BAMBU-18

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4. Different Types of Dolmens
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(a) Prof (Dr) W. A. Liebenberg
A Historical Research of the Ten  Tribes Scattered Into the Nations
https://www.academia.edu/30702086/A_Historical_Research_of_the_Ten_Tribes_Scattered_Into_the_Nations_Part_10
Part 10
by Prof (Dr) WA Liebenberg

There are five main types  of these stone structures that are found on the migration paths:

1) Menhirs
 Single long upright stones.

2) Cairns
 Piles of rocks, usually in a cone shape.

3) Dolmens
 A stone slab on three or more uprights.

4) Cromlechs
 A circle of stones sometimes enclosing dolmens or barrows (tombs).

5) Tumuli
 Mounds of earth and stones covering a burial chamber
 (barrows, burial mounds, or kurgans).

There are four types of Dolmens as seen in the pictures:
1) 'Plate dolmens' according to their forms are close to stone boxes where four walls and coverings represent whole plates. (It is established that 92% of all the known Caucasus dolmens are plate dolmens.) The oldest and dominating dolmens which flourished in the Caucasus culture are thought by scientists to date back to 2700 BCE.

2) 'Compound dolmens' are built with one or several walls made up of smaller plates or stone blocks

3) 'Trough-shaped dolmens' are hollowed out in the whole stone and are covered with removable plates.

4) Dolmens-monoliths are hollowed out in one stone or rock together with coverings

While generally unknown in the rest of Europe, these megaliths [in the Caucasus] are equal to the great megaliths of Europe in terms of age and quality of architecture,but are still a mystery to the world or archaeology; to vivid Biblical scholars the truth is already declared in the Scriptures. In spite of the variety of the Caucasian monuments, they show strong similarities with megaliths from different parts of Europe and Asia, like the Iberian Peninsula, France,Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and India.

Related to these are the phallic-shaped stone plugs, which were used to block the porthole, and are found with almost every dolmen. The entrance of a Caucasian dolmen is always at the south-side (as with the Dutch Hunebeds), meaning they face southwards towards Jerusalem
The dolmens could also have been vaults and safes of metal objects and jewelry of metal workers and traders.

One person who did become intrigued by these stones was the Belgian historian Marcel Mestdagh. His area of expertise was the Viking invasions.He noted that the invasion pattern in Western Europe seemed to follow a particular feature of the landscape that other researchers had been unableto identify. Mestdagh believed that this pattern had to do with the distribution of megaliths across the landscape. Furthermore, he noted that this pattern seemed to focus in on Sens, which was unique from a Viking perspective in the sense that the town was besieged, rather than sacked as were all other towns.
Aware that megaliths were often used by later people as border stones Mestdagh wondered whether they might actually be markers along the roads....
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(b) Martin Byrne. Ireland
Martin Byrne, "Irish Megalithic Monuments"   on his Website
The Sacret Island
 at: http://www.carrowkeel.com/files/main.html says there are
four main types of megalithic monument  to be found in Ireland.
These are 1) chambered cairns (also known as passage tombs or passage graves) with perhaps 300 - 500 in the country,

2) Court cairns, (court tombs), about 400,

3) dolmens (portal tombs or cromleacs), some 190 examples and

4) wedges, around 400 monuments.

A fifth type or category
is unclassified monuments of which there are at least 200. There is a sixth much smaller group, called Linkardstown cists, not very common.

Chambered cairns (Category 1) are the main type of megalithic/neolithic monument at Carrowkeel in County Sligo, one of the major Irish complexes. Moytura, on the east shore of Lough Arrow is one of the best places to see the four types of monument. Heapstown and Shee Lugh are passage graves; the Labby Rock is one of the larger dolmens in Ireland; there are a number of wedges and an unusual court structure, as well as many tall erratic standing stones

Prof Borlase described in great detail, parallels between the monuments of Ancient Ireland and those of what he calls 'Syria' which is in fact the general area of Ancient Israel.
He also described similar customs  associated with these monuments and practised in both 'Syria' and the 'native' inhabitants of Ireland.
See:
Israel-Syria-Ireland in Megalithic Parallelism
http://www.britam.org/SyriaEire.html
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5. Symbol found on Dolmen in Israel similar to that of Zuschen in Hesse, Germany
https://damienmarieathope.com/2018/07/kurgan-and-dolmens/

