A 4000BC dolmen near Andorra, in Solsona(Catalonia)


dolmen (DOLE-men ), noun

a prehistoric structure of at least two large upright stones capped by another large horizontal stone, and believed to have been a tomb.

also known as: cromlech, anta, Hünengrab, Hunebed, quoit, and portal dolmen

{1859, from Fr. dolmin applied 1796 by Fr. archaeologist Latour d'Auvergne, perhaps from Cornish tolmen "enormous stone slab set up on supporting points," such that a man may walk under it, lit. "hole of stone," from Celt. men "stone." Some suggest the first element may be Bret. taol "table," a loan-word from L. tabula "board, plank," but the Bret. form of this compound would be taolvean. "There is reason to think that this [tolmen] is the word inexactly reproduced by Latour d'Auvergne as dolmin, and misapplied by him and succeeding Fr. archaeologists to the cromlech" [OED].} -Online Etymology Dictionary

Before going to France last spring to research Romanesque churches in the region, I read an aside in a guidebook stating that there were more than 500 dolmens in Lot alone, dating from 2500 to 1500 B.C. –Pamela J. Petro, The New York Times, Oct. 13, 2002

Deep in the olive groves near Minervino di Lecce, just about a half-hour’s drive from Otranto, [Italy] are some of the mysterious stone mounds known as dolmen. These strange, carefully piled rock slabs were the sites of ancient rituals, including sacrifices. Phoebe Hoban, The New York Times, Oct. 08, 2002

LATE in her lively biography of the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali, Meryle Secrest reveals that in 1984, upon being invited by the Spanish Government to design his own monument, the 80-year-old artist sketched an enormous dolmen 60 to 70 feet high. –Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times, Nov. 27, 1988

A favorite of Christy Browne, a retired agricultural adviser who gives walking tours of the limestone region called the Burren, begins at a farm on the Ballyvaughan-Killinaboy Road a few hundred yards north of the Poulnabrone Dolmen, beneath which 22 Stone Age people are buried. –Eve Laplante, The New York Times, July 8, 2001

In the myth, the Basques had learned to worship the sun and the moon from the friendly giants known as the jentillak, who also taught them to farm and who erected the many dolmens -- upright stone structures -- throughout the countryside. One day, after seeing strange omens in the sky, the jentillak announced, "Christ is born, our time is done," and without another word disappeared under a dolmen, leaving only a trail of folktales in their stead. –Marisa Bartolucci, The Atlantic Monthly, Oct. 2000

links:
The North Salem, New York dolmen: http://members.skyweb.net/~channy/NSDolmen.html

There are some fantastic ones in Ireland.

Have you seen them? Ireland would be great to visit.

right: The Return of Persephone, by Frederic Leighton, oil, 1891

chthonian ( THOH-nee-uhn ) also chthonic (THON-ic)

Greek mythology: of beings living under the earth; of or relating to the underworld

[from Greek chthonios, of the earth]

“In Greek mythology, Persephone is the goddess of Spring and the daughter of the harvest goddess, Demeter. As the story goes, one day in the valley of Enna, where Spring reigns eternal, Persephone was gathering flowers with her companions. Hades, the god of the underworld, saw her and fell in love at once. He drove his chariot into the valley and carried her off. Though Persephone screamed to Demeter and her companions it was to no avail. When they reached the river Styx, Hades struck the ground with his staff, opening the earth, and proceeded down into the underworld with his young bride. Through beseeching Zeus, Demeter finally persuaded him to demand her daughter from Hades. Hades agreed to return Persephone as long as she had not consumed anything from the underworld. However, in her hunger, the young goddess had eaten a few seeds from a pomegranate, binding her to remain with Hades. After much arguing, Hades finally agreed to let Persephone return to the earth for half of every year. Thus, in the Spring, Persephone is reunited with her mother and the earth is in bloom, but in the Winter, she goes back down to the underworld and the earth is barren and cold.” - http://blogs.princeton.edu/writingart21/archives/2004/12/cazannes_abduct.html


The divinities of old Greece were divided into two classes, the Olympian and the Chthonian, the heavenly and the earthly, the gods and the demons, the good gods and the hard. –Charles Bigg, The Church’s Task Under the Roman Empire: Four Lectures, p. 33 (1905)

In Jungian psychology, the term chthonic was often used to describe the spirit of nature within, the unconscious earthly impulses of the Self, one's material depths, but not necessarily with negative connotations. For example: "Envy, lust, sensuality, deceit, and all known vices are the negative, 'dark' aspect of the unconscious, which can manifest itself in two ways. In the positive sense, it appears as a 'spirit of nature', creatively animating Man, things, and the world. It is the 'chthonic spirit' that has been mentioned so often in this chapter. In the negative sense, the unconscious (that same spirit) manifests itself as a spirit of evil, as a drive to destroy." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chthonic

Before and after Virgil, a long line of poets, epic and lyric, have chronicled perilous journeys to the underworld, traveling deeply to bring back its true booty — not Hades' gems, but the darkly glittering poems inspired by his queen, Persephone. [Poet Louise] Glück has earned a place in that distinguished company of chthonic poets. –Nicholas Christopher, The New York Times, March 12, 2006

What is worship then? More than love, homage or fear -- those chthonic, emotive things -- worship is a "total engagement and surrender of the whole person," who in this moment "recognizes the worthlessness of what he is surrendering in comparison with the transcendent glory of the reality to which surrender is made." -Larry Alan Schiereck, Max Stirner’s Egoism and Nihilism

This one was just sitting out in a field and you could walk right up to it. It was not protected like many things are in the States. No fence around it !!! Not even a path leading to it. Just one tiny sign that pointed to it from the road.

Poulnabrone Dolmen (Poll na mBrón in Irish meaning "hole of sorrows") is an ancient portal tomb in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland, dating back to the Neolithic period, probably between 4200 BC to 2900 BC. It consists of a twelve foot tabular capstone supported by two slender portal stones, and bordered by a nearby cairn. The cairn helped stabilize the tomb, and would have been much higher originally.

A crack was discovered in one of the portal stones in 1985. Following the resulting collapse, the dolmen was dismantled, and the cracked stone was replaced. Excavations during this time found that at least 22 adults and children were buried under the monument. Personal items buried with the dead included a polished stone axe, a bone pendant, quartz crystals, weapons and pottery.

In the Bronze Age, around 1700BC, a newborn baby was buried in the portico, just outside the entrance. With its dominating presence on the limestone landscape of the Burren, the tomb must have remained a center for ceremony and ritual until well into the Celtic period.

I saw this and took photos before the collapse. You had a sense of awe and respect when you were there even though the 22 people who were buried had not been discovered yet.

Thank you, Redwood! That is a great picture.

/dAb

Thanks dAb . I can't take credit for this particular photo. It was off the internet. My photos are buried too deep. How do you like that .... BURIED !!!

It's a good one. :) Can they be exhumed?