A dolmen is a megalithic structure typically formed from a large horizontal stone slab resting on two or more upright slabs. The oldest European examples are found in Brittany, northern France, and date to the 5th millennium BCE. Dolmens are also present in the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, and especially large numbers exist in Korea, with examples there dating to c. 1000 BCE. The structures functioned as burial chambers or as sites of ancient cult worship, for example to an earth or fertility goddess.

? ? ? ? ? 支石墓是一種巨石結(jié)構(gòu)，通常由放置在兩個或多個垂直石板上的大型水平石板組成。歐洲最古老的支石墓是在法國北部的布列塔尼發(fā)現(xiàn)的，可追溯到公元前五千年。支石墓也出現(xiàn)在中東、北非和亞洲，特別是在朝鮮半島存在的數(shù)量特別多，那里的支石墓可以追溯到公元前1000年左右。這些建筑的功能是作為墓室或作為古代祭祀的場所，例如對大地或生育女神的崇拜祭祀場所。

命? ? ?名

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 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. Until that time the examination of these “strange” monuments, scattered here and there, gave way to suppositions that were, to say the least, fanciful. It was thought they were works built by giants or, indeed, deeds of the devil. 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.

? ? ? ? ? 巨石建筑，特別是使用巨大石塊建造的神殿和墳?zāi)?，在史前文化中占有重要地位?！癉olmen”這個詞來自布列塔尼語t(d)aol，意為“桌子”，“men”或“min”意為“石頭”，大約在18 世紀(jì)末出現(xiàn)在科學(xué)辯論中。在那之前，對這些散落在各處的“奇怪”紀(jì)念碑的研究，讓人遐想連篇。人們認(rèn)為它們是巨人建造的某種建筑，或者確實(shí)是魔鬼的杰作。因此，最初的調(diào)查是為了了解這些建筑的用途并確定其年代，盡管沒有金屬物品表明它們可能屬于哪個時期。

初步調(diào)查

In the second half of the 1800s CE, the publication of the first European map of the known megalithic localities highlighted so many coincidences that it led to the belief that they were the work of one unique population. Therefore it seemed justifiable to consider the “megalithic phenomena” an unusual cultural manifestation of the Near East and dolmens, in definition, the unnatural reproduction of the Mediterranean burial grotto.

? ? ? ? ? 在公元19世紀(jì)下半葉，歐洲第一張已知巨石地點(diǎn)的地圖的出版，展現(xiàn)了許多巧合，導(dǎo)致人們相信它們是一個獨(dú)特群體的作品。因此，似乎有理由認(rèn)為“巨石現(xiàn)象”是近東的一種不尋常的文化表現(xiàn)，從概念上講，它是地中海墓葬石窟的非自然再現(xiàn)。

The Australian archaeologist V. 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.

? ? ? ? ? 澳大利亞考古學(xué)家維爾·戈登·柴爾德在他的最新著作《歐洲社會史前史》中強(qiáng)化了這一假設(shè)，他聲稱這種巨大陵墓是由神話中的巨石傳教士建造的，他們是來自地中海東部的一些早期愛琴海部落的成員，他們傳播了一種宗教信仰，已知屬于大地女神蓋亞的宗教信仰。

界定年代

The perfection of absolute dating systems, thanks to the 14C radio-carbon method, put an end to this thesis once and for all. It was proven that the oldest megalithic tombs originated in central/northern Europe. Breton dolmens date back to 4500 BCE (earlier, therefore, than the Egyptian pyramids, Mesopotamian ziggurats and the great Cretan and Mycenae sites). 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. 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.

? ? ? ? ? 隨著碳十四放射性碳法，絕對年代測定系統(tǒng)的完善，考古學(xué)家們徹底結(jié)束了這一論點(diǎn)。事實(shí)證明，最古老的巨石墓葬起源于歐洲中部/北部。布列塔尼的石墓可以追溯到公元前4500年（因此，比埃及金字塔、美索不達(dá)米亞的神塔以及克里特和邁錫尼的遺址更早）。他們進(jìn)一步向南傳播到法國中部和南部，向西南擴(kuò)散到西班牙和葡萄牙，向東北傳播到歐洲的中部低地、瑞典等地。他們以公元前2400年左右在馬耳他的最新建筑和公元前兩千年初在意大利的最新建筑結(jié)束其階段。

The above time range was sufficient for each region to evolve a local typology though keeping a common characteristic: the use of blocks or slabs of stone, at times colossal in dimension, which made them phenomena tied to a fairly widespread culture.

? ? ? ? ? 上述時間范圍足以讓每個地區(qū)發(fā)展出當(dāng)?shù)鬲?dú)有的地方類型，盡管都保持了一個共同的特點(diǎn)：使用石塊或石板，有時是巨大尺寸的石頭，這使得其現(xiàn)象與相當(dāng)廣泛的文化相聯(lián)系。

The Mediterranean dolmens are to be dated back to an era closer to ours. Around 100 can be found throughout Sardinia, some of which, the so-called dolmen cysts made up of stone slabs assembled in a cubiform manner, are dated back to the Copper Age, around 3000-2100 BCE. Dolmens in southern Italy, which are more recent, date back to the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE, the period corresponding to the latter phase of the Bronze Age.

? ? ? ? ? 地中海的支石墓可以追溯到與我們更接近的時代。在整個撒丁島可以找到大約100個，其中一些由石板組成的所謂的支石墓囊，可以追溯到銅器時代，大約公元前3000-2100年。意大利南部的支石墓出現(xiàn)時間較晚，可以追溯到公元前二千年的前半段，也就是相當(dāng)于青銅時代最后階段時期。

Outside of Europe, the most frequent occurrence of dolmens is in the Korean peninsula where there are some 200,000 megalithic structures. Korean dolmens are remarkably similar to those found in Europe. Finds excavated from within many of the dolmens illustrate that they were typically used for elite burials. Unusually, Korean dolmens were sometimes built in close proximity to each other, creating cemetery-like areas consisting of between 30 and 100 structures.

? ? ? ? ? 在歐洲之外，最頻繁出現(xiàn)的支石墓是在朝鮮半島，那里有大約20萬座巨石結(jié)構(gòu)。朝鮮半島的支石墓與歐洲的支石墓非常相似。從許多支石墓中挖掘出來的物品表明，這些支石墓通常是用來埋葬精英的。與眾不同的是，朝鮮半島的支石墓有時彼此相鄰，形成了由30至100個結(jié)構(gòu)組成的類似大型墓地的區(qū)域。

主要特征

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. Such forms can be found just about anywhere, in Iceland, Scotland, England, North Germany, France, Spain, Scandinavia, Denmark, Holland, Corsica, Sardinia, Apulia, Sicily, Malta, North Africa, Morocco, Tripoli, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Bulgaria, Crimea, Caucasus, Iran, India, Korea.

? ? ? ? ? 支石墓最基本的配置是三石結(jié)構(gòu)：一塊水平的石板放在兩塊垂直放置的石頭上，其中結(jié)構(gòu)元素構(gòu)成了一個四邊形空間。在冰島、蘇格蘭、英格蘭、北德、法國、西班牙、斯堪的納維亞、丹麥、荷蘭、科西嘉島、撒丁島、普利亞、西西里島、馬耳他、北非、摩洛哥、的黎波里、埃及、敘利亞、巴勒斯坦、保加利亞、克里米亞、高加索、伊朗、印度、朝鮮半島，幾乎任何地方都可以找到這樣的巨石結(jié)構(gòu)。

More complex forms which were made up of a long or even longer succession of triliths followed, so generating two particular types: the corridor tomb and the gallery tomb (allée couverte). The corridor tombs, made of big slabs of stone vertically fixed into the ground (orthostats), have corridors that vary in length and lead to a chamber or a number of chambers of a polygonal shape. The gallery tombs, instead, have just one rectangular-shaped space used entirely as a sepulchral chamber.

? ? ? ? ? 隨后出現(xiàn)了更復(fù)雜的形式，它們由一連串甚至更長的三棱柱組成，因此產(chǎn)生了兩種特殊的類型：走廊墓和石廊墓（alléecouverte）。走廊式墳?zāi)褂纱怪惫潭ㄔ诘孛嫔系拇笫澹╫rthostats）制成，有不同長度的走廊，通向一個或多個多角形的墓室。石廊式墓則只有一個長方形的空間，完全作為墓室使用。

Some of these structures evolved into rather complicated constructions, as in the case of the false dome dolmens where the convex roof was obtained by gradually decreasing the distance between the slabs of the building. Another instance is that of the dolmens with lateral chambers; characterised by a series of cells around the central one. Each sepulchre, or series of sepulchres, was completed by being covered with earth mixed with stones.

? ? ? ? ? 其中一些結(jié)構(gòu)演變成更復(fù)雜的結(jié)構(gòu)，例如假圓頂支石墓，凸形屋頂是通過逐漸減少建筑板塊之間的距離而獲得。另一個例子是帶有側(cè)室的支石墓，其特征是圍繞中央室的一系列室。每個墓室或一系列的墓室都是用混有石頭的泥土覆蓋的。

Inestimable problems had to be faced in whichever region they were built such as finding suitable stones and transporting the material for construction. In those areas where the stone was extremely hard and difficult to shatter, they raised enormous monuments; whereas, in other places where the stone was easy to chip, dry-stone method structures were built rather than using the real megalithic technique. This is the case of the small Sicilian dolmens.

