Caucasian dolmens: mysterious ancient megaliths that excite the minds of modern archaeologists. Dolmens in the Caucasus

The vast majority of Tuapse dolmens belong to the so-called tiled type. They are made of large stone slabs, four of which are installed vertically and covered with a fifth slab, forming the roof of a stone box or dolmen chamber. The front slab is always higher than the back slab, so that the slab that forms the roof slopes backwards. The plates are very carefully fitted to each other using special grooves and protrusions. In the front slab of the dolmen there is a small hole of a round, oval or more complex shape (archaeologists call it a “hole”). Sometimes there is a sixth slab that forms the floor of the dolmen chamber, but more often the dolmen was installed directly on the ground or on special stones (“heel stones”).
The multi-ton slabs from which the dolmen was made are almost unprocessed on the outside, but on the inside, forming the walls of the chamber, they are carefully aligned, sometimes almost polished. A significant part of the Caucasian tiled dolmens have special projections of the side walls and roof in the front part, forming, as it were, an extension to the dolmen. This extension is called a portal, and such dolmens are portals. Sometimes there are additional extensions to the portal, made of individual stones and forming a “courtyard”.
Caucasian dolmens were built from dense sandy limestones or sandstones; less often, silicified and metamorphic rocks were used for this purpose. The time of their construction dates back to the era from 2400 to 1300 BC. e.

Today, many dolmens bear traces of destruction: roofs are shifted or split, walls are collapsed. These traces are the work of those who are deprived of memory and respect for those who lived before them. What’s interesting is that around the places where dolmens stand, either singly or in groups, the soil floats; landslides occur, mudflows sweep through, but no disturbances from these formidable and dangerous phenomena have ever been detected, although sometimes the edge of a landslide is located only ten meters from the dolmen. And at the sites of ancient landslides, destroyed parts of dolmens have never been found. This fantastic forecast for millennia ahead is truly amazing!
Another interesting and at the same time mysterious fact is the constancy of the aspect ratio of 1:1.6 (by the way, almost similar to the aspect ratio of the human skull). Dolmens were built exclusively from quartz-containing rocks (granitoids, quartz-glauconitic sandstones). In turn, quartz (SiO2) is a mineral that has very interesting properties, in particular, the ability to generate electric current under compression (piezoelectric effect), as well as maintain constant oscillations (frequency stabilization). This is the basis for its use in radio engineering. When exposed to electric current, quartz crystals generate ultrasound (inverse piezoelectric effect). It has also been established that under mechanical deformation, quartz is capable of generating radio waves.

The most common are dolmens, the average perimeter of the chamber of which is 720 cm. In addition to this group, there are (statistically less reliable) larger buildings, with a chamber perimeter of 1035 cm, and smaller ones, the average perimeter of which is 472 cm. The resonant frequencies of such chambers are respectively 23 , 16 and 35 Hz. In other words, if energy were somehow supplied to these resonators, they would sound exactly at these frequencies.
These frequencies are located at the lower threshold of human audibility, adjacent to the infrasound range. All that is known about the biological effects of low-frequency acoustic vibrations is that they generally have an adverse effect. Thus, according to scientists, when a person was exposed to ultrasound modulated in amplitude by sinusoidal oscillations with a frequency of 15 to 40 Hz, the subjects felt an unpleasant feeling, which they compared to the drilling of the skin by gimlets moving along it. The effect of a powerful ultrasound beam on the brain of animals is expressed mainly in the phenomena of functional inhibition or temporary shutdown of the activity of irradiated areas of the brain. There is evidence that exposure of the human brain to low-frequency vibrations with a frequency of 13-25 Hz leads to resonance of various internal organs. Exposure to a frequency of 25 Hz for 30 minutes causes an epileptic seizure.

We remind you once again that the resonant frequency of most of the studied Caucasian dolmens is close to this value. It is also known that exposure to low-frequency vibrations close to the natural frequencies of human organs, in particular the heart (6-12 Hz), can be harmful and even fatal.
Until recently, it was believed that dolmens were ritual and funeral structures, but it is a known fact that such burials are extremely rare. Previously, this was explained by the fact that the burials were robbed in ancient times. But were the ancient builders really so naive as not to foresee such a possibility? After all, the overwhelming majority of buildings are completely open structures, where there is no hint of any attempts to take measures to protect them; moreover, even if there were once any burials inside megalithic buildings, this is not yet proves that the structure itself was erected precisely for this purpose. Guided by similar logic, one could hypothesize that Canterbury Cathedral in England was built specifically for the purpose of burying one of its abbots...

