![]() ![]() ![]() The most elementary configuration of the dolmen is trilithic: a horizontal slab of stone placed on top of two vertically positioned stones in order to form a construction where the structural elements frame a quadrangular space. They concluded their phase with the most recent constructions in Malta, around 2400 BE and in Italy at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE. They spread further south to central and southern France, south-west to Spain and Portugal and north-east to the central lowlands of Europe, Sweden and so on. Breton dolmens date back to 4500 BCE (earlier, therefore, than the Egyptian pyramids, Mesopotamian ziggurats and the great Cretan and Mycenae sites). It was proven that the oldest megalithic tombs originated in central/northern Europe. The perfection of absolute dating systems, thanks to the 14C radio-carbon method, put an end to this thesis once and for all. Gordon Childe reinforced this hypothesis in his last book The Prehistory of European Society where he claimed that the construction of the enormous mausoleums was carried out by mythical megalithic missionaries, members of some early Aegean tribes from the eastern Mediterranean, who divulged a religious faith known to belong to the cults of Gaia the Mother Goddess, goddess of the earth. The first investigations were, therefore, to understand the use of these structures and establish their age, even though the absence of metal objects indicated the period they could belong to. ![]() It was thought they were works built by giants or, indeed, deeds of the devil. Until that time the examination of these “strange” monuments, scattered here and there, gave way to suppositions that were, to say the least, fanciful. The word dolmen, which derives from Breton t(d)aol meaning table and men or min meaning stone, appears in the scientific debate around the end of the 1700s CE. Megalithic architecture, specifically the construction of sanctuaries and tombs using enormous blocks of stone, occupies an important position in the cultural experience of Prehistory. The structures functioned as burial chambers or as sites of ancient cult worship, for example to an earth or fertility goddess. Dolmens are also present in the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, and especially large numbers exist in Korea, with examples there dating to c. The oldest European examples are found in Brittany, northern France, and date to the 5th millennium BCE. A dolmen is a megalithic structure typically formed from a large horizontal stone slab resting on two or more upright slabs. ![]()
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