? ? ? ? ? 無論在哪個地區(qū)建造，都要面臨不可估量的問題，如尋找合適的石頭和運(yùn)輸建筑材料。在那些石頭極其堅硬、難以粉碎的地區(qū)，他們建造了巨大的紀(jì)念碑；而在其他石頭容易碎裂的地方，則建造了干石法結(jié)構(gòu)，而不是使用真正的巨石技術(shù)。這就是西西里島的小型支石墓的情況。

To the south, the islands of Malta and Gozo are home to the most extraordinary prehistoric sites of the Mediterranean, the “megalithic temples”. They were built between about 4000 and 2500 BCE. They were dedicated to a cult worshipping a fertility goddess. The dolmens, as they should be correctly called, (around 20 in all) are to be dated back to a successive period (the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE). In most cases, we are dealing with small chambers, with the cover made of a large slab placed on upright stones. They are claimed to belong to a population certainly different from that which built the previous megalithic temples.

? ? ? ? ? 在南部，馬耳他和戈佐島是地中海最特別的史前遺址“巨石神廟”的所在地。它們建于大約公元前4000年至2500年之間。它們是專門用于崇拜生育女神的崇拜物。這些支石墓（共約20座），可以追溯到一個連續(xù)的時期（公元前三千年的后半段）。在大多數(shù)情況下，它們是小房間，屋頂由放置在垂直石頭上的大板形成。據(jù)稱，它們屬于一個不同于以前建造巨石神廟的人群。

Not all megalithic stone structures were funeral monuments: the cromlechs of Stonehenge in England and the Carnac menhirs in France, to mention some, would have served other extraordinary purposes, perhaps connected to the practice of an astronomy cult. They could have represented the product of a culture that sought to capture the irradiation centre of absolute positive energy in the universe. The “prototype” of this architecture almost certainly had its origins in a series of lucky coincidental factors - the natural occurrence of fallen stones or some suggestive natural “scenery” must have let loose the religious imagination of certain prehistoric communities. So much so, an exceptional mystic significance was given to the stones.

? ? ? ? ? 并非所有的巨石結(jié)構(gòu)都是喪葬紀(jì)念碑：英國巨石陣和法國的卡納克石柱等，都有其他特殊的用途，也許與天文學(xué)崇拜有關(guān)。它們可能代表了一種文化的產(chǎn)物，這種文化試圖捕捉宇宙中絕對正能量的輻照中心。這種建筑的“原型”幾乎可以肯定是起源于一系列幸運(yùn)的巧合因素（自然發(fā)生的落石或一些暗示性的自然“環(huán)境”釋放了某些史前社區(qū)的宗教想象力）。如此一來，這些石頭就被賦予了特殊的神秘意義。

參考書目：

Bonanno, A. "Temple Megalithism vs Funerary Megalithism: The case of the Maltese Islands, XIII International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (Forli, Italy, 8 a€“ 14 September 1996)." Colloquia, 9, 1991, pp. 103-7.

Cartwright, M., "Dolmens of Ancient Korea", Ancient History Encyclopedia, 2016Accessed 19 Mar 2020.

Cipolloni Samp?2, M. Dolmen: Architetture Preistoriche in Europa. De Luca ed. d'Arte, Rome, 1990

Mackie, E. W. The Megalith Builders. Phaidon Press Ltd., Oxford, 1977

Piccolo, S. Ancient Stones: The Prehistoric Dolmens in Sicily. Brazen Head, Thornam/Norfolk (UK), 2013

Reden (von), S. Die Megalithkulturen:Gro??steinmale in England, Frankreich, Irland, Korsika, Malta, Nordeuropa, Sardinien, Spanien. Dumont, Koln, 1978

Renfrew, C. Before Civilization: Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe. Jonathan Cape, London, 1973

Whitehouse, R. "Megaliths of the central Mediterranean." Antiquity and Man: Essays in Honour of Glyn Daniel: 106 a€“ 127, edited by Evans, J., B. Cunliffe and C. Renfrew (eds). Thames & Hudson, London, 1981

原文作者：Salvatore Piccolo

? ? ? ? ? 考古學(xué)家，他的發(fā)掘工作包括西西里島的石墓，在 "Cava dei Servi"，他發(fā)現(xiàn)了人類遺骸和陶瓷碎片，發(fā)現(xiàn)了地中海石墓的功能和年代之謎。

原文網(wǎng)址：https://www.worldhistory.org/dolmen/