays are clearly visible here, which were lined with small stones. 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 untreated vertically placed stones (for example, a megalith in the area of ​​the Neozhidanny stream or in Guzeripl, etc.).
There are also dolmens with 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 the 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 was originally elliptical in shape.

Anatoly Ivanov

Dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs ...

Anyone who is interested in archeology or just everything ancient and mysterious must have come across these strange terms. These are the names of a wide variety of ancient stone structures scattered all over the world and shrouded in an aura of mystery. Menhir is usually a free-standing stone with traces of processing, sometimes oriented in some way or marking a certain direction. Cromlech is a circle of standing stones, with varying degrees of preservation and with different orientations. The term henge has the same meaning. Dolmen is something like a stone house. All of them are united by the name “megaliths”, which translates simply as “big stones”. This class also includes long stone rows, including those in the form of labyrinths, triliths - structures of three stones that form a semblance of the letter "P", and the so-called sacrificial stones - irregularly shaped boulders with cup-shaped recesses.

Such archaeological sites are very widespread, literally everywhere: from the British Isles and our Solovki to Africa and Australia, from French Brittany to Korea. The time of their origin, modern science refers, in most cases, to the IV-VI millennia BC. This is the so-called Neolithic era, the end of the Stone Age - the beginning of the Bronze Age. The purpose of the structures is to perform religious rituals or to create an astronomical observatory or calendar in stone. Or all of this together. They were erected mainly by primitive communal tribes engaged in hunting, fishing and primitive agriculture - for worship of the dead, sacrifices and adjustments

calendar. This is the point of view of official science today.

Not so simple

It is no secret that the official position of science raises many questions. The first question arises when trying to recreate the construction technology. It often turns out to be so laborious that it puzzles modern people. Indeed, in many cases, the weight of individual elements of the structure was 5-10 tons, and the place from which the rock was mined was located at a distance of tens or even hundreds of kilometers - and this despite the fact that suitable material could be obtained much closer. Transporting stone blocks over rough terrain, without roads and cars, is a very difficult task. And if it is also mountains, as in the case of the Caucasian dolmens?

A separate issue is the high-precision and sophisticated processing of the monolith surfaces and the subsequent installation of blocks. How could this have been achieved, moreover, in the conditions of a "fierce struggle for survival"?

Neither the connection of certain megaliths to astronomical events, nor the idea of ​​a stone calendar, does not fit with the image of a "man with a stone ax". After all, both implies careful observation of nature, comparison and generalization of data that could sometimes be accumulated only for hundreds of years ... In relation to primitive calendars, the definition of "magic" is often used. Presumptive rituals are also associated with magic. But what does this word mean now? Rituals, superstitions? Even the very name "megalithic culture", which we often use, reflects our confusion rather than understanding: after all, literally it is just "the culture of big stones." Questions, questions, questions ...

Where to look for answers?

What do we actually know about that era, far from us in all respects? Where to find the keys to her? Maybe the common features in working with a stone speak of the existence of some kind of uniting literally the entire globe of a pro-culture or a prehistoric civilization? Is this not evidenced by the similarity of some mythological plots of Polynesia, the Caucasus, Britain - so far from each other places? They sound the motive of a person's connection with a mysterious and more ancient magical people of powerful dwarfs who are capable of any work - how can you not recall the fairy gnomes. Different peoples have many similar legends describing construction with the help of shouts, songs, whistles. Some other myths (which are shrouded, for example, the creation of the great Stonehenge) speak of the work of ancient giants.

But what about the dating of these various structures? In most cases, it is based on the radiocarbon method of analyzing nearby organic remains - for example, fires, burials or animal bones. But this is not the dating of the stone processing itself!

There are certain analogies of the "megalithic culture" with the later civilizations of the ancient world - Egypt, Mesoamerica. They also masterfully handled huge stone blocks, a vivid example of this is the mystery of the construction of the Great Pyramid. Or they worked the boulders so that a simple wall became like a puzzle: in Saksayhuaman, the stone looks as if it was not difficult to cut it (as, indeed, to lift it and install it with great accuracy). Often, there is a connection to special points on the horizon associated with the rising and setting of the Sun or Moon, stars or planets, points that reflect the features of their movement in the celestial sphere.

It is believed that the era of megaliths predated ancient civilizations. But both the dolmens of the Caucasus and Stonehenge look as if by the time of their construction a lot of experience had already been accumulated in the creation of such structures ...

No need to go to Stonehenge

Who, having learned about the mysterious Stonehenge, didn’t have a desire to go there and “feel it with your own hands” - as if attracted by some invisible magnet! But, by the way, many monuments of megalithic culture are literally at our side. These are both Caucasian dolmens and a complex of stone slabs on the Kulikovo field. Found "cup" stones in the Tver, Yaroslavl, Kaluga regions. And even if all this is still very little studied and not so widely known, does it become less mysterious from this?