Today science believes that dolmens were once a multifunctional tool.
According to the famous scientist A. Kondratov, on the small Pacific island of Malekula, part of the New Hebrides archipelago, several decades ago local residents erected dolmens and menhirs, reminiscent of those that were built all over the world millennia ago. These dolmens were shrines for all the islanders. It was believed that the leader of a secret religious union on the island on certain days listened here to the voice of the spirit of the great ancestors and asked him for advice.
In our opinion, dolmens not only generated ultrasound, but also emitted it directionally in the form of a beam (spotlight effect), as evidenced by the design features of dolmens. They are a bell that expands in the direction from the back wall to the front. Statistical processing of Western Caucasian dolmens showed that, despite the variety of sizes of dolmens, the angles of their chambers were maintained. Namely, the horizontal opening angle of the chamber averaged 94.4°, and the roof inclination angle was 95.4°. An important element in the design of dolmens, in our opinion, is also the hole in their front wall - the “manhole”. It is located on the center line of the front wall, and at a certain height from the floor. The most common position of the center of the hole is that it divides the front wall in height in proportion
1:2 (from bottom to top). The horizontal size of the hole (diameter of the circle) is most often 40 cm. The average dolmen generates a directed beam (in the direction where the hole “looks”), modulated by an audio frequency of about 23 Hz.
The holes in the dolmens were closed with special stone plugs. The shape of these bushings is very interesting. Externally, it is very close to the shape of ultrasonic emitters used in modern technology to focus ultrasonic flow. Special ceramic plates are used as emitters in these devices; movement of the focal area of the emitter is achieved by moving this plate and changing the cone of the emitters. In the ancient “emitters,” apparently, the main role was played by the composition of the rock from which the bushing was made and the geometry of its surface. This issue requires special study.
For what purposes were dolmens used? Apparently these were multifunctional installations. It can be assumed that, depending on tuning to a particular frequency, the use of replaceable bushings, etc., they could be used in various areas.
A dolmen, installed, for example, in some strategically important place (gorge, pass) as a combat installation and “launched” at the right frequency at the right moment, did not allow enemies to penetrate through this black spot, giving them the feeling of “drilling gimlets” , or even loss of consciousness and death.

As G. Eremin notes, in France (Brittany) women specially spent nights at megaliths (for example, in dolmens) in order to recover from infertility, beg for a happy marriage, etc. This is also evidenced by a drawing on the back wall of one of the French dolmens in Gavrini. Here is a relief in the form of a stylized human figure consisting of parallel lines. It is noteworthy that some of these lines resemble human acupuncture lines known to acupuncturists. But most of the lines go far beyond the contours of a person’s body and rather resemble the lines of his aura.
The heart and lower part of the spine, i.e., the most energetically important organs, are especially highlighted in the relief. A very interesting part of the relief corresponds to the lower half of the human body (below the groin line). In general, this entire “magical portrait” apparently represents a special vibrator that creates a three-dimensional model of human energy fields. It is characteristic that this relief pattern on the back wall of the dolmen is applied “upside down”. This is explained by the fact that a dolmen is essentially a camera obscura. The ultrasonic “portrait” created by the rear wall, refracted through the hole in the front wall, “turns over”, and the person standing in the focus of this camera is combined with this ultrasonic image. Probably, during the treatment session, the ultrasound effect on the human energy organs and centers brought them back to normal.

You can talk a lot about dolmens, building hypothesis after hypothesis and immediately refuting each of them from a scientific point of view. In fact, all that is known about dolmens today is a huge number of contradictory scientific and pseudo-scientific facts. Official science stands its ground: dolmens in the Western Caucasus are megalithic structures with cultic and funerary purposes; the period of their construction dates back to the 1st-3rd millennium BC. But scientists such as Candidate of Sciences Alexander Koltypin say that everything is not so simple and dolmens are at least 12 thousand years old, or even 55.

Age of dolmens

How does modern science determine the age of something? It’s very simple: according to the traces that time has left on the surface of the object under study. So the top stones, the so-called “lids” of the dolmens, have very interesting roundings that rain and wind could not leave. The sloping shape of these roundings can be caused either by the fact that these stones were melted, or by a glacier or a powerful flow of water (flood). The ornament located on the surface of the dolmens near the Zhane River is very similar to that which can be found on the surface of the Lycian tombs and in the ancient necropolises of Israel. Is it a coincidence, or were the dolmens built by the same people? In addition, dolmens are located in many places: in South Korea, Japan, India, Northern and Western Europe, Vietnam and other parts of our planet. They are all slightly different, but at the same time similar in structure.

Dolmen structure

According to their structure, dolmens are divided into four types. Tiled dolmens, as we understand from the name, consist of large, solid slabs. Composite dolmens are made from smaller slabs. Trough-shaped dolmens are those whose base is carved into a rock or solid stone and only the lid is made of a separate slab. And the last type is monolithic dolmens, completely hewn out of the rock. An interesting fact is that many dolmens were built using a method that is incomprehensible and unique even now. Some slabs fit so tightly that you can’t even insert a knife between them. A special feature of dolmens is the portal opening, most often round, less often oval, square or triangular. This hole is located on the front or side walls of the dolmen. The portal openings were closed with stone plugs, most of which are lost today.

Purpose of dolmens

As mentioned above, official science considers dolmens to be a burial place. Of course, not everyone was buried in them, but only noble people, and this was accompanied by a series of cult rituals. It is not for nothing that dolmens are located on sunny slopes and flat areas, the height of which does not exceed a thousand meters. However, an interesting feature is the fact that the portal holes are most often directed towards river beds. From which some scientists and people moving in pseudo-scientific circles conclude that dolmens are an ancient weapon capable of generating a pulse of low-frequency sound that renders entire armies unconscious.

There are also versions in which dolmens act as a kind of “planetary grid”. Perhaps ancient people could communicate with their help, or received a connection with another dimension. Also, some mystics believe that dolmens healed the sick or contributed to the “correct” death of shamans, priests and other spiritually advanced people. There are many such versions and new ones are constantly appearing.

Location and current condition of the dolmens of the Western Caucasus

The most visited dolmens in the Western Caucasus are located on the Pshada River, in the vicinity of Gelendzhik. In addition to them, dolmens on Mount Tsyganovka, dolmens on the Zhana River, Mount Nexis, the Dougab River and near the village of Shirokaya Shchel are often visited. Alas, currently no one is guarding the listed dolmens; many of them have been mutilated by vandals or stolen from their location for unclear purposes. Some dolmens were taken to Gelendzhik museums for further study and presentation to the general public.

We will visit the dolmens of the Krasnodar region, and each of the group members will be able to personally try to uncover the secret of these amazing megalithic structures.

Dolmens of the Western Caucasus- megalithic tombs of the first half of the 3rd - second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e., related to the dolmen culture of the Middle Bronze Age. Dolmens are distributed from the Anapa region and further into the mountainous regions of the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea. In the southern part they reach the city of Ochamchira in Abkhazia, and in the north - to the valley of the Laba River. But previously there were in the area of the city of Zheleznovodsk in the Stavropol Territory and, possibly, in other places. A separate closed region of distribution of peculiar dolmens or “dolmen-shaped crypts” of late construction is the Upper Kuban region (the basin of the Kyafar River in Karachay-Cherkessia). Continued to be used into the Late Bronze Age and beyond. In total, about 3,000 dolmens are known, including destroyed ones. Of these, no more than 6% have been studied.

Local names[ | ]

Another destruction of the dolmen. Slabs of an unexplored ruined dolmen moved by loggers. Bogatyrskaya Polyana, 2014

Russians (since the 19th century): heroic huts or huts, didov's and devil's huts.

Security problem [ | ]

“Today, from saws, axes and tractor tracks, practically nothing remains of ancient times in the forest. Centuries-old oak forests and Circassian pear trees are being cut down, mounds, fortresses and dolmens that have stood for thousands of years before us are being destroyed.”

In the Caucasus, the oldest dolmens appeared on the southern slope, in the coastal and mountainous zones in the Early Bronze Age in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. These include dolmens in Eshera, Azanta, Othara, Kulanurkhva, Shroma, Doi. They have small and medium sizes.

In the Southern Crimea, somewhat later than in the Caucasus, bearers of the Kemi-Oba culture built stone boxes (cysts), sometimes with grooves in the slabs, and even painted them. In general, throughout the Caucasus (including in the steppe regions) graves were lined with stone slabs, and in some places huge megaliths were built (Armenia, Georgia). The only question is whether there is mutual cultural influence in each of these cases.

Location of dolmens[ | ]

Since clusters of dolmens are cemeteries of the dolmen culture, several settlements of this culture are usually located in their vicinity: either at a considerable distance or nearby. There are some regularities in the location of dolmens. They are usually found on flat areas on the peaks or on the sunny slopes of ridges (mostly at altitudes of 250-400 m above sea level, maximum height - 1300 m) or on river terraces. The vast majority of dolmens are oriented down the sunny slope, which implies a fairly wide range of directions. If this was impossible, then the dolmen was oriented at least towards a sunlit area on the opposite ridge. In addition, orientation to specific astronomically significant points on the horizon is noted. The assertion that dolmens are linked to water sources has no basis.

Purpose of dolmens[ | ]

The purpose of dolmens is not just an established fact, but has always been a known fact. As a type of tomb, dolmens of the Western Caucasus stand on a par with many similar structures from different times and many peoples. The most ancient burials discovered in dolmens were left by their builders. And although a certain number of ground burials of the dolmen culture are already known, they were apparently less common, and their known number does not at all correspond to the many fairly large settlements.

Of course, the structures also served as a sanctuary, most likely a family or clan one: this is evidenced, for example, by the discovery of a stone altar during the reconstruction of the dolmen complex on Zhan (located in the Gelendzhik Museum of Local Lore). The newly reconstructed complexes on the Zhane River and on Mount Nexis (both near Gelendzhik), as well as many dolmens with “courtyards,” allow one to imagine the ceremonies that once took place there.

Some dolmen complexes were clearly designed to be visited by a significant number of people. This is, first of all, the megalithic mound of Psynako I near the village of Anastasievka in the Tuapse region, the Silver Mound in the Klady tract near the village of Novosvobodnaya, and the same complexes on the Zhana River and on Mount Nexis. All of them could well serve as common tribal objects of worship. Unfortunately, the museumification of the first from the list was not carried out, and the second was practically destroyed.

Construction of dolmens[ | ]

For the construction of dolmens, whenever possible, stone from the closest deposits was used. If there were suitable slabs of natural origin nearby, they were collected. But if there was no choice, then the cut slabs could be transported several kilometers away. Various types of sandstone and limestone were used for buildings. . Different breeds could be combined in one building.

In the quarry, the force of wooden wedges swollen from water was used to break stone. Fresh stone from the quarry is softer and can even be processed with stone tools. But the builders of the dolmen culture also had bronze chisels in their arsenal, whose clear traces are constantly encountered when studying buildings. It is assumed that the treated slabs could have been kept for some time before use to gain sufficient hardness. Grinding of surfaces and grooves was carried out with stone trowels, which are found in construction sites. The cover slab was dragged along the inclined embankment behind the dolmen. Animal power could also be used in construction.

Frequent speculation about the impossibility of repeating the exact fit of dolmen slabs in our time, for example, after moving it to a new place, occurs only due to a misunderstanding of the fact that in a new place it is almost impossible to re-duplicate all the features of the old foundation. Which leads to various distortions and discrepancies.

Dolmen architecture[ | ]

Design [ | ]

Ornamentation [ | ]

“Flowing water” pattern on the wall of a composite dolmen from Mount Nexis

Ornamented dolmen, Zhane River valley

Compared to the total number, quite a few dolmens are decorated with engraved and even convex ornaments. But, probably, many of the ornaments simply did not survive to our time due to erosion of the stone. They are located throughout the portal and inside the chamber. There is a known image on the front plate with a cross in a circle and a comb-like labyrinth-like pattern with a zigzag extending from it and the inlet. Sometimes there are simply rows of vertical zigzags. On the front slab there is sometimes an image of another dolmen portal, as well as one or two pairs of large convexities above it. Or a rectangular recess is simply made, occupying a larger area of the slab. Rows of vertical and horizontal zigzags can have the ends of side plates. And the attached portal slabs on the inner plane are sometimes decorated with a landscape consisting of a series of triangles (mountains) and vertical rows of zigzags (rivers). The sun is placed above the mountains in the form of an oval with a cross. Sometimes the entire portal slab is covered with horizontal stripes, each of which is formed by a herringbone pattern of chisel incisions. Side plates can also be decorated in this way. Recently, dolmens have been found whose facades were decorated, in one case, with convex diagonal stripes forming a large “Christmas tree” enclosed in a frame; and in the other - already deepened horizontal rows of a wide stretched zigzag. This zigzag is further complicated by segments of single vertical zigzags on the sides and sides of the inlet. Sometimes a stone with an unusual surface was chosen for buildings, due to its internal structure. Such a dolmen, without special treatment, received decorative design in the form of fancy dents and bulges.

The inside of the dolmen chamber is sometimes surrounded by a horizontal zigzag of a wide stripe and a straight line above the horizontal zigzag. In the second case, you get a series of hanging triangles or scallops. This design can be further complemented by areas with vertical zigzags. Stone plugs can also have raised concentric circles on the cap, a nipple-like appearance in the center, four bulges around the circumference and one in the center, or a raised cross.

Sometimes on the roof of a dolmen there are numerous small bowl-shaped depressions or holes, scattered randomly across the surface or forming short rows and circles with crosses inside. Similar signs are also found on the side and front slabs of dolmens. And also on individual stones near dolmens, where they may also have rings around them.

Some of the stone blocks that form the courtyard have bulges on their surface - bosses. They do not have such a regular shape as those on the facade slab. These are remains preserved after leveling the entire plane of the wall. Whether they had any meaning other than decorative is unknown.

There are also several simple engraved petroglyphic designs on or near the dolmens. Their meaning is not yet clear, just as the time of their application is unknown.

Recently, two engraved images of the plot were discovered on a dolmen in the village of Dzhubga: a scene with a man and animals and a fight between two “twins”. The second plot fully corresponds to the known images on anthropomorphic steles of the Kemi-Oba culture. Perhaps the same plot is present on the triple hook from the Novosvobodnaya tomb.

The medieval Alan crypts in Karachay-Cherkessia stand apart, almost completely covered with wavy grooves and various symbols. Previously it was believed that the Alans decorated more ancient buildings. The so-called “royal mausoleum” especially stands out for its subject images, which already contain Christian motifs.

There are almost no dolmens that have traces of colorful painting in the chamber and on the facade. The poorly preserved painting in the dolmen of the Silver Mound has now been completely disfigured by vandals. And the color drawings in the two two-chamber Novosvobodnaya tombs represent an earlier culture.

List of some notable dolmens[ | ]

Gallery [ | ]

Notes [ | ]

Previously, incorrect information was circulated about the non-existent dolmens of the Taman Peninsula (Capes Tuzla and Fantalovsky).
Kizilov A. S., Sharikov Yu. N. The western border of the distribution of dolmens in the Caucasus // V “Anfimov Readings” on the archeology of the Western Caucasus. - Krasnodar, 2015. - pp. 128-133.
Ispy- dwarfs from the Abkhaz-Adyghe Nart epic.
Bormotov I. V. Mountain Adygea. - Novosibirsk: “Alpha-Porte”, 2010. - P. 106. - 128 p. - ISBN 978-5-91864-003-6.
Dmitriev L.V. Restoration of two dolmen groups in the upper reaches of the Ozereyka River // Argonaut. Black Sea Historical Journal (Novorossiysk). - 2007. - No. 1. P. 65, 70.
They demolish dolmens with bulldozers, crush slabs with heavy trucks, and destroy the cultural layer in the surrounding area.
They use dolmen stone for their buildings.
Kulikova O. P., Trifonov V. A. How to preserve dolmens - the cultural heritage of the ancient peoples of the Western Caucasus // Dolmens, witnesses of ancient civilizations. - Krasnodar: Krasnodar Book Publishing House, 2001. - pp. 93, 94. - ISBN 5-7561-0760-6.
Teknedzhi A.V. Typical investigative situations at the initial stage of the investigation into the destruction or damage of historical and cultural monuments (Article 243 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and the action program of the subject of the investigation to resolve them // Society and Law. - 2009. - No. 2(24). - P. 223, 224.
They make fires in dolmens or nearby, wear away fragile stones during mass visits, and leave inscriptions. Thus, when removing the inscriptions on the Volkonsky dolmen, its surface is periodically treated with bush hammer, thereby destroying the original surface. In general, the manifold increased load on dilapidated buildings accelerates their destruction.
Anastasians, Rodnovers, Hare Krishnas, Ivanovo. They clean out the cultural layer from dolmens, wear away the stone during mass visits, damage it during their rituals, and even “restore” it according to their own understanding.
Markovin V. I. Dolmens of the Western Caucasus: mysticism, scientific opinions and prospects for further study // Soviet Archeology, - 2000. - No. 4. - P. 26-29.
Kulikova O. P., Trifonov V. A. How to preserve dolmens - the cultural heritage of the ancient peoples of the Western Caucasus // Dolmens, witnesses of ancient civilizations. - Krasnodar: Krasnodar Book Publishing House, 2001. - pp. 94, 95. - ISBN 5-7561-0760-6.
Dolmens. Endless journey. - M.: Avanti plus, 2004. - (Life at the dolmens). - 192 p. - ISBN 5-902559-03-0.
Stepanenko M. Sect of Vladimir Megre “Anastasia” // To the Truth. Missionary and apologetic project. - 2007. - July 9.
They rent land with dolmens, block free access and charge a fee for visiting.
Berlizov M. P. Current problems of private law: the problem of the relationship between the private rights of citizens and their public encumbrances in the field of conservation, use, popularization and state protection of immovable objects of cultural heritage // Society and Law. - 2010. - No. 2 (29). - P. 66.
Museumification without the creation of an archaeological museum with staff and security is a useless fiction. Conservation means filling it with a fairly thick layer of earth until better times.
Only three dolmens are known to be buried after excavations: Psynako I (pending museumification), in Kladakh 2 and on the Stone Kurgan.
Kulikova O. P., Trifonov V. A. How to preserve dolmens - the cultural heritage of the ancient peoples of the Western Caucasus // Dolmens, witnesses of ancient civilizations. - Krasnodar: Krasnodar Book Publishing House, 2001. - P. 95. - ISBN 5-7561-0760-6.
A category of ignorant private tour guides has emerged, leading people to “places of power.”
Now some researchers suggest that dolmens could have begun to be built back in the Early Bronze Age, that is, at the late stage of the culture of spiked pearl ceramics or the Maikop culture. This is the end of the 4th millennium BC. e.
Markovin V. I., 1978. - P. 150, 152-155.
Markovin V. I., 1983.
Voronov Yu. N., 1979. - S. 48, 49.
For example, images carved on stone from Sicily and on engraved slabs from Novosvobodnaya.
Markovin V. I., 1978. - pp. 213-215, 283-319.
Bgazhnokov B. Kh. Caucasian dolmens: planetary properties and local traditions // Archeology and ethnology of the North Caucasus. - Nalchik: Publishing department of the Kabardino-Balkarian Institute for Humanitarian Studies, 2012. Vol. 1. - pp. 44-48.
Rysin M. B.,1997. - pp. 118, 119.

Caucasian dolmens

In the area stretching from Novorossiysk to the Georgian city of Ochamchira, many millennia ago unknown builders created a huge number (about 3,000) of amazing structures - dolmens. If this word is literally translated from the Breton language, the name “table-stone” will be obtained. They actually look a little like tables designed for unknown giants: huge polished slabs of quartz sandstone, folded into a multi-ton structure.

The dolmens of the Caucasus are among the most ancient, they are older than the Egyptian pyramids: their age is about 7,000 years. In shape, Caucasian dolmens resemble houses for short people (a child can sit in them and even an adult can sit in them). The Adygs call dolmens syrpuns, which means “house of a dwarf”; there are even legends that talk about small people who, in ancient times, inhabited these lands and built shelter-houses for themselves.

Similar structures can be found all over the world - in Spain and Portugal, in England and France, on the islands of the Mediterranean Sea and in Asia... They, of course, are different everywhere, but they have one thing in common: stone blocks are stacked into a huge structure with an unknown force and with an incomprehensible purpose. There are also dolmens on the territory of the famous Stonehenge.

The dolmens of the Caucasus even have a front side, like real houses. There is a small hole in it that can be closed with a stone plug (only some dolmens have it preserved). The facade is decorated with the image of a gate (portal) leading to a certain (possibly otherworldly) world, the Sun (in the form of a circle) and the Moon (in the form of a semicircle). Scientists who have studied dolmens hypothesize that they are places of burial or worship of gods, sacred to the ancients.

There are other hypotheses, somewhat fantastic, but more interesting. In particular, some researchers believe that before people lived on Earth, representatives of a completely different civilization lived. They had special knowledge and abilities, and knew how to live according to the laws of goodness and harmony. But evil came to Earth, many began to violate the laws of good... Then the most faithful went to remote places and built themselves stone houses, in which they plunged into a special state in which life is maintained in the body at the level of a sleeping person, while the soul is awake, being in the superconscious condition. They gave their good energy and knowledge to the house in which they spent a long time, i.e., the dolmen. That is why dolmens have fabulous powers; they can give health, peace, knowledge, but only to a kind person.

