Pentre Ifan
Pentre Ifan is the most famous megalithic monument in Wales for its height in the Preseli Hills . They are the remains of a Cotswold Severn Tomb or a Portal Tomb or Quoit , from the Neolithic around 3500 BC. For the communal burial of the dead. It could have been used for a while and then sealed. Originally the chamber was covered by a cairn . However, these stones were removed a long time ago so that the original covering is missing.
The type of chamber is known as a portal dolmen , with the front of the chamber consisting of three large, upright stones arranged in an H-shape. It is unusual that the portal was placed in the center of a curved facade made of stone slabs. The enormous capstone, lying on only three bearing stones, is five meters long and probably weighs over 16 tons.
Excavations in 1936/37 and 1958/59 have shown that the chamber lies in a large oval pit dug into the flat slope. On the sides were dry stone walls, covered with a few large panels. Finds were rare during the excavations; they consisted of pottery shards and some flint tools . From the remaining traces, the length of the embankment can be estimated at 36 m. The area of the forecourt was obviously closed off with carefully stacked stones, which then had to be cleared aside at each burial.
Pentre Ifan is a Scheduled Monument , a protected archaeological ground monument that was added to the relevant lists in 1884.
- Dolmen Pentre Ifan
literature
- Homer Sykes: Mysterious Britain - Fact and Folklore George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd. 1993 ISBN 0-297-83196-8 p. 105
Web links
supporting documents
- ^ Toasting inspectors, neolithic burial chamber at Pentre Ifan, Pembrokeshire, became Wales's first scheduled ancient monument ( Memento of November 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Issue 108, Sep / Oct 2009
Coordinates: 51 ° 59 ′ 56.3 " N , 4 ° 46 ′ 12" W.