As if specially for lovers of antiquities, in the mountain spurs along the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, numerous (about three thousand!) Dolmens are scattered - in the region of Tuapse, Sochi, Gelendzhik. Most of these are granite "houses" with a round manhole. Interestingly, most often the hole is too narrow to climb into. Sometimes next to such a "house" you can find a kind of "cork" in the form of a truncated cone, which exactly fits the hole. Sometimes the "houses" are monolithic, but more often they are composite, made of stone slabs. They can have a kind of "portals" with a "canopy". There are also dolmens of a different shape: instead of a manhole, there is a protrusion in the form of a hemisphere. Fragments of cromlechs have survived near some of the dolmens: for example, an open flattened circle of detached stones adjoins a dolmen from the "Kozhokh group".

Individual dolmens, for example, the trough-shaped dolmen from the Mamedov Gorge (on the right bank of the Kuapse River), are processed in such a way that they indicate the point of sunrise over the ridge on the days of the equinox. Another feature of this particular dolmen is that in one of the directions it resembles a pyramid with a cut off top. The first rays of the Sun, having run along the edge of the pyramid, fell into the middle of the dolmen overlap, when the Sun fully rose above its flat top ...

In central Russia, about half a thousand boulders with traces of processing were found. Most often they look like lying stone slabs with bowl-shaped depressions, sometimes with a drain, sometimes with several cylindrical depressions or holes. Until recently, it was impossible to say with certainty that there are menhirs or standing stones on the territory of Central Russia. But the discoveries of recent years, in particular - a standing stone near the village of Beloozero, not far from the Kimovsk-Epifan highway, make it possible to talk about the existence of such monuments. The Belozersk menhir can hardly be called an "astronomical instrument" - so far it has not been possible to establish its orientation with the required accuracy, although it is possible that it once indicated the direction of sunrise on the winter solstice. But another similar monument - the Monastyrshchinskaya standing slab - can be called such with good reason. It is located in the Rybiy ravine, not far from the village of Monastyrshchina, near the confluence of the Nepryadva with the Don. The slab has a triangular shape. The northern edge of the plate is quite flat and even, it is oriented along the east-west axis, that is, it indicates the sunrise on the days of the equinoxes.

Discoveries continue!

Who knows which expedition will discover new traces of ancient cultures, who knows who will be able to stretch new connecting threads between seemingly unrelated facts! Who knows how many more mysteries our land keeps, how many mysteries ancient stones keep! Indeed, many discoveries - just in central Russia - have been made over the past few years. And in the Caucasus, they continue to find and describe more and more dolmens ... For those in whom the spirit of adventure and knowledge lives, the world around will never seem boring and gray. For those who are really looking, there will always be enough mysterious and unknown.

The original article is on the website of the New Acropolis magazine: www.newacropolis.ru

for the magazine "Man Without Borders"

In them, we tried to figure out what these ancient structures are, how they are arranged and work, what they are intended for. Maybe someone will consider these articles not so important for spiritual seekers, distracting attention from the main goal, as they say, "the master's business." It seems to me, by virtue of our capabilities, together we are trying to restore history, lost knowledge and traditions, for the sake of, let's say, a more holistic perception of reality, collecting puzzles of a single picture. It is difficult to say how well it works.

In this article I would like to propose to consider other megaliths, which, along with pyramids and dolmens, can also be part of a great architectural plan. And at a certain moment, perhaps, they will help the salvation of mankind or the transition to some new round of civilization. It will be about menhirs and cromlechs. Of course, there is a lot of information on the Internet, but it turned out to be hard to put it together. Taking into account the experience of the above articles about dolmens, in order to reduce the amount of "water" in the article, so as not to confuse you and myself completely, I will try to display it concisely, in fact, with a breakdown into several parts.

Megaliths(from the Greek μέγας - large, λίθος - stone) - prehistoric structures made of large blocks. In the extreme case, this is one module (menhir). The term is not strictly scientific, therefore, a rather vague group of structures falls under the definition of megaliths and megalithic structures. As a rule, they belong to the "preliterate" era. Megaliths are common all over the world, mainly in the coastal regions. In Europe, they mainly date back to the Eneolithic and Bronze Age (3-2 thousand BC), with the exception of England, where the megaliths date back to the Neolithic era. Megalithic monuments are especially numerous and varied in Brittany. Also, a large number of megaliths are found on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, in Portugal, part of France, on the west coast of England, in Ireland, Denmark, on the southern coast of Sweden. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was widely believed that all megaliths belonged to the same global megalithic culture, but modern research and dating methods refute this assumption.

