Built-up dolmen, Zhane River, Vozrozhdeniye Settlement (Gelendzhik Area, Krasnodar Territory). Semi-monolithic dolmen, Pshada neighborhood. Slab dolmen, “Dolmens village” group, Pshada Settlement (Gelendzhik Area, Krasnodar Territory). Even a sheet of paper cannot be inserted between the stone blocks of well-preserved dolmens, although the line of blocks coupling is curved.įig ure 2. The megalithic structures are met in other parts of the world but the characteristic feature of the West Caucasion dolmens is the superaccurate mating of multiton stone slabs. Map of dolmen locations in the North-West Caucasus (Russia) The monolithic dolmens were caved in the rock through the hole.įig ure 1. The semi-monolithic or trough-shaped dolmens were caved in a lump of rock. The built-up dolmens consist of several large blocks and the chamber formed by these blocks is covered by the roof slab. Markovin, 92% of all dolmens are slab ones. The slab dolmens were built from six slabs: foundation or heel stone, two side slabs, portal slab, rear slab and cover slab. L.I.Lavrov proposed the classification according to which he specified four basic types of dolmens: slab, built-up, semi-monolithic and monolithic (Fig. The variety of dolmen structures is striking. The dolmens were built from slabs or individual blocks, caved in a lump of rock or in the rock itself. The stone blocks, from which the dolmens are built, can weigh up to several tons. There is usually an access hole 38±5 cm in diameter in a lower third of the portal, somewhere in the centre. Sometimes some slabs were added to the portal. The dolmen structure always includes a portal formed by the projecting blocks of the side walls and overhanging roof slab. The Caucasian slab dolmen is a chamber built from several ideally connected stone blocks covered with a slab. These ancient mysterious structures gave name to one of the Bronze Age culture lines – dolmen culture (Fig. The dolmen culture in the Caucasus covers the period from the middle of IV to the end of II millennium B.C.

Today these megaliths are called dolmens. Introduction There are megalithic cultic structures in the North-West Caucasus from Taman to Abkhazia which the locals (Adygeis) called “ispun” translated as “houses of dwarves”.

Dolmen construction