Dolmens of Russia

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Dolmen near the Zhane river
Dolmen near the Zhane river

Concentrations of megaliths, dolmens and stone labyrinths have been found (but little studied) along Russia’s northern shores with the White Sea and the Barents Sea as well as throughout the Caucasus Mountains.

Most of them are represented by rectangular structures made of stone slabs or cut in rocks with holes in their facade. These dolmens cover the Western Caucasus on both sides of the mountain ridge, in an area of approximately 12.000 square kilometres of Russia and Abkhazia.

The Caucasian dolmens represent a unique type of prehistoric architecture, built with precisely dressed cyclopic stone blocks. The stones were, for example, shaped into 90-degree angles, to be used as corners or were curved to make a perfect circle. The monuments date between the end of the 4th millennium and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.

While generally unknown in the rest of Europe, these Russian megaliths are equal to the great megaliths of Europe in terms of age and quality of architecture, but are still of an unknown origin. In spite of the variety of Caucasian monuments, they show strong similarities with megaliths from different parts of Europe and Asia, like the Iberian Peninsula, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Israel and India. A range of hypotheses has been put forward to explain these similarities and the building of megaliths on the whole, but still it remains unclear.

Approximately 3.000 of these megalithic monuments are known in the Western Caucasus, but more are constantly being found, while more and more are also being destroyed. Today, many of these monuments are in great disrepair and will be completely lost if they are not protected from vandals and general neglect.

[edit] Architecture of Russian dolmens

A dolmen near Gelendzhik.
A dolmen near Gelendzhik.

The dolmens have a limited variety in their architecture. The floor plans are square, trapezoidal, rectangular and round. All of the dolmens are punctuated with a portal in the centre of the facade. While round portholes are the most common, square ones are also found. In front of the facade is a court that usually splays out, creating an area where rituals possibly took place. The court is usually outlined by large stone walls, sometimes over a meter high, which enclose the court. It is in this area that Bronze and Iron Age pottery has been found - which helped date these tombs -, along with human remains, bronze tools and silver, gold and semi-precious stone ornaments.

The repertoire of decoration for these tombs is not great. Vertical and horizontal zigzags, hanging triangles and concentric circles are the most common motifs. One decorative motif that is quite common is found across the top of the porthole slab. It can best be described as a lintel held up by two columns. Pairs of breasts, done in relief, have also been found on a few tombs. These breasts usually appear above the two columns of the porthole decoration. Perhaps related to these are the stone plugs, which were used to block the porthole, and are found with almost every tomb. They are sometimes phallic-shaped.

Some unusual items associated with dolmens are big round stone balls, double balls and animal sculptures.

Dolmen pyramid in Mamed Canyon
Dolmen pyramid in Mamed Canyon

One of the most interesting megalithic complexes – group of three dolmens - stands in a row on a hill above Zhane River on the Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar area near Gelendzhik, Russia. In this area there is a great concentration of all types of megalithic sites including settlements and dolmen cemeteries. Large stone mounds surrounded the two monuments.

The central dolmen is rectangular in plan, 4 x 4 meters, while the two flanking dolmens are circular, 4 and 5 meters in diameter. The two round dolmens had been bulldozed - probably in the 1950s - in order to harvest the surrounding trees, but the main structure of the central dolmen had not been damaged. One of the dolmens is unique, with a secret entrance at the back of the chamber, and a façade, dummy entrance and courtyard on the front of the dolmen.

[edit] Russian dolmens and rituals

It is very difficult now to restore the rituals connected with the dolmens. Different dolmens are believed to have power in different areas, such as health, love, and family. People leave offerings at the appropriate dolmen to get help in each of the different areas of their lives.

The location of dolmens shows that they are occupying the even parts on the slopes of the hills, river terraces and not high mountains (maximum height up till 500-700 meters over the sea level). Only some single dolmens are located on the heights.

There is a source of water near dolmens all the time – 5-50 meters distance, and sometimes it can be underground. It tells about the importance of water in rituals of the dolmen builders. In most of the mythologies the water is the agent and principle of the birth, which can be connected to the motives of birth and death (alive or dead water) and be male or female. According to legends the dolmens have the special power to call the rain and we can see the zigzag ornament often on dolmens, which possibly means water as it was graphically imaged in many ancient cultures.

Dolmen with zigzag pattern near the Zhane River
Dolmen with zigzag pattern near the Zhane River

Stone by itself is the material connected to the motives of death. It is the border between the world of the alive and the dead. The dolmen symbolised the mountain of the world, which got the dead to be born again. Naked women rub against the stones, scroll through the hole in stone, and drink water from the stone holes of dolmens to conceive a child.

The person buried in the dolmen was the medium between the world of the living and the gods. The dead were left in front of dolmen or were buried in the ground. After rotting, the bones and skull were put inside the dolmen. Later in time, the cult of the dead changed and the fear of the dead appeared. It is the time when the false-portal type of dolmens appeared. In order to stop the dead finding their way back in the world of the living, a convexity on a facade was made to simulate a stone plug, but the true hole is cut on the back side - on the north side of the dolmen, which was associated with the world of the dead. Sometimes it would be covered with soil, as it is the entrance to the underworld.

[edit] References