Interesting structures in the Caucasus are dolmens. They are found on almost every continent with the exception of Australia. So in France there are about 4500 of them. And in Madagascar, for example, dolmens are very similar to the Caucasian ones, they were built in the 19th century, but no one would ever think to seriously talk about any historical connection between them.
The slabs from which the dolmens are built contain quartz, which carries the energy of the dolmen. Each dolmen has a round hole with a diameter of about 40 cm, which, almost always, goes towards the water (stream, river, sea). 
The Sochi scientist V. Kondryakov put the scheme of the location of the dolmens on the geological map of the area, and it turned out that all the dolmens are located on the fault line of the earth's crust. Such zones are sometimes called "places of power".
To solve the problem of the origin of dolmens in the Caucasus, archaeologists have to answer a more important question: how did this grandiose culture, which left us in the legacy of thousands of dolmens in the vast territory of the Western Caucasus, disappear and why, almost 1500 years later?
TYPES OF DOLMEN
Along the Black Sea coast and in the mountains of the Western Caucasus, there are unique ancient structures - dolmens. Outwardly, they look like stone houses or birdhouses, where each wall can weigh tens of tons.
During the time of global warming on Earth (11 - 8 millennia ago), favorable conditions for human life and development were created.
At the end of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age, megalithic structures appeared in many parts of the world (from the Greek "mega" - huge, "lithos" - stone). These are the pyramids of Egypt, Stonehenge in England, rows of stone pillars-menhirs in western France. All of them were built of huge stones almost at the same time (4-2 millennium BC). In the same epoch, dolmens appeared in the Western Caucasus and, despite the strong destruction, they are the best of the structures of this type, not only in Russia, but throughout the world. Presumably in the area of \u200b\u200bGelendzhik, Novorossiysk, Shapsugskaya there were more than 1,500 dolmens, but now the number of intact and not much destroyed is more than 150. And mainly the largest dolmens are destroyed. All in all, there were more than 7 thousand of them in the Western Caucasus.
a) Usually a tiled dolmen consists of 4 walls, a cover and a floor consisting of one large or several smaller (heel) slabs. The chamber is rectangular or trapezoidal. The side plates have grooves that accommodate perfectly matched back and front plates. The front plate, framed by the projections of the side plates and an overhanging canopy, forms a portal. Since dolmens were usually located under barrow embankments, the same projections protected the slide down the embankment onto the front slab of the dolmen. Sometimes an additional portal or dromos corridors were attached to the dolmen.
b) Composite dolmens are rather rare structures and have a wide variety of variants. Such dolmens were built from separate blocks. Camera shape in plan: rectangular, trapezoidal, horseshoe-shaped, round and multifaceted.
c) Trough-shaped dolmens are common. In a rock or a huge block of stone, a depression was carved out, similar to a deep trough, then covered with a slab from above or overturned upside down. A hole and portal protrusions were made.
d) Dolmens-monoliths are entirely hewn out of one block of stone or in a rock. They are very rare.
The holes of the dolmens were closed with stone plugs - phallic sleeves weighing up to 150 kg.
THE ORIGIN OF THE DOLMEN
Translated from the Lower Breton language (in French Britain), dolmen means "stone table". They are divided into four types: tiled, composite, trough-shaped and monoliths.
The question of the origin of dolmens in the Caucasus is not simple enough. Such monuments have not yet been found anywhere in the world that would be constructively close and at the same time preceded the Caucasian ones.
Early dolmens in the Western Caucasus appear on a large territory, have a perfect shape and certain proportional mathematical relationships of the inner chamber of the dolmen.
Plates weighing from 3 to 30 tons are connected by grooves with millimeter precision. For the construction of dolmens, certain sandstone rocks are selected and sometimes moved over tens of kilometers. Moreover, there are no traces of the roads along which the stones could have been transported.
On the early dolmens, there are similar thematic drawings, possibly of technical or philosophical significance. Some dolmens are decorated with vertical and horizontal zigzag lines and triangles.
Traces of the presence of a primitive man who made early single burials inside dolmens are also poorly traced. It turns out, leaving behind the most mysterious monuments that have passed through the millennia - these people left behind no houses, nothing even more significant ... Some scientists believe that dolmens were built by wild, illiterate people who were afraid of the forces of nature. But is it possible now to repeat the feat of the ancient builders?
It also seems unusual that in the early stages of the appearance of dolmens in the Western Caucasus, the evolution of development is not traced - from more primitive forms and technologies to more complicated ones, but perfect complex structures appear immediately.