Types of megalithic structures.

• menhir - a single upright stone,
• dolmen - a construction of a huge stone, set on several other stones,
• cromlech - a group of menhirs forming a circle or semicircle,
• taula - a stone structure in the shape of the letter "T",
• trilith - a structure made of a block of stone, set on two vertically standing stones,
• seid - including a structure made of stone,
• cairn - a stone mound with one or more rooms,
• covered gallery,
• boat-shaped grave, etc.

In many European countries, in the middle of fields and meadows, on high hills, near ancient temples, in forests, often right in the middle of roads and on lawns near houses where people live, huge long stones rise - menhirs (menhir is translated as “long stone "). Sometimes they stand alone, sometimes they line up in rings and semicircles, or form long rows and whole alleys. Some are directed straight up, others are tilted, and seem to fall. But this "fall" has been going on for five, or even six thousand years: that is how long, as it is assumed today, the most ancient of them have existed. The Bretons call them pelvans, which means "pillar-stones", and the British call them standing stones. Science considers them to be the first authentically man-made structures that have survived to this day.

Menhir (there is also a peylvan) - from the Lower Breton (France) maen - stone and hir - long - a worked or wild rock, set by a man, in which the vertical dimensions noticeably exceed the horizontal ones. In the English-speaking tradition, the term "standing stones" is often used. In Scandinavia, such monuments are called "Bautasteine" (Bautasteine).

Menhir- This is a free-standing stone considered sacred. A working menhir, that is, a stone that gives a connection with other megaliths, was usually located either in special zones (at the intersection of force fields, on faults), or above the sacred graves of ancestors. This is usually a tall stone, often in the form of a stele, or just a huge freestanding boulder, strongly elongated upward. And in Egypt, for example, it was specially hewn out so that it was much greater in height than in width, and made flat. All ancient menhirs are placed in the right places. Sometimes whole complexes are formed from menhirs - circles, semicircles, spirals and other forms from menhirs. They are called cromlech (but more on them later).

Menhirs are found among a wide variety of peoples, from northern latitudes to high latitudes of the southern hemisphere, and are found in different parts of the world. There are especially many of them in Europe, Russia and the Caucasus.

The best studied and well known standing stones of Brittany and the British Isles. But there are many more of them on our planet. Today menhirs with a height of one to 17 meters and weighing up to several hundred tons can be seen in Greece and Italy, in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic Islands, in the south of France, in Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic, in Spain and Portugal, in Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany and southern Scandinavia. They are found along the entire Mediterranean coast from Libya to Morocco and further south, all the way to Senegal and Gambia. They are in Syria, in Palestine.

It is believed that the tallest menhir was the Fairy Stone, which stood near the village of Locmarijaker in French Brittany. It towered 17 meters above the ground and went into the ground by more than three, and weighed about 350 tons! The fairy stone was supposedly installed 4000 years ago, but unfortunately destroyed around 1727. It now lies ruined at the entrance to the village of the same name.). The most grandiose ensemble of menhirs is located in the same place, in Brittany, in Karnak - grandiose stone alleys of more than 3,000 rough stones (it is assumed that there were about 10,000 of them before!) Stretching for several kilometers. They are about 6,000 years old. From the air, it can be seen that some large and small megaliths form huge circles and triangles.

How not to recall the megalithic complex Akhunovo, mentioned earlier in the articles of the site, or the Bakhchisarai menhir in Crimea, which is considered a very powerful place of power (by the way, the coordinates are still the same 43-44 degrees N. N44.76506 E33.90208) and many others.

In the arrangement of the stone "alleys" of the menhirs, a clear geometric plan can be traced, some stone rows, stretching for kilometers from west to east, gradually approach each other according to a complex mathematical law described by a parabolic function.

Menhirs are a fertile theme for fantasies, including scientific ones. According to researchers, menhirs were used for a variety of purposes, incl. at the moment unknown and often already undetectable. Among the known appointments of menhirs are cult (ritual fencing of other structures, symbols of the center, ritual determination of the boundaries of possessions, elements of rituals of passage, phallic symbols), memorial, solar-astronomical (sighting devices and systems of sighting devices), boundary and even informational ones. The opinion that menhirs are ancient observatories is very attractive. Indeed, Stonehenge (straight mega complex of menhirs, dolmens) became a place of pilgrimage for tourists after it turned out that at the time of the summer solstice, the main axis of the entire structure points to the northeast, exactly where the Sun rises on the longest day of the year.

There is nothing on the most simple and ancient objects, however, over time, drawings, ornaments, inscriptions, and bas-reliefs begin to appear on the standing rocks.