 The Cimmerians are ousted from the Pontic steppe by their cousins the Scythians coming from the Volga-Ural region and Central Asia. The Cimmerians settle in Anatolia and around modern Romania around 800 BCE. The Cimmerian culture commenced circa 1200 BCE. Some archaeologists place their origins in the North Caucasus. Some accounts have it that the Cimmerians moved to northern Germany and the Netherlands and became the ancestors of some Germanic tribes, like the Sicambri (ancestors of the Franks). The Scythians followed between 650 and 550 BCE in Transylvania, Hungary and southern Slovakia. They kept trade routes with the steppes until the Roman conquest of Pannonia and Dacia.

Dolmen-like structures occur through much of the Levant commonly dating to around 5,300-5,000 years ago and around 4,000 years old Dolmen table-like burial structures with the multi-burial of both adults and children along with a roof containing engraved shapes depicting symbols involving a simple line attached to the inside of an open semicircle on its ceiling found at the Golan Heights in Israel. Which is interestingly similar but reversed shapes to the Zuschen (megalithic dolmen tomb) Germany [Central Hesse], dated to around 5,000 years ago with engraved shapes depicting symbols involving a simple line attached to the outside of an open semicircle, interpreted as possibly stylised cattle. Another monumental stone display in Israel called Rujm el-Hiri, involves a circular monument of stones in the middle of a large plateau covered with hundreds of surrounding dolmens and ancient beads have been found at dolmens in the Galilee. 

See nos. 7, and 8. Research Article below.

In Finland, a Napakivi (pole/navel stone) or tonttukivi (elf stone) is a standing stone connecting to fertility, protection or death, such as being placed the middle of a field, central spot or the heart of a pile of stones compiled burial mound and Juminkeko pole stones are located in the Western and Southwestern Finland and southeastern Norway is the main area of dolmens both of which may also have some cultural connection with sami seids as well as central European and Great Britian megaliths. The Haga dolmen (Swedish: Hagadosen) is a thin slab 'stone box' like dolmen, which dates to around 5,400 years ago containing several artifacts sch as an amber necklace, slate jewellery, a flint knife and a stone axe. Around 7,000 years ago Dolmens begin to be situated in Brittany France and were found in Britain, Ireland and southern Scandinavia about 4,000 Similarly, Sami seids (Finnish: Seita) maybe dolmen and other standing stones or stone arrangements which may also be associated with artifacts generally found at places north-European people believed to be sacred such as the mountains, tundra, lakes, or other natural formation. Around 5, 000 years ago in the North-Western Caucasus there are found dolmens (few tombs have breasts, done in relief), also seem to generally involve thin slab 'stone box' like dolmens situated along the coast of the Black Sea. and southern Caucasus mountain range extends eastwards to the Caspian Sea in northwestern Iran, and into northeastern Turkey. Thousands of dolmens are scattered across the Middle East, from Turkey to Yemen. There is evidence a 'dolmen phenomenon' of above-ground stone burial structures two sites in Hatay and five sites in south-eastern Turkey. Dolmen-like structures occur through much of the Levant commonly dating to around 5,300-5,000 years ago and around 4,000 years old Dolmen table-like burial structures with the multi-burial of both adults and children along with a roof containing engraved shapes depicting symbols involving a simple line attached to the inside of an open semicircle on its ceiling found at the Golan Heights in Israel. Which is interestingly similar but reversed shapes to the Zuschen (megalithic dolmen tomb) Germany, dated to around 5,000 years ago with engraved shapes depicting symbols involving a simple line attached to the outside of an open semicircle, interpreted as possibly stylised cattle. Another monumental stone display in Israel called Rujm el-Hiri, involves a circular monument of stones in the middle of a large plateau covered with hundreds of surrounding dolmens and ancient beads have been found at dolmens in the Galilee. Moreover, Dolmen like structures are also found in Switzerland, Italy, islands in the Mediterranean as well as in parts of Africa. Dolmens monolith table top roof with standing stones, which have different names in other languages, including Abkhaz (northwest of Georgia south of russia): Adamra, Adyghe Ispun, dysse; Dutch and Norwegian: hunebed; Galician and Portuguese: anta; German: Hunengrab/Hunenbett; Irish: dolmain; Korean: goindol/koindol or chisongmyo, Portugal: Granja, Spain: Galicia, and Swedish: dos. Dolmen like structures are also found in Switzerland, Italy, islands in the Mediterranean as well as in parts of Africa. Additionally, Dolmens may have served as places of ritual or worship and possibility a porthole to the spiritual world (some dolmans actually contain a circular porthole). The prehistory of Korean religious/cultural iconography include paintings, rock carvings, and stones positioned for religious ceremonies that may connect to the Pit-Comb pottery culture.

