the.com/dolmen
a Stone Age tomb so heavy that nobody fully agrees how anyone built it
means A prehistoric megalithic structure made of two or more large upright stones supporting a flat capstone, typically marking a burial site.
from From French, borrowed into English in the early 19th century as the study of standing stones took off. The French term is usually traced to Breton or Cornish roots meaning 'stone table' — likely 'taol' (table) plus 'maen' (stone) — which fits the slab-on-pillars shape perfectly. There's a competing story that the first element comes from 'tol' meaning 'hole,' but the 'table-stone' reading is the one scholars generally favor.
- meaning
- Breton for table of stone
- capstone weight
- some exceed 100 tons of single rock
- age
- older than Egypt's pyramids by millennia
- original look
- many were once buried under earthen mounds
- global spread
- found from Ireland to Korea independently
newgrange — passage tomb in ireland built around 3200 bce, older than stonehenge
carnac stones — 3000+ megalithic dolmens near carnac, brittany, france
dolmen de menga — neolithic burial chamber in antequera, spain, 3700 bce