In the later period of construction, tiled dolmens lose their clear proportions, false portal, trough-shaped dolmens appear, composite ones are built - with false vaults and monolith dolmens are carved in the rocks, which more resembles a monument erected in honor of a tiled dolmen.
Subsequently, the construction of dolmens ceases, and many of them are already used for secondary burials and as a kind of bone depositories. (Mospagebreak)
DRAWINGS ON THE WALLS OF THE DOLMEN
We have seen drawings on the walls of dolmens, left by their builders. Often, horizontal rows of herringbone notches are visible on the front slab of tiled dolmens.
There is a pattern on dolmens made in the form of zigzags in several rows. Some archaeologists see water in these drawings. Markovin writes "... zigzags could symbolically depict water. Since ancient times, moisture has been depicted throughout the East in such a graphically laconic way, and even snakes, as" the personification of the underworld. "Naturally, zigzags decorating dolmens and symbolizing water could be interpreted as peculiar good wishes for the return of the souls of the dead. Water, being an invariable giver of life and fertility, was also an all-purifying means. "
Other archaeologists see in the dolmen patterns a "topographic map of the area", where the waves indicate river valleys.
On the front slab of some dolmens, there is a table-like portal. As if a dolmen was drawn on a dolmen - a "stone table", on which four convex hemispheres were sometimes depicted. There is also a convex framing of the dolmen hole.
WHERE ARE THE DOLMENS?
Dolmens of the Caucasus are located from the Taman Peninsula to the Colchis lowland at a distance of 480 km in length and from 30 to 75 km in width. Dolmens usually stand in groups and occupy comfortable and fairly flat areas along the watersheds, on the flat tops of the mountain spurs. They stand along the river basins, facing a portal into an open space - mainly to the south, east, or in an intermediate direction - between south and east.
WHEN DOLMENS BUILT?
The dating of an archaeological site can be done in several ways. One of them is to analyze the evolutionary development of manufacturing techniques, forms of ancient products, and many other features. For example: the study of the "cultural layer" in the earth. When people live in one place for a long time, a layer of earth is formed, mixed with fragments of ceramics, discarded or lost tools, weapons, remains of dwellings, animal bones, etc. Some peoples replaced others and the layers increased, sometimes reaching several meters. It is quite natural that it is deeper - something older.
Another way is radiocarbon analysis. Extracting organic remains of that time, for example - coals, bones, they measure the content of the isotope of radioactive carbon C14. Thus, archaeologists came to the conclusion that the West Caucasian dolmens were built from 3500 BC. to 1400 BC, i.e. dolmens from 5500 to 3400 years old (mospagebreak)
Burials Inside the Dolmens
During excavations inside the dolmens, archaeologists find the burials of ancient people of the Bronze Age already known to them from the ground burial grounds. The skeleton is in the so-called "twisted position" by archaeologists, when all the bones of a person are unnaturally close to each other. This pose is also called the posture of the embryo or embryo. This could have an important meaning for ancient people, who probably believed that from what position a person is born, in the same position he should leave this world.
Next to the deceased, they find his things, stone and first bronze tools, gray clay dishes.
Since then and up to now, many peoples have lived in the Western Caucasus. Many of them, not building dolmens, made burials of their ancestors, up to the late Middle Ages. These were different tribes of the Caucasus, nomads, as well as Scythians and Greeks.
In the vicinity of Khosta, in the village of Kudepsta, in addition to cave sites, dolmens and sacrificial sites were also discovered.
In addition to the tombs themselves, the dolmen culture includes rock fragments found near the dolmens with pits, circles and other images of cult significance carved on them.
A special place is occupied by the Kudepstinian "sacrificial" stone, known among the local population as the "Circassian" stone. It is a block of sandstone, in plan it has the shape of a triangle, each side of which is about 5 m long. In its northeastern edge, two recesses in the form of seats are carved. Behind the seats, on the upper plane of the stone, two parallel trough-shaped depressions were made, up to 2 m long and up to 1 m wide.There are also four pits, a bowl-shaped depression up to 0.2 m in diameter.Next to the first block lies another of the same size. Cup-shaped depressions are also visible on its surface. In front of the boulders, the remains of a stone foundation were found from a building, which, judging by the nature of the fragments of ceramic products, belongs to the early Middle Ages. The relationship between the blocks and the foundation suggests that at this time the blocks no longer played any role in the life of the local population. The nature of stone processing, individual design details and the fact that the complex of blocks is independent of the foundation make it possible to attribute this monument not to the 16th - 17th centuries, as it was believed until now, but to the dolmen time (3-4 thousand years BC), when these the stones undoubtedly played the role of a sanctuary.
