Court Tomb by Behy

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Forms of Court Tombs - Behy top left

That between 4000 and 2500 BC Court Tomb of Behy , built in the Neolithic Age in the townland of the same name ( Irish An Bheithigh ) near Belderg in the far north of County Mayo in Ireland , was roughly half excavated and even this part was largely covered again with peat. It is an unusual court tomb in that it has several different attributes from normal systems of the type. One of them is the gallery with two side chambers ( English transeptal tomb ), which has the appearance of the cross-shaped chamber of a passage tomb . The other is that instead of the orthostats , dry masonry surrounds the sloping courtyard. Also, the megalithic complex is , which is rare, near a contemporary settlement in the middle of the Céide Fields .

Court Tombs are among the megalithic chamber tombs ( English chambered tombs ) of the British Isles . With around 400 specimens, they are found almost exclusively in Ulster in the north of Ireland or in Northern Ireland . In fact, more court tombs may have had dry masonry courtyards, but since they are easier to remove compared to the orthostats, they were lost, while the orthostatic courtyards tended to survive. The cross-shaped main chamber and the antechamber are amazingly large. There are two capstones above the approximately 2.0 m high chamber and the side chambers have a paved floor.

See also

literature

  • Ruaidhrí de Valera, Seán Ó Nualláin: A Cruciform Passage-Grave: At Behy Townland, Co. Mayo. In: Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 25, No. 1/2 (1952), pp. 47-51.
  • Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .

Web links

Coordinates: 54 ° 18 ′ 15.5 ″  N , 9 ° 27 ′ 45.5 ″  W.