And what are the images on the menhirs of Göbekli Tepe:

Often, subsequent peoples reused the menhirs for their cult and other purposes, making additions, corrections, inscribing their own inscriptions and even changing the general form, transforming them into idols. On the other hand, the menhirs functionally adjoin single untreated stones, both specially installed and lying in their original places, as well as systems of specially placed stones.

Menhirs were installed both singly and forming complex systems: oval and rectangular "fences", semi-ovals, lines, incl. many kilometers, rows of lines, alleys. Despite the fact that the tradition of placing stones vertically is one of the oldest, it is also one of the most stable. Mankind puts stone steles in honor of any events or intentions so far. For example, the largest "menhir" - a monolith stands in St. Petersburg and is well known as the Pillar of Alexandria (for now we will not run into the front and pay much attention to this, since this is a topic for a separate subsequent article and separate conclusions). On the other hand, the tradition of proud of its tallest towers and broadcasting towers also has its roots in the tradition of menhirs.

Of course, many legends are associated with menhirs. It is said that dwarfs living underground turn into pelvans when they are exposed to sunlight. And since this people is considered the guardian of treasures, legends claim that untold riches are hidden under the standing stones. However, the stones vigilantly guard them, and not a single person has yet managed to get them. According to other legends, menhirs are, on the contrary, petrified giants. And on the day of the summer and winter solstices, on Christmas Eve and on Easter, they come to life - they walk, dance, turn around their axis or run to the nearest river to drink water or swim, and then return to their place and turn to stone again.

Menhirs are believed to be tombstones. Possibly lighthouses. Or the viziers. There are known groups of menhirs standing in such a way that one can see the second from the second, the third from the second, the fourth from the third, and so on - very similar to the signal system. True, pelvans also stand far from the sea coast, where it is strange to speak of them as lighthouses, and not all long stones find traces of burials.

According to Ivan Mackerle, according to one of the theories, these places of worship accumulate the energy of the Earth. “Scientists have found that when the sun rises, especially at the solstice, menhirs scream, emit sound, but in an area inaudible to humans. Measurements have shown that ancient menhirs have a powerful magnetic field. This is how the hypothesis appeared that menhirs are the points of concentration of the Earth's energy. They, like acupuncture points on the human body, are the intersection points of invisible vein-tunnels, magnetic currents passing along the surface of the Earth. "

It is known, for example, that in India rough, upright stones are still considered the abodes of deities. In Greece, a huge, rough stone pillar once represented Artemis. At the crossroads, there were four-sided pillars with the sculpted head of the god Hermes - Herma. In ancient Rome, Terminalia was celebrated in honor of the god of borders, Terminalia. On this day, the boundary stones were rubbed with oils, decorated with garlands of flowers, sacrificial gifts were brought to them: honey, wine, milk, grain. Anyone who dared to move such a border stone was considered cursed forever - the borders in Rome were sacred. And the stone, representing the god Terminus himself, was in the Capitol Temple and guaranteed the inviolability of the borders of the entire empire. Perhaps the menhirs were the same boundary stones. Only they did not share neighboring possessions, but rather something else. Now the hypothesis is very popular that all these stones were placed on the fractures of the earth's crust, where the Earth's energies were concentrated and emerged to the surface. If you believe the myths, menhirs stand on the border of two worlds - the world where people lived, and the world where the gods lived. So, in the Irish sagas it is said that standing stones marked the entrance to the Sids, the dwellings of the wonderful magical people of the Celts. And in Brittany, the belief has been preserved that thanks to pelvan it is possible to meet the dead: in ancient times, people erected stone thrones somewhere in a conspicuous place, kindled a fire and waited for the souls of their ancestors to sit on them to warm themselves by the fire. And just like the stone of Termin, some menhirs, while standing, guarantee the existence of entire villages, postponing the end of times ...

And such versions were caught:

Menhirs are temples near which sacrifices were performed. Menhirs are an astronomical clock of the Stone Age. The stones of Karnak (Brittany) are located so that they show the position of the Sun at a certain time of the year.

Menhirs of Indians with images of people in masks of animals, birds are symbols of religious cults.

The menhirs of the Indians with two heads (human and animal) are symbols of the ancient Toltec teachings about nagual and tonal. Perhaps our ancestors used dolmens - menhirs for the practice of the art of stalking - "recapitulation of personal history" - one of the paths leading to the main goal of the Toltecs - freedom?

And take, for example, the ancient obelisks of the Egyptians:

Or take the ancient Slavic temples:

And if you also look closely at the moai of Easter Island, these are also menhirs in their purest form.

In general, there is something to ponder at your leisure.

Prepared by: Alexander N (Ukraine)