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6. Spanish Stonehenge
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/drought-reveals-dolmen-guadalperal-popularly-dubbed-spanish-stonehenge-180973070/#4HDZpi6RXMiteWIc.99
The Dolmen of Guadalperal, a megalithic monument raised in the city of Caceres, Spain, ar
According to David Barreira of El Espanol, the Dolmen of Guadalperal consists of about 140 boulders arranged in a concentric circle. Likely used as both a temple and cemetery, the monument once featured menhirs, or tall upright stones, topped by horizontal slabs of stone to form an enclosed dolmen, which is a single-chambered tomb. An engraved menhir stood guard at the structure's entrance, while a pebble wall later built around the dolmen cemented its status as a collective burial site.
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7. Gigantic Dolmen Recently Discovered in the Golan!

Archaeological discovery means that maybe the Dark Ages weren't so dark
https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/lifestyle/archaeological-finding-means-ancient-dark-ages-werent-so-dark
This 4,000-year-old artistic monument found in Israel required 'technological knowledge and planning.'
 by Ilana Strauss 

Extracts:

Art like this has been found on dolmens in Europe and Asia, but never in the Levant. Until now. 
At least, that's what archaeologists thought. But this discovery might change things. The newfound dolmen would have required ingenuity and organization. It's got lots of chambers and artwork, and the capstone covering it alone weighs 50 tons. According to archaeologists, a nomadic tribal society would not have been able to put together a coffin this complicated.

"The fact that we do not see cities and big settlements and monumental building doesn't mean nothing existed at that time," explained Dr. Gonen Sharon, a professor at Israel's Tel Hai College who worked on the dig. "The largest empire in history of the world is the Mongol Empire and it left no traces in archaeology. They were like Bedouin, nomadic. For the dolmens to have been built, they needed enough people to do it, needed to feed them, needed architectural mastery and technological knowledge and planning. The dolmen is monumental and attests to a more significant culture than we had thought."
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8. RESEARCH ARTICLE. Dolmens in Israel, Shamir Field
Monumental megalithic burial and rock art tell a new story about the Levant Intermediate Bronze 'Dark Ages'

Gonen Sharon ,
Alon Barash,
Davida Eisenberg-Degen,
Leore Grosman,
Maya Oron,
Uri Berger

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0172969

Extracts:

Dolmens are found in the Levant from Turkey to Egypt and as far east as the Arabian Desert [10,11]. Levantine dolmens were first observed by travelers and researchers in the early nineteenth century and it seems that almost all scholars and explorers of the Levant contributed to their study) e.g. [12-14]. In the Levant, large numbers of megalithic burial structures have been found, primarily in Syria, Jordan, and Israel, in defined areas known as dolmen fields. Interestingly, almost no dolmens have been found west of the Jordan Rift Valley. In the recently published high resolution survey of the Golan Heights [9,15], approximately 5200 structures defined as megalithic burials were identified, most of which are dolmens. The actual number of megalithic burials in the region is estimated to be much higher, as this number does not include large dolmen fields at the foothills of the Golan Heights (such as the Shamir Dolmen and the Kurazim Fields [16]). In comparison, the total number of dolmens recorded in the entire Western Caucasus is estimated to be 3000 [17]. The large number of Golan dolmens and their wide geographical distribution led Hartal [15] to suggest abandoning the term dolmen field, as it is impossible to define the border between different fields. He suggested viewing the Golan as a single, giant dolmen field.

Of special interest is a burial cave found in the Shamir Dolmen Field. Similar to the finds from the excavated dolmens, the ceramic assemblage from the cave was assigned to the 'northern family' of typical IB ceramics and the metal finds, including pins and an open bracelet with snake head ends, are well correlated with other IB assemblages in the region, including the Golan dolmens [24].

Researchers have classified Levantine dolmens into various types [25,26,27]. The Shamir Dolmen Field includes most of these, at times scattered within a few meters of one another (Fig 3). The most distinct type of Shamir dolmen is a circular tumulus, featuring a well-built, surrounding wall constructed from massive stones that bounds a large number of smaller stones forming the tumulus. In the center of the tumulus is a large central chamber entered through a vestibule and covered with a giant capstone. Many of the massive capstones in the Shamir Dolmen Field rise out of their tumulus, most likely designed by the dolmen builders as a prominent landmark, visible even today (Fig 1). While this is the most prominent dolmen type of the Shamir Dolmen Field, other types are found as well. Six of the seven dolmens excavated previously at the Shamir Dolmen Field [20-23] belong to the smaller type (except for a single, very large dolmen excavated by Bahat [20]). Our study area, marking only c. 50 square meters, contained four different dolmen types next to each other (Fig 3). Hundreds of dolmens are scattered in the Shamir Dolmen Field, yet one dolmen stands out, even among the giants. The largest of the Shamir dolmens and, to our knowledge, one of the largest dolmens ever reported from the Levant, is Dolmen 3 (Fig 4).

These new discoveries support the suggestion that the dolmens of the Golan (north of the Yarmuk River) and Galilee should be distinguished from the dolmens east of the Southern Jordan Rift Valley. The Golan dolmens differ from the southern dolmens in the type of rock used for their construction (basalt vs limestone and sandstone), in size (they are typically much larger), in their design (typically passage tombs covered by a constructed tumulus), building technology (unworked stones), and in their chronology. It seems that the Golan and Galilee dolmens find their cultural roots in the north, in the megalithic traditions of Syria and Anatolia. In all of the many dolmens excavated and surveyed in the Golan and its escarpments, the earliest material unearthed clearly belongs to the Intermediate Bronze Age [24,25,34].

 The Dolmen 3 fifty ton capstone and the hundreds of additional tons of basalt used to construct the tumulus indicate a much larger scale of labor and time. A complex governmental system was needed to recruit laborers for building such a monumental structure and for supplying their needs during the operation. It also needed to possess the architectural knowledge and dexterity for the complex stonemasonry involved. Shamir Dolmen 3 is surrounded by a large concentration of dolmens that, while smaller in size, are also huge structures that required social organization, knowledge, and labor for their building. Moreover, while rock art has been documented in European dolmens and megalithic structures, no rock art has previously been reported from dolmens in the Southern Levant [3]. It is notable that the only such rock art reported in the region to date is found in the largest and most complex structure of the Shamir Dolmen Field. This finding is an additional indicator for the complex and advanced praxis associated with these dolmens.

It is evident that the Rujm el Hiri megalithic 'tradition' is similar, yet not identical, to the Shamir dolmen megalithic tradition. This similarity may indicate neighboring nomadic socio-political systems, sharing comparable megalithic burial praxes as their governmental or ceremonial symbols.

Iron Age -ii beads
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9. Zuschen-Germany (Hesse). Rock carvings (cf. Israel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCschen_(megalithic_tomb)

The Zuschen tomb... a prehistoric burial monument, located between Lohne and Zuschen, near Fritzlar, Hesse, Germany. Classified as a gallery grave or a Hessian-Westphalian stone cist... belongs to the Late Neolithic Wartberg culture. The presence of incised carvings, comparable to prehistoric rock art elsewhere in Europe, is a striking feature of Wartberg culture tombs, known so far only from Zuschen and from tomb I at Warburg. [cf. Paris Basin, France].

Carvings inside the tomb.

One of the most striking features of the tomb is the presence of carved symbols on the slabs inside the chamber.[8] Lines are formed of rows of individual punched dots, possibly applied with a very early metal tool. One of the more common symbols is a simple line with an attached open semicircle, usually interpreted as a stylised depiction of cattle. Normally, two of these symbols are linked by a further line with emphasised terminals. This may be a simple depiction of a plough. More rarely, two of them are linked by what resembles a yoke and pole, suggesting a cart. Occasionally overlapping signs suggest that the individual carvings are in no meaningful relationship to one another, but represent an accumulation of individual signs. Similar depiction of teams of cattle are known from much more recent (Bronze or Iron Age) carvings at Valcamonica near Capo di Ponte, Northern Italy and at Mont Bego in the French part of the Ligurian Alps.[9] The symbols are normally assumed to reflect Neolithic ideological or religious ideas.[10]

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