Wedge Tombs from Castlehill
The Wedge Tombs of Castle Hill ( dt. Wedge tombs ) are in the townland Castle Hill ( Irish Cnoc an Chaisleáin ) southwest of the village of Ballycroy ( Baile Chruaich ) in County Mayo in Ireland . Wedge Tombs ( German "Keilgräber" ), formerly also called "wedge-shaped gallery grave", are between 4000 and 2500 BC. In the Neolithic , double-walled, aisle-free, mostly undivided megalithic buildings from the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age .
The well-preserved Wedge Tomb 1 ( location ) is oriented northeast-southwest and consists of a 5 m long and 1.5 m wide wedge-shaped gallery, which is divided into two chambers filled with earth. The walls consist of five panels about one meter high, three on the north and two on the south side. Small orthostats form a double facade on the outside. The anteroom is filled with stone material. The main chamber, 2.5 m long and 1.1 m wide, is empty and is covered by a capstone. There is no end stone and the back of the grave is filled with small stones and earth, possible reading stones .
The smaller west-east-oriented Wedge Tomb 2 ( location ) is about 200 m north of Wedge tomb 1. It consists of a 3 m long gallery of boulders and one (of probably two) capstone on the back, which is on the cairn material which was filled in front of the gallery. The main chamber remained relatively free. The entire structure is surrounded by a low stone mound about 0.5 m high and 5 m in diameter.
See also
literature
- Elizabeth Shee Twohig: Irish Megalithic tombs. Princes Risborough Buckinghamshire 1990, ISBN 0-7478-0094-4
- 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 .
Map with all coordinates: