Composition: Dolmens of the Krasnodar Territory. Dolmens of the Krasnodar Territory
What are mysterious places on our planet and do they really exist or only in the imagination of people who believe in them? Such " anomalous zones» enough on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory - and today we are talking about them
What are mysterious places on our planet and do they really exist or only in the imagination of people who believe in them? There is no single answer to this question. Those who believe in "anomalous zones" or miraculous powers natural objects, will never find a common language with skeptics. So it is people who give a touch of mystery to certain places on Earth. By the way, there are enough such “anomalous zones” on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory - and today we are talking about them.
People who are inclined to believe in drummers, poltergeists, aliens and lost ancient civilizations easily find confirmation of their beliefs in the world around them. And as soon as one such “stalker” publishes information about another mysterious zone, a real pilgrimage begins to this place. Over time, the information wave becomes larger and penetrates into the world of ordinary people with the help of mass media. People tend to believe in all sorts of incomprehensible things, and for every scientific explanation they will find ten more eyewitness accounts of the “obvious-incredible”. This is how legends are born. mysterious places, and the Kuban is no exception in this respect.
Although scientists have proven that Egyptian pyramids, and the famous Stonehenge was built by people using modern technology in its time: wheels, levers, but lovers of secrets prefer to believe that stone blocks were not dragged by slaves and civilian workers, but by giants, Atlanteans or aliens. And if all these creatures were engaged in pyramids, then who better than them to build dolmens, which are a dime a dozen on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory, Adygea and neighboring regions. The word "dolmen" in Breton means "stone table". Dolmens are ancient megalithic structures built four to five thousand years ago.
Dolmens of Kuban
Archaeologists consider several versions of the purpose of dolmens. According to some assumptions, these are just man-made mass graves (in some, the remains of hundreds of people are found), but radiocarbon analysis of the bones most often shows that people were buried in dolmens hundreds of years after they were built.
“The orientation of dolmens on the ground is different, but, as a rule, it fits into the arc of sunrise-sunset and the culmination of celestial bodies northeast - south - northwest,” Mikhail Kudin, a researcher of megaliths, believes.
- Only single monuments are directed to the north ... Observations at individual monuments (the Psynako-1 complex, a dolmen with a cromlech of the "Wolf Gate" group, a dolmen with a sight "Mamedov Shchel") showed that they mark the points of sunrise and sunset on the days of solstices and equinoxes .
This observation, on the one hand, indirectly confirms that the dolmen builders were either sun-worshippers or used megaliths for astronomical observations. But the famous scientist Doctor of Historical Sciences, senior researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences Vladimir Markovin doubted the direction of the dolmens to the sun. According to the author of the book "Ispun - the houses of dwarfs: notes on the dolmens of the Krasnodar Territory (Western Caucasus)". in the spatial orientation of dolmens, there is no connection with the movement of the Sun, and the portal can be oriented to any part of the world. Now about three thousand North Caucasian megaliths are known, including partially destroyed ones, and most of them are located precisely in the Kuban and in Adygea. Many dolmens are rectangular structures made of stone slabs, or carved into the rocks, with holes in the facade. Inside, a chamber was obtained, a room about one and a half by two meters in size and about two meters high, sometimes more, sometimes less. The plates were placed at a slight angle inwards. Sometimes such chambers were carved from a monolithic stone, sometimes they were hidden underground, pouring mounds. In one of the walls of the chamber, in a slab, a cone-shaped hole was made, about thirty centimeters in diameter, which was closed with a stone plug.
These dolmens are considered by modern lovers of esotericism to be “places of power”, where you can recharge with cosmic energy or be filled with the mysterious knowledge of your ancestors. The most famous dolmens of the Krasnodar Territory are located on the Black Sea coast. So, above the Zhane River, not far from Gelendzhik, there is a group of three dolmens lined up on a hill. On both sides of them are two stone mounds. Again, not far from Gelendzhik, in the area of the village of Pshada and the river of the same name, there is a whole sculptural group of seven dozen dolmens of varying degrees of preservation. And there are many such megaliths on the entire Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar Territory from Anapa to Adler. True, with the flourishing of tourism, many dolmens have turned from objects of worship for esoteric lovers into ordinary tourist attractions. Cafes are located near some dolmens, and entire excursion groups are taken to others in jeeps. It is clear that in such conditions it is almost impossible for a true connoisseur to feel the cosmic energy. Here connoisseurs of the mysterious are looking for dolmens in much more hard-to-reach places than the Black Sea coast, and in them you will often find broken bottles and tin cans, rather than the secret heritage of your ancestors.
Former paradise near Anapa
In general, esoteric lovers love the Black Sea coast. If you listen to them, then there are not so few “places of power”. And one of the most famous of them is Cape Bolshoy Utrish. In the summer, lovers of natural childbirth set up their camps here, meditate, practice yoga and qigong. There are ads on the Internet saying that for a certain amount and a couple of weeks on Utrish they will help you connect with space, recharge your batteries or, even more wonderfully, “change the structure of DNA”, claiming that Utrish is located in the zone of a powerful tectonic fault, being energy anomaly, the so-called "place of power".