From the book Who's Who in World History author Sitnikov Vitaly Pavlovich

author Vyazemsky Yuri Pavlovich

Caucasian affairs Question 4.67 In the 50s of the 19th century, the commander of the Grenadier Corps in the Caucasus, Count N. Muravyov, carried out careful calculations and reported their results to St. Petersburg. What did the infantry general think and report? Question 4.68 Historians write: “Golden donkeys »

From the book From Paul I to Nicholas II. History of Russia in questions and answers author Vyazemsky Yuri Pavlovich

Caucasian affairs Answer 4.67 Muravyov came to the conclusion that it was much cheaper than conducting military operations to offer each participant in the hostilities a good home and decent maintenance, to build factories and roads that would lead to a quiet life and mutual benefit. In 1875

author

From the book by V.I. Markovin “Dolmens of the Western Caucasus” (M., 1978) Dolmens of the Western Caucasus and dolmens of the world - questions of connections and origins Many Caucasian scientists tried in one way or another to approach the resolution of the question of the origin of dolmens, to find out their origin and

From the book HISTORY OF RUSSIA from ancient times to 1618. Textbook for universities. In two books. Book one. author Kuzmin Apollon Grigorievich

Dolmens of the Western Caucasus and dolmens of the world - questions of connections and origin Many Caucasian scientists have tried in one way or another to resolve the issue of the origin of dolmens, to find out their origin and appearance in the Caucasus. However, among the antiquities of the Kuban region and

From the book Eastern Legions and Cossack Units in the Wehrmacht author Karashchuk Andrey

TURKIAN AND CAUCASIAN SS UNITS Unlike its Caucasian counterpart - the Bergmann battalion - the 1st (450th) battalion of the Turkestan Legion, formed in January 1942, was never used in accordance with the far-reaching plans of its creators and acted initially V

From the book Secrets of Ancient Civilizations. Volume 1 [Collection of articles] author Team of authors

From the book On the outskirts of the Soviet Depth author Chechilo Vitaly Ivanovich

CAUCASIAN NEPHEWS

From the book From Mystery to Knowledge author Kondratov Alexander Mikhailovich

Stonehenge, dolmens and menhirs Of course, the difficulties facing decipherers of ancient writings are very great. But when the letters are read, it’s like a bright spotlight illuminates the darkness of centuries. Unfortunately, most of ancient history is not reflected in written records. AND

From the book Secrets of Ancient Civilizations. Volume 2 [Collection of articles] author Team of authors

Dolmens Lyudmila Varlamova If you are a little interested in megaliths, then perhaps you have heard the story of how in 1960 a dolmen from Esheri was transported to the courtyard of the Sukhumi Museum - archaeologist Alexander Alexandrovich Formozov told it in his book “Monuments

From the book Curses of Ancient Civilizations. What's coming true, what's about to happen author Bardina Elena

From the book History of the Ancient World author Gladilin (Svetlayar) Evgeniy

Dolmens The study of megalithic structures is of great importance when studying the history of our ancestors. Huge range: from the southern tip and oceanic islands of Asia to the extreme western points of Europe, continental America. Most famous

From the book Mysterious Places of Russia author Shnurovozova Tatyana Vladimirovna

by Aji Murad

Caucasian War and Peace Unfinished script for a documentary film The previous essay, written in 2005, received an unexpected continuation. In 2013, one of the film studios invited me to participate in a project conceived in connection with the anniversary date - the bicentenary

From the book The Great Steppe. Offering of the Turk [collection] by Aji Murad

Caucasian War and Peace Documentary film script Titles... On the screen there is a bare steppe, today's day. With gophers, with wormwood, with eagles. Lots of sun and wild space, filled with melodic spiritual music. Suddenly - a shot. And silence. Then the queues of machine guns,

From the book Prehistory under a Question Mark (LP) author Gabovich Evgeniy Yakovlevich

Study of prehistoric cultures Dolmens, megaliths and pyramids In the Neolithic there was another culture - the Sur-Dnieper culture. Small settlements of this culture are known. People lived in hut-type dwellings. Characteristic are stone vessels with sharp bottoms. During

Today, about 3000 of them have survived in the Caucasus. They appeared at the end of the 3rd-2nd millennia BC.

Riddles of the dolmens

If you ask local residents about dolmens, they will certainly tell the legend about the dwarfs who once settled in these places. The people were so tiny that they used hares for riding. Next to them, as usual in fairy tales, lived giants. It was they who built stone dwellings for their weak neighbors so that they could take shelter during bad weather.

People inclined to an esoteric explanation of the unknown believe that dolmens were installed by inhabitants of extraterrestrial civilizations and endowed them with magical powers capable of awakening unusual abilities in a person, giving him love or restoring health.

Scientists put forward only hypotheses. Today there are two versions about the purpose of dolmens. They could be either religious buildings of a tribe or a separated clan, or funerary ones. During excavations in many of them, burials of people who lived in different historical eras were found, and next to them various objects that could be useful to the deceased in the other world: from stone scrapers and shards of gray clay dishes to medieval weapons. Although later burials, naturally, were secondary.

In the Western Caucasus, 2,300 dolmens have been discovered and described, most of them are located in the area of Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk and Shapsugskaya. There are about 150 of them that are completely intact and not very damaged. But even this number of artifacts does not shed light on the history of their creation. Only the time of their construction is known exactly, which was determined on the basis of radiocarbon dating of organic remains extracted from the dolmen chambers. It was found that the Western Caucasian dolmens were built from 3500 to 1400 BC. e.

Ancient builders erected dolmens from blocks of quartz sandstone. On average, the weight of the structure ranges from 15 to 30 tons. This means that there should have been quarries on the territory of the Western Caucasus, but even the slightest traces of their existence have not been found to this day. If they were not nearby, then how were huge blocks of stone delivered to the construction site in the absence of roads suitable for transporting heavy loads? And the main question: how did ancient architects calculate the parameters of slabs, the joints of which do not have a straight surface, and all the slabs clearly adjoin each other due to specially arranged grooves? The joints are so tight that it is impossible to insert even a knife blade between the plates. It also seems surprising that even the earliest buildings are not primitive, but complex structures. An example of the ideal work of engineering is the dolmens on Mount Nexis and on the Zhane River near Gelendzhik.

Such a precise adjustment of structural details was beyond the power of modern man. When reconstructing dolmens, it has not yet been possible to compose multi-ton slabs without errors. And in 2007, in the Gelendzhik Safari Park, they decided to assemble a dolmen from slabs of destroyed buildings, the processing and adjustment of which was decided to be carried out using ultra-precise power tools. However, this time too, the Bronze Age builders turned out to be head and shoulders above - there were gaps of several centimeters between the slabs of the newly assembled dolmen.

So who were these people who owned such advanced construction technology? According to the assumption of archaeologist Vladimir Markovin, who devoted most of his life to the study of Caucasian dolmens, they lived in adobe shacks, did not know iron or a potter’s wheel, and worked the land with hoes. And yet, it was they who created structures that still amaze the imagination with the perfection of their designs.

What are dolmens?

Tiled dolmens usually include four walls, a roof and a floor consisting of one large or several smaller (heel) slabs. The chamber is rectangular or trapezoidal. The slabs have grooves, due to which all the slabs are tightly connected. The front slab, framed by side projections and an overhanging canopy, forms a portal.

Composite dolmens are partially or completely assembled from individual small blocks. They have a complex geometric connection. The shape of the chamber is varied: rectangular, trapezoidal, horseshoe-shaped, round and multifaceted.

Trough-shaped dolmens were carved into the thickness of the stone, and then covered with a slab on top.

Dolmen-monoliths are entirely hewn out of one block of stone or into the rock. They are very rare.

Dolmen group Ust-Sakhray

Before the founding of the village of Ust-Sakhray in 1862, a dolmen field was located on its territory. Currently, its main central part has been destroyed by the construction of houses. The first mention of the Ust-Sakhrai dolmens was left by Evgeny Felitsyn. Vladimir Markovin, based on Felitsyn’s notes, also mentions Ust-Sakhray, but he did not have to explore the local megaliths.

The study of the Ust-Sakhray dolmen group was carried out by a joint archaeological expedition of ARIGI and AGPI (DSU) in 1991-1994 under the leadership of Nurbiy Gazizovich Lovpache.

From a large kilometer-long dolmen field between the Dakh and Sakhray rivers, two groups remained on the western and eastern edges of the village. On Bukreeva Polyana, in front of the western outskirts of Ust-Sakhrai, there are about fifty mounds. Under ten of them, portal and non-portal dolmens, two-chamber tombs, a stone box, burial platforms with a cromlech and a menhir were examined and studied. Behind the eastern edge of the village, between the outskirts and the modern cemetery, there are 5 visible megalithic structures, three of which have been partially explored.

A characteristic feature of the Ust-Sakhray dolmens is their chronological multi-layered nature and structural and typological diversity. The megaliths of Ust-Sakhrai date back to the second half of the 4th millennium BC. - first half of the 3rd millennium BC. e.

Deguakskaya Polyana is located in the basin of the Belaya River (Shkhaguashche). It got its name from the Deguak stream, flowing in the northern part of the clearing. It is a vast basin, bounded from the north and east by the river bed, the distant ridge and the forested slopes of Mount Gut. From the south, the clearing wedges into the gorge of Mount Pisanoy, and from the west it gradually merges with the slopes of the Sibir and Skala mountains. The Deguak glade is known for a fairly large group of dolmens. There are more than 200 of them here. They occupy ridge-like and mound-like uplifts made of gravel and river pebbles. The megaliths of the Deguak-Dakhovskaya glade date back to the 4th-2nd millennia BC. Local dolmens are carved from slabs of sandstone and sandy limestone and shell rock.

During Markovin’s study of the group of dolmens of the Deguak-Dakhovskaya glade, fragments of black clay and gray clay vessels with ornaments, bone items, carnelian beads, and bronze objects were discovered.

The menhirs of the Deguak-Dakhovsky dolmen necropolis are simple and squat. The largest menhir, 2.5 m high, ends with an anthropomorphic face.

Kozhokh dolmen group

The Kozhokh dolmen group was discovered by Felitsyn and described in 1904. It is located on the right terrace of the right bank of the Belaya River (Shkhaguashche), between the Maly and Sredny Khadzhokh tributaries, on the northern outskirts of the village of Kamennomostsky.

In the Kozhokhskaya dolmen group there are 27 mounds, 16 of which contain dolmen ruins. Megaliths of this group date back to the 4th-3rd millennium BC. The study revealed gray clay and black clay vessels, fragments of molded pots and flat-bottomed bowls, bronze arrowheads, a bronze pin, flint flakes, and animal bones.

In the journal of excavations of dolmens of the Kozhokhsky group, Felitsyn described dolmen No. 20, located on a high mound. Dolmens of this type are rarely found in the Western Caucasus and are currently not preserved in Adygea.