DOLMEN LEGENDS
The Adyghe mountain peoples living in the Western Caucasus, or as they were called before - the Circassians, considered dolmens to be sacred structures, revered and guarded them. The Cossacks who arrived here in the last century called dolmens "heroic hut", "didova" or "devil's hut". The highlanders called them houses of dwarfs ("ispun").
The Europeans who arrived in the Western Caucasus recorded many legends in which they told how giants built houses for dwarfs.
"A long time ago, in the times that one almighty Allah knows and remembers, in this rich land, then covered with impenetrable forests, there lived only two tribes of people. A tribe of large, like an oak, terrible-looking giants and a tribe of small dwarfs. Giants lived in the river valleys and hunted, and the dwarfs lived high in the mountains, near the snows - in dark, cold caves and practiced witchcraft.The dwarfs rode around on harnessed hares.The giants, although they possessed terrible strength, were still as stupid as a herd of rams, when the dwarfs, having no strength at all, were very cunning.Two tribes lived for a long time, not seeing and not knowing each other.But one day the dwarfs descended into the valley and saw the giants when they were playing games, throwing rocks at each other, and for fun uprooted trees with roots. Little dwarfs by cunning and witchcraft soon managed to subdue the stupid giants and made them serve themselves. The dwarfs ordered the giants to build them comfortable little dwellings. The giants quickly got down to business and everywhere in the mountains and in the valleys, stone huts were built for the dwarfs with small round holes through which only dwarfs could get in. Many years have passed since that time, and there are no dwarfs, and their strong stone houses still stand today. "
I first learned about dolmens four years ago, when my friend returned from vacation from Anapa, where he was staying with his parents, and brought from there a small souvenir in the form of a box made of flat stones with a round hole in one side. After his short story, I had the feeling that these constructions were used by people in the past in a completely different way from how people think about them (then I was not yet familiar with the wonderful books of A. Novykh). Time passed and my repeated acquaintance with dolmens happened after reading "Ezoosmos". Visually, I have already at least imagined how they look. The question of detailed study arose, but as always, thousands of reasons prevented me from penetrating and understanding. Hopefully today, together we will be able to arrange more or less worthwhile introductory material.
A little off topic. The whole process of creating an article, from collecting information to gathering everything in a heap, was accompanied by the most severe attacks of the animal nature and all kinds of septonics obstacles. From initial thoughts such as: "You took the initiative, what do you need it for, let someone else do it, it won't work, give it up, etc.", after the light infantry was ignored, heavy artillery entered the battle in the form of often not working Internet, slowing down the computer, then the disappearance of the collected information, even a fire that almost happened on the staircase from problems with electrical wiring. When this did not stop either, WN began to attack through my loved ones and relatives - my daughter and wife. Quarrels arose over trifles, but knowing where the roots grow from, he tried to hold a blow, so to speak. Well, okay, as the cat Leopold sang: "We will survive this trouble."
So let's go.
General description and where are located.
Ancient peoples from Britain to India built no less amazing structures from huge slabs - dolmens. Dolmens belong to the group of ancient megaliths (translated from the Greek word “ megalith"Means" huge stone ") and are man-made structures of a certain shape, built of massive stone slabs or stone blocks. These ancient mystical structures, the age of which, according to some estimates, ranges from 2 thousand years to 7-8 thousand years (sometimes they even call the figure 10,000 years!) Are spread all over the world, in various countries and cultures. Some scholars believe that the first dolmens were built on the Iberian Peninsula in 4000-3500 years. BC e. Other researchers claim that the earlier center of construction is the Balearic Islands, Sardinia and Corsica.
Today in the world there are about not less than 9000 dolmens... These buildings are found in Bulgaria and Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast, on the islands of Corsica and Malta, in Spain and Portugal. Many dolmens have been found in what is now England and France. Even on the islands of Polynesia, many have been found. Also, dolmen structures were found on the territory of North Africa in Roknia, India, Palestine and North Korea (more than 50% of all dolmens in the world are located on the Korean Peninsula, and most of them are located in Gochang, Hwasun and on the island of Ganghwa; before the outbreak of the war 1950-1953 there were about 80,000 of them, at least 30,000 have survived to date, but this by no means proves that Korea is the homeland of dolmens). A large accumulation of dolmens is located along the Black Sea coast, especially in the Caucasus, where they meet in the coastal strip and stretch along the coast for 400 km from Anapa, Novorossiysk to Abkhazia. The width of this strip towards Novorossiysk is 75 km and in this area, at the moment, archaeologists have found about 3000 dolmens. It is believed that the earliest dolmens were built here at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC.