There is a relic juniper grove here, which, according to legend, can heal many ailments. Why not - needles and fresh sea air and without any esoteric work wonders.
“The place where this truly wonderful plant grows has a unique energy. There is literally an extraordinary atmosphere of happiness in the air. - the reviews of those who first reached Utrish are not diverse. - People involved in esotericism say that this is a place of power.
Gradually, civilization took over this paradise. First, boats began to run from the village to remote lagoons, taking lazy travelers to the most remote lagoons for several hundred. And along with the "sloths" in the lagoons of Utrish came dirt, broken glass, beer cans, drunken squabbles. Now this place differs little from ordinary resort corners. Black Sea coast, although the last connoisseurs of esoteric teachings still live here all year round, despite the cold and piercing sea wind. And they call the permanent residents of Utrish (not the settlements - Big and Small Utrish, but the lagoons between them) Indians. Civilization has reached Utrish not only in the form of sightseeing ships and mountains of garbage - here, despite the centuries-old juniper listed in the Red Book, they are building a road and preparing to build a mythical "children's sports and recreation complex."
Our triangle
By analogy with the Bermuda Triangle, the Kuban also has its own mysterious geometric figure - the Shapsug Triangle in the Abinsk region, not far from the village of the same name. The corners of the triangle are the Big Shapsugsky dolmen, an unfinished monolithic dolmen, nicknamed the "Workshop of dolmen builders", and the Devil's Finger rock along with a mud volcano. According to legend, under Fucking finger the spirit that once protected earthlings is sleeping, so the place does not let people with heavy thoughts come to it. Here, according to lovers of esotericism, two jets appear from the Silver Spring, originating deep underground. One is with living water, the other is with dead water. Some claim that dead water even cures cancer, and living water - from diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
According to the assurances of esotericists, living and dead water differ both in chemical composition and even in temperature, although thermometers lowered into jets show the same numbers. There is also a "Tree of Love" - an oak entwined with aspen. Connoisseurs of secrets find something unusual in this fact, easily explained by biologists. In the very center of the Shapsugsky triangle, someone from local residents not so long ago, he built a certain construction from stones with the romantic name “Eternity Mandala”. And if you believe the guides, then, standing in the center of "Eternity", you can literally feel yourself in the center of the Universe, but not everyone can do it. Probably, in order to feel, it is also necessary to believe in something intangible and scientifically unprovable.
In addition to those listed, there are many places in our region that esotericists consider energy portals and "places of power." At the same time, the lip of lovers of the mysterious is not a fool - the list of territories charged with energy really includes the most Beautiful places Kuban: Big Azishskaya cave, Lagonaki, Khadzhokh, neighborhoods of Guzeripl and Mezmay. Yes, and on Utrish, and at the source of the Belaya River in Guzeripl, and in the Shapsug Triangle, you feel differently - thoughts about the eternal come to your head, and the vain remains somewhere in the distance. But perhaps the reason for this is not some mysterious forces and energies, but nature: powerful, real, beautiful, in all its primeval splendor?
Vasily Baranov
Who did the Maykopians meet on the Black Sea coast? Who left behind the most remarkable in the entire Caucasus, Krasnodar Territory one of the most mysterious ancient structures in the world - dolmens?
The Maikopians themselves could not do this. The development of their culture and beliefs could not lead to the emergence of such structures. Archaeologists have not found any monuments in the Caucasus that would be structurally close to dolmens and at the same time precede them. Before presenting various hypotheses about the origin of dolmens and about the people who built them, it is necessary to talk about these structures themselves. Dolmens are usually referred to as megaliths (“large stones”). These are huge structures made of large blocks of wild or roughly processed stone, which are distributed throughout the world, except for Australia, mainly in coastal areas. The word "dolmen" comes from the Breton language and means a stone table. But most of all, a dolmen does not look like a table, but a giant box or beehive. The resemblance to a beehive is strengthened by a round hole made in the front wall of the dolmen.
In the photo of dolmens in Gelendzhik, you can see their diversity: some are made in a regular rectangular shape with a large entrance, others are more powerful buildings with a small round entrance, and others look like pyramids.
Those who have visited the dolmas in the Gelendzhik region must have heard that in this place you can get new knowledge, is that so ?! - How to get knowledge, or rather information, or what is the technique for obtaining it near megalithic structures?
Among the many secrets and artifacts that the ancient antediluvian civilizations that existed on Mother Earth left us, dolmens stand out. A large number of these ancient structures are located on the territory of Russia, in the Krasnodar Territory.
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Megalithic structures
Dolmens of the Krasnodar Territory come in a variety of sizes. In the courtyard of the Tuapse Museum there is a dolmen, which is comparable in size to a dog kennel, and only one slab of the Guzeripl giant dolmen has dimensions of 2.45 meters in length, 2.1 meters in height and a thickness of 57 centimeters. A hole with a diameter of 48 centimeters was made in the stone and a stone plug was attached to it, which weighs about 100 kilograms.
The weight of the plate itself is about 40 tons. This is only a facade, but there are still walls, a floor and a stone roof of similar dimensions. It is estimated that one large dