Browneshill Dolmen
The Browneshill Dolmen (also Brownes Hill; Irish Cnoc an Bhrúnaigh ) - officially known as the Kernanstown Portal Tomb - is a Neolithic portal tomb that was built between 3300 and 2900 BC. Was built. The dolmen is located in County Carlow , Ireland , three kilometers east of Carlow , near the R726 (road). Megalithic systems on the British Isles are called Portal Tombs , in which two equally high, upright stones with a door stone in between form the front of a chamber, which is covered with a sometimes huge capstone.
It has the largest capstone of any megalithic complex in the British Isles . It consists of 100 tons of granite and is 4.7 mx 6.1 m in size and about two meters thick. The capstone rests in three-point support on the two portal stones and a lying end stone. The so-called door stone is still there and another stone stands free in front of the complex.
There are three theories about how this huge stone was brought into this position. For all of them, the capstone was found on site and was not transported from further away.
- The first theory is that the builders didn't move the capstone at all. They may have dug holes individually into which the three bearing stones were set and then removed the earth on which the stone lay to give the dolmen the current appearance.
- Second, the builders might have set up the three bearing stones and then erected an earth ramp on which the capstone was levered into its present position using lumber.
- The third theory is that they pried up the edge of the capstone. They filled the resulting cavity with earth and stones and in this way successively built each of the three bearing stones under.
Flanking stones
Flank stones are found from time to time on one or both sides in front of the portal stones, which indicates a simple courtyard, as some court tombs show it. Since Portal Tombs hardly show any traces of a cairn or hill more than other types , this part was probably mostly cleared with the hill. Individual flank stones occur at Menlough in County Galway in Ireland and at Tirnony Dolmen in County Londonderry in Northern Ireland , while at Ahaglaslin , in County Cork , low stones are placed in front of both stones of the portal and with other stones form a funnel-shaped entrance. A crescent-shaped settlement of low stones has been found at Ticloy , County Antrim in Northern Ireland.
Many dolmens were covered with mounds of earth or stone . There were no traces of this here.
See also
literature
- Gabriel Cooney: Space, Place and People: unfolding the role of Irish megalithic tombs. In: Karl W. Beinhauer (Ed.): Studies on Megalithics , 1999, ISBN 3-930036-36-3 , pp. 331-345.
- Peter Harbison : Guide to the Naional Monuments in the Republic of Ireland Gill and Macmillan, Dublin 1992 ISBN 0-7171-1956-4 pp. 32-33
- Elizabeth Shee Twohig: Irish Megalithic Tombs. Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire 1990, ISBN 0-7478-0094-4 .
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 50 ′ 14.4 " N , 6 ° 52 ′ 51.6" W.