These are huge flat stone slabs, four of which are installed vertically and covered on top by a fifth slab. The weight of this cover can reach tens of tons, dimensions - up to 10 meters. The farther from the sea, the smaller the stone buildings become. The front plate has a small oval or round hole. The boulders of which the dolmens are built are practically untreated on the outside, but on the inside they are leveled and almost polished.
Dolmens are common in many countries of the world. As noted above, they gravitate towards watersheds, karst areas, slopes with a river, mountainous and wooded areas. Currently, more and more previously unknown dolmens are being discovered in many countries of the world:
Map of the location of dolmen zones in the Western Caucasus. List of dolmen zones. V.I. Markovin
Who of his contemporaries discovered the dolmens is unknown. But the first descriptions were made by foreigners. In 1794, the German Peter Simon Pallas visited Taman and described the stone houses discovered. In 1818, the Frenchman Tebu de Marigny, a sailor in the Russian service, recorded a group of 6 dolmens on the Pshada River in writing. And during the Caucasian War in 1839, the English intelligence officer James Bell, who lived among the Shapsugs, made picturesque sketches of the highlanders against the background of dolmens.
What does the word "Dolmen" mean?
Different peoples have a lot of definitions and meanings. Since we have already undertaken to learn more about them, then I will give what I managed to find. The name "dolmen" comes from the combination of two words of the Breton language, namely "toal", "dol" - "table" and "men" - "stone", which literally means "stone table". There are also other interpretations of the word "dolmen" - "changing the share" ...
"Omniscient Wikipedia" gives the following definitions of dolmens for different peoples:
- Abkhazians: psaun - the house of the soul, the soul of a person; adamra, ahatgun - burial houses.
- Adygea: ispun, ispun, spyun (shapsugs); kkheunezh - home for life in the afterlife of akhratun.
- Kabardians: isp-une - the house of isp.
- Megrels: mdishkude, odzvale, sadzvale - houses of giants, a repository of bones.
- Cossacks: heroic huts or huts, didovs and devil's huts.
- In Portugal, dolmens are usually called "anta", in Scandinavia - "rese"; these words are part of the names of local dolmens.
There were also such versions:
Adyghe people call the Caucasian dolmens "sirp-un", which means houses of dwarfs. The Ossetians have a legend about the dwarf people - bicenta, which are endowed with supernatural features. So, for example, a dwarf bicent is able to knock down a huge tree at a glance. According to legend, dwarfs live in the sea. Ossetians argue that the ancestors of the Caucasian peoples - mythical sledges also came out of the sea and gave people culture.
V. Yashkardin describes it this way on his website: http://www.dopotopa.com/v_yashkardin_dolmeny_1.html.
The word "Dolmen" appeared in Russian archeology after the 1840s. For example, Felitsyn E.D. in 1879 he uses the word "Dolmen" in his work, and in later works he uses the word "Dolmen". Until that time, in the scientific works of Pallas P.S., Tebu de Marigny E., Ashik A.B., Dubois de Montperet, James Bell S. and others, the words are used to designate a dolmen:
Graber (grave), Hugel (mound), de petits tumulus ( small tumulus), coffres en pierres (stone box), pays maison (hut), tombeaux (grave), tombe (tomb), etc.
The first who described the origin of the word "dolmen" in Russia was the famous Russian archaeologist, Count A.S. Uvarov. In his work "Megalithic Monuments in Russia", he detailed the origin of this word. Uvarov A.S. claims that the word "dolmen" was invented by the French scientist Boden, from the Celtic words tol (table) and men (stone). Jean-Francis remarkably talks about the megalithic monuments of Saumur: dolmens, cromlechs, menhirs, etc. He confidently uses these terms, without any explanation of the origin of these words. This is what he calls the ancient stone buildings of the Celts. There are no Celtic stone tables (tol-men) here either, so Boden does not know about it. It can be assumed that A.S. Uvarov did not read Jean-Francis Bodin, but is criticized from the encyclopedia.
Since Uvarov A.S. - one of the main archaeologists of Russia at that time, then his opinion is taken a priori. For example, Felitsyn E.D. repeats this story in his work, which is the basis for all further research. To the credit of Soviet archaeologists, they do not mention Boden J.-F. in this vein. Lavrov Leonid Ivanovich does not mention tol-men (stone table) either. Markovin Vladimir Ivanovich, in his main work on dolmens, very accurately described this term. He gave a link to the French encyclopedia of 1966, but indicated the time of the term "dolmen" at the end of the 18th century (this is definitely not Boden J.-F.)
Let's explain the words of V.I. Markovin. about the end of the 18th century. The word "dolmen" was already used in the works of French scholars of the late 18th century: Pierre Jean-Baptiste Legrand d "Aussy (1737-1800), Theophile Malo Corret de la Tour d" Auvergne (1743-1800).
Especially it is possible to highlight the book of the famous "celtoman" (collector of short stories) Theophile Malo, "Gali origin" 1792, in which he defines the word as the ancient name of the upper stone of the Gauls sanctuary. Hence it becomes clear that the word "dolmen" or "dolmin" is of ancient origin. Now about the "stone table" (tol-men). The story is even more confusing and meaningless. In the English and French Wikipedia, this version, among etymologists, causes great doubt. From Celtic, tol-men is a stone circle, not a stone table, although these concepts are close to them. In English and French there is no "Tol-men", therefore the Celtic language is mentioned.
About the meaning of words:
DOLMEN - long-changing, remembering,
DOLMEN - changing share,
TOLMEN - a circle of men, a gathering point for people changing the world, a stone circle.
The word denotes that which carries its sound image and does not depend on the date of its creation. All other (local) names of dolmens are less ancient (my opinion), and in the primary sources it was never called that.
Examples of local names for dolmens:
- Adyghe people, Abkhazians: Ispun (houses of dwarfs), Spyun (cave), Keunezh (ancient burial houses), Hadamara,
- Megrelians: Mdishkude (houses of giants, repository of bones), Odzvale (repository of bones), Sadzvale,
- Cossacks: Heroic huts, Didova hut,
- English: table-stone (stone table),
- Celts: Dolmin (the upper heavy stone of the sanctuary),
- Irish: Dolmain (sanctuary),
- Turks: Dolmatas ...
We see that many who called dolmens that way had no idea what they were. Houses of dwarfs, giants, tables ... Also the word Pyramid can be called "a heap of stones" and say that this is an ancient name. Open Google translator, there is a pronunciation of words from any language. Listen to the word PYRAMID, it sounds exactly like that in all languages, although it is spelled differently. Words sound the same in all languages, only when they were created in the common information space of the Earth. For example, the Russian word, created in the 20th century, "Sputnik" (co-traveler walking together). The sound image of this word denotes its essence, and it sounds the same all over the world. So, the word Pyramid was created in the general information space of the Earth, which existed before our era. So this word sounded both before the great flood, and during the construction of the pyramids (we read Herodotus, he called the Pyramids Pyramids, and he lived before our era). Perhaps the word "Dolmen", like "Pyramid", came to us from a previous civilization, and this remains to be seen. The peoples of our civilization, who lived near dolmens, probably did not build them. And some were even afraid of them. For example, the Adyghe people called the dolmen ISPUN (from the Pune that frightens us).
Dolmen exploration history.
Since the purpose of this article is mostly for informational purposes (in my opinion, it is better to pay more attention to the principle of operation and why these things were actually built).
Why did the recesses fit the front plates of the dolmen so precisely in shape ???
7. Ratio of the dolmen chamber sizes.
Researchers have identified some patterns in the ratio of the dimensions of the inner chamber. The ratio of the width of the chamber at the front to the length of the chamber and to the width at the rear is related as:
Tiled, Type 1, Variant 1 (no holes): about 10/10/10, about 11 dolmens in total. Tiled, Type 1, Option 2 (gantry): 10/12/8, 10/12/9, about 48 dolmens in total.
Tiled, Type 1, Option 3 (with portal protrusions): no regularity has been established, only about 7 dolmens. Tiled, Type 1, Option 4 Variety 1 (false portal with a square base): 10/10/8, 10/10/9
Tiled, Type 1, Option 4 Variety 2 (false portal with trapezoidal base): 10/9/8
Tiled, Type 1, Option 4 Variety 3 (false-portal simplified): 10/8/7, 10/8/6, the pattern is poorly understood.
That is, there are several groups with a characteristic ratio of the length and width of the chamber. Any official or alternative hypothesis should explain the typical aspect ratio.
Why were dolmens built with a given aspect ratio?
8. The presence of a platform leveled into the horizon in front of the dolmen.
For dolmens, platforms aligned to the horizon were made that exceeded the dimensions of the foundation itself. That is, it is necessary to explain the purpose of these sites, since for stability it was enough to level only the site under the base of the dolmen.