The “Khadzhokh-1” dolmen is located on the first right high terrace of the Belaya River (Shkhaguashche), not far from the Maikop - Kamennomostsky highway, on the southern edge of the modern orchard. The megalith dates back to the 4th-3rd millennia BC. The Khadzhokh-1 dolmen is well preserved, but the front portal slabs are destroyed, and a hole is punched in the rear slab. The dolmen belongs to the tiled type. The hole in the front slab is slightly oval, cone-shaped, the floor is not traced, there is a layer of earth inside the chamber.

The dolmen cover is a solid slab with a slightly trapezoidal shape.

In front of the dolmen lies a mushroom-shaped stone sleeve, made of reddish-brown sandstone, the size of which does not match the hole in the front slab. According to local residents, this bushing was brought to the dolmen from the territory of the famous Kozhokhskaya dolmen group, located 600-700 m east of the dolmen. Probably, “Khadzhokh-1” also belonged to the Kozhokhskaya dolmen group.

Dolmen "Azishsky-1"

The Azishsky-1 dolmen was discovered in 1966. It is located on the 12th kilometer of the Khadzhokh-Lagonaki highway, Maikop district. The megalith dates back to the 3rd-2nd millennia BC. The dolmen belongs to the tiled portal type with a two-stage roof. In front of the portal platform, the slabs that continue it to the east are still visible. The side plates are broken into two parts. The remains of buttresses are visible from the outside. On the upper side of the portal roof fragments there is a mass of cup-shaped recesses. A hole with a diameter of 30 cm was made at the base of the front slab. Neat grooves for the end walls are carved into the side slabs.

Under all four walls there are heel plates, in which grooves are knocked out for the base of the walls. Currently, the Azishsky-1 dolmen is destroyed and requires restoration.

Dolmen "Dudugush-1"

The “Dudugush-1” dolmen is located at an altitude of 1020 m above sea level, on a gentle spur of the western slope of the ridge surrounding the Khamyshin depression. The building is quite clearly oriented from north to south. The portal is located on the south side. The dolmen is built from yellow sandstone slabs. Its design is composite, the chamber is ellipsoidal in shape.

The dolmen is partially destroyed. It dates back to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC.

A sign was found on one of the dolmen slabs, representing a circle carved in sandstone, which is truncated by a straight line in the western part. The sign continues with two parallel straight lines that converge to a point of connection with a line truncating the circle. A hole is hollowed out between these lines. Inside the circle, along its diameter, two straight lines are cut, forming a cross. In the eastern part of the sign, parallel to the line truncating the circle, 7 more identical holes are hollowed out, arranged in 2 rows.

Solar symbols, found throughout the Caucasus on ancient monuments from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages, are associated with the cult of the sun.

Dolmen in the village of Khamyshki

The dolmen is located in the village of Khamyshki, on the first floodplain terrace of the left bank of the Belaya River (Shkhaguashche), not far from the Maikop - Guzeripl highway, at the foot of Mount Monk.

The megalithic monument dates back to the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. The dolmen is a sandstone block more than 11 m long. In the middle there is a trough-shaped depression 2.8 m long, 2.5 m wide, 1.6 m deep. The walls of the chamber are vertical, the corners are rounded. On the facade wall, the stone was knocked out to a depth of 40-50 cm, and three pilasters were obtained using the reverse method. Two symmetrical ones form a dolmen portal, the third from the west forms an additional asymmetrical niche up to 25 cm deep. On the floor of the chamber in the north-eastern corner there is a hollowed-out round spheroidal depression with a diameter of 20 cm and a depth of 7 cm. Petroglyphs are carved on the inner surface of the western wall of the chamber. The dolmen was covered with a sandstone slab, of which quite large parts remained scattered around it.

A hole in the front slab of a horizontal oval-shaped dolmen (46-30 cm) was punched in the southern wall. The mass of stone, chosen in the plane of the facade, formed a horizontal platform 80-100 cm wide. On the north side, under a fragment of a covering slab, a stele about 90 cm in height was discovered with an intricate design carved on its lower part.

Not far from the Khamyshinsky dolmen-semi-monolith, two menhirs carved from sandstone were found. One of them, of a textbook shape (truncated in height and pyramidal), stood with its processed front side facing east. Its height is 120 cm, the base is square. Currently, both menhirs are installed on the eastern side of the Khamyshinsky dolmen.

Dolmens of the village of Guzeripl

Guzeripl dolmen No. 1 is one of the largest and most complete among the dolmens of Adygea. The megalithic monument is located on the territory of the Guzeripl cordon of the Caucasus State Natural Biosphere Reserve named after. G.H. Shaposhnikova. The megalith dates back to the 2nd millennium BC.

The dolmen was surrounded by stone pedestal-shaped blocks, which once outlined a cromlech-shaped fence with a diameter of 12 m. The building is quite clearly oriented from east to west, the portal is located on the western side. It belongs to the type of composite structures and is made of sand slabs. The camera has the shape of an oval in plan, truncated at the front. The facade is decorated with a massive trapezoidal slab, the corners are slightly rounded. The plate is equipped with a round inlet.

The dolmen chamber is folded in large blocks in 2-4 rows. Of these, 4 rows of stones are on the front part of the dolmen and 2 on the back, which is why the chamber is lowered to the east. The stone blocks on the sides are beveled downwards and hang over each other, forming a kind of false vault. The dolmen is covered with two powerful slabs.