Lavrov L.I. [Dolmens of the North-Western Caucasus, 1960]:
"Researchers of Caucasian dolmens, as a rule, did not pay attention to the obligatory presence of a flat area in front of the façade. Only A. Leshchenko has an indication of the site. At the same time, the site can be marked in all cases known to me. If the dolmen is on flat surface, then the role of the indicated area was played quite often by an unmarked space adjacent to the facade. In such cases, it is really difficult to notice. But if the dolmen is on a mountain slope, then the area is striking. In such cases, it is usually and sometimes an artificial small flat space in front of the facade, while immediately behind the back wall of the dolmen, a more or less steep uphill climb begins.
There are 9 known dolmens, in which the area in front of the facade is fenced with menhirs, and at 1 dolmen (the village of Dzhubga) - by a fence made of large hewn stone blocks. The platform near the dolmen-monolith on the Godlik River (2.5x2.5m in size) was cut in the same stone as the dolmen itself and, being on the same level with the floor of the latter, is 3m above the ground. "
Why were flat areas made in front of the façade of the dolmens, level with the dolmen floor?
Any hypothesis about the purpose of dolmens should give a simple and understandable answer to the above questions, without any exaggeration and verbiage (they wanted so much, they thought, but in fact ... etc.).
There is repetition, which means there is manufacturability and there must be logic in actions ...
To be continued...
Prepared by: Alexander N (Ukraine)
On the territory of the Northwestern Caucasus, presumably in the 4-2nd millennium BC, there was an unknown civilization, from which megalithic structures have come down to us (megalith - from the Greek.mega - huge, lithos - stone.), later called dolmens.
Outwardly they look like stone houses, where each wall can weigh tens of tons. About 4-6 millennia separates us from the people who created these places of worship. The oral tradition of the ethnos has existed on average for about 2000 years. Then his tracks disappear in the great maelstrom of the movement of peoples.
We have survived only the ancient Adyghe legends about a dwarf people using hares for riding, which the giants used to build houses from stones.
The study of the dolmens of the Caucasus began at the end of the 16th century. Academician Pyotr Simon Pallas, an employee of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in 1803 published notes about his trip to the outskirts of the Russian state and did not fail to mention the dolmens he discovered on the Taman Peninsula.
In 1818 the geographer K. Tausha and the Frenchman Tebu de Marigny, who served in the Russian army, discovered and described a group of dolmens in the Pshada river basin. Somewhat later, a more detailed description of the Pshad dolmens was given by the director of the Kerch Museum, a Russified Serb, Anton Baltazarovich Ashik.
Interest in dolmens among scientists was growing. By the middle of the 19th century, in scholarly works, the word "dolmen" was assigned to the megalithic structures of the Caucasus. Cossacks called dolmens “heroic huts”.
The indigenous population, Adyghe and Abkhazians called dolmens - "ispun" and "spyun" (houses of dwarfs, caves), Abkhazians - "keuezh" and "Adamra" (ancient burial houses). The Megrelians called them "mdishkude", "odzvale", "sadavale" (houses of giants, a repository of bones).
In the second half of the 19th century, the study of dolmens was carried out by F.S. Bayern, N.L. Kamenev, A.S. Uvarov and P.S. Uvarova, E.D. Felitsyna, G.N. Sorokhtin, A.Ya. Kolosov and many others. In the pre-war period L.I. Lavrov, V.I. Strazhev, A.A. Jessen. The first systematization of the dolmens of the Caucasus was carried out by L.I. Lavrov.
He collected all the data on the location of dolmens that had ever been in the Caucasus. His work described information about 1139 dolmens, known since the travels of P.S. Pallas and until 1960.
It was LI Lavrov who proposed the classification of dolmens which scientists still use. Dolmens are classified according to the construction technology and on this basis four types of dolmens are distinguished:
1). Tiled - was built from 6 multi-ton slabs - one foundation or heel stone, two side slabs, a portal slab, a back slab and a floor slab (according to V.I. Markovin, 92% of all dolmens are tiled.).
2). composite - composed of several large blocks.
3). Semi-monolithic or trough-shaped dolmen - it was hollowed out entirely in a rock block and covered from above with a slab.
4). monolithic - completely carved into the rock through the hole.
One of the largest modern researchers of dolmen culture is V.I. Markovin. In his monograph "Dolmens of the Western Caucasus", V.I. Markovin determined the distribution of dolmens in the Caucasus region, studied them in detail and described them based on the study of archival materials and the results of expeditions to 2308 dolmens.
But, most likely, the history of the study of dolmens is just beginning. Every year brings new findings and discoveries.
The dolmen culture was spread throughout the land. It changed in accordance with the level of mentality of its carriers, leaving memory about itself in its various manifestations. Several types of monuments of the mysterious people have been preserved on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. Archaeologists have divided dolmens according to the type of structure into solid, trough-shaped, tiled, and also composite ones.
We studied dolmens using the same methodology that categorized the dolmens according to the level of tasks they had to perform. All dolmens were conditionally divided into 4 types, each of which covered a certain period of time during the life of the builders.
The very first dolmens were solid. They were built at a time when creatures from another planet came to earth and began to master it. Dolmens helped them to keep in touch with their planet, to receive the necessary energy and information for safe assimilation into earthly conditions. But their main task was to scan the interior of the earth and find life there. The builders found special places in which, among other conditions, there were deep rocky rocks that emerge to the surface in the form of huge boulders. Thus, the structure made it possible to keep a strong connection with the bowels, study the underworld, its capabilities, hear the voice of the womb of the earth and decipher its terrible omens. It was assumed that life exists underground, and aliens tried to find it for subsequent experiments. Over time, the colonialists completed their task. However, they could not go back. They were grounded, and their descendants lost their knowledge and extraterrestrial abilities. Research carried out with the help of dolmens in those days helped them use knowledge for cultivating the land, growing fruits, mining, etc.
Help came to the newly minted earthlings. Relatives flew from their home planet and pushed the development of earthly civilization. They themselves moved to another level of existence, so they came to establish a connection of a new level. The differences in their relations were reflected in the principle of building dolmens. If the first dolmens had a rock at their base and a wider lower part, which made it possible to strengthen the connection with the earth, then the second level or type of dolmens was supposed to strengthen the connection with the sky and pick up ether signals. Previously built dolmens were rebuilt. Architecturally, the lower part of the base was tapered, and the upper part was smoothed or a rectangular slab was installed separately. A trough-shaped type of dolmens appeared. These were structures of the second level, and they were installed by people who by that time had acquired the full set of the earthly biological code. Such dolmens performed a different task - they helped to communicate with congeners who mastered the fifth dimension and sought to maintain contact with earthlings. During this period, beliefs, states, sciences associated with space began to develop.
Later people began to build other dolmens: tiled ones. An important distinguishing feature of them from the previous ones was the bottom plate, which was installed below and cut off, dampening the vibrations of the earth. This design technique was used to amplify vibrations coming from space. Such architectonics indicated a change in people's plans and the development of a stronger interest in space and other sciences, which allowed people to move to a higher level of straight-knowledge. During this period, superhumans appeared with extraordinary abilities. By that time, people came to the conclusion that planet Earth would disappear, and further stay on it would be impossible.
That part of people who have adopted new abilities have transformed into a different form of life and now live in a parallel world. The rest have undergone degradation and continued the human race that still exists today.
Composite dolmens, which represent the fourth type, are also a reflection of a certain period of the life pattern of human existence. They were installed by people who wanted to show their belonging to the elite, but lost their real ability to do so. Therefore, composite dolmens carry more the meaning of imitation, but do not have the same power that was encrypted in the three previous types.
The last post about dolmens is an attempt to understand who could have built these majestic structures? What are the main characteristics of society and the system of governance that made it possible to implement such large-scale and ambitious projects?
I repeat that there are dolmen structures dating back to the Eneolithic and later eras not only in the Caucasus, but also in many other parts of the Eurasian continent - in Britain, Denmark, Sweden, in the southern and central regions of France, as well as in Portugal, Spain , Italy, North Africa, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Bulgaria, India, Korea, Japan.
How did buildings appear in such different regions, similar both in architectural embodiment and in ideological functions? It is unlikely, as modern archaeologists believe, that the dolmen culture was formed for the first time in one specific place and then spread - by borrowing - throughout Eurasia. The chronological range of construction and especially the use of dolmen structures is very large. Dolmens are sometimes separated from each other by two or three millennia.
The historian and anthropologist B. Bgazhnokov believes that “any single center of the“ dolmen civilization ”from where it spread throughout the world does not exist, just as there is no“ single ethnic creator ”of such a civilization. With some certainty, we can only say that the Mediterranean and the Black Sea basin have become catalysts for the development of the dolmen culture of Eurasia ”.
The coastal societies, where dolmens first appeared, developed mainly independently, independently of each other. But the distribution of dolmens was also influenced by the processes of population migration. For example, the connection between Western European megalithic cultures has been proven and that they go back to traditions that can only be explained by the spread from one center, located in Los Millares, in the province of Almeria (Spain). From the Pyrenees, dolmens spread to Britain, which happened on the eve of the 3rd millennium BC. Meanwhile, in southern France, they appeared mainly under the influence of the megalithic traditions of Sardinia and Corsica.
The dolmen culture of the Western Caucasus emerged a whole millennium later than its European counterparts.
But the inhabitants of the Caucasus, according to some archaeologists, could borrow not only and not so much the early samples of the dolmen culture of Europe, but rather the relatively late ones. So, A.D. Rezepkin believes that the domed tombs of the second period in the development of the Los Millares culture, which dates from the middle of the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, were the initial form for the dolmens of the Caucasus.
B. Bgazhnokov believes that dolmens are an architectural expression of two cults widespread throughout the world, the cult of ancestors and the cult of stone. Dolmen structures were built, mainly in the mountainous coastal regions, where nature itself contributed to the megalithic expression and embodiment of these cults.
The combination of the cult of stone with the cult of ancestors, as well as the abundance of natural material for the construction of megalithic structures - these are the three main conditions for the emergence of Caucasian dolmens. In this respect, the dolmens of the Caucasus are on a par with the dolmen complexes of the West and the East, being between them, as it were, in the center - in the center of Eurasia. But they also have a number of distinctive features and features that are specific only to the Caucasus. According to B. Bgazhnokov, the main features of the Caucasian dolmens are: 1) the tightness of a stone tomb, 2) a neatly made small hole (30-40 cm in diameter), usually in the lower part of the front wall, 3) the presence of an equally neatly made sometimes ornamented stone cork , tightly closing the hole, 4) strengthening the tightness due to the construction of trough-shaped dolmens and dolmens-monoliths.
If we assume the transfer of the traditions of dolmen building to the eastern coast of the Black Sea from other regions of Eurasia and especially from Western Europe, then it should be noted that such structures are not found anywhere in such numbers as in the Caucasus.
In addition, it is the Caucasian dolmens that are distinguished by their structural complexity, perfection of forms, unexpected for the Bronze Age, excellent processing of slabs and monoliths, and a tight fit without any gaps of individual stones to each other. Archaeologists have repeatedly emphasized that the art of stone processing, architectural skill and the variety of Caucasian dolmens are superior to many other buildings of this type, simpler and not so refined.
S.V. Valganov wrote about Caucasian dolmens: “First of all, this is quality. This quality of stone processing, block fit and assembly accuracy is no longer found anywhere among the cultures that practiced the construction of dolmens. Another factor is the variety of designs. The fantastic variety of design solutions used by the mysterious dolmen builders of the Caucasus has no analogues anywhere else in the world. And with all this, the Caucasian megaliths, being the frank pinnacle of dolmen construction, are far from the latest in the world. "
Some scholars explain this by the influence that the high culture of Maikop had on the dolmen builders, which was formed even earlier as a result of close contacts with the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, in particular, the Hutt civilization.
The construction of dolmens and the Caucasian ones in particular required great knowledge, skills, colossal material costs.A special mystery is how the multi-ton stone slabs and boulders were delivered to the tomb construction sites, located very often at a great distance (from 10 to 60 km) from the places where these slabs and boulders could be found and made? Some slabs, especially floor slabs, often weighed more than ten tons, but they still had to be lifted to the height of the installed walls. It took the efforts of hundreds of people to lift and install such plates.
That is why sometimes the speeches of the guides and new myths about space aliens or gods descending from the sky and organizing coordinated actions of earthlings are so convincing. By the way, in the mythology of the Caucasus there is also a plot about the son of God, who was lowered as a baby to the builders of megaliths from heaven in a golden box, and when he grew up, he left his teachers and ascended to heaven again.
It is difficult to imagine the emergence of such tombs without a clearly established procedure for attracting (forcing) people to construction work, without the power of some groups of the population over others. All this, according to B. Bgazhnokov, "allows us to speak about the multiplicity, hierarchy, a relatively high level of social and cultural self-organization of the communities that built the Caucasian dolmens."
Archaeologist V.I. Markovin in his works constantly emphasizes that these communities were a significant force that could compete with the population of the Maikop culture in the Kuban region.
The size and complexity of the structure of the dolmens itself depended on the social significance of the buried.
The most famous tribal leaders were buried in large and well-decorated tombs, less significant leaders and tribesmen were placed in simpler dolmens. The simplest community members could be buried in caves, in simple soil pits lined with stones.
But the originality of the Caucasian dolmens, as it was said, does not exclude the possibility of external influences from both the West and the East. The idea of \u200b\u200ba dolmen as a synthesis of the cult of ancestors and the cult of stone could have developed among the local population in the course of interaction with peoples who have already realized this idea.
It is assumed that the dolmen culture was formed during the migration to the Western Caucasus of the population from the Middle East. Usually this process is viewed in the context of the Hatto-Abkhaz-Adyghe linguistic and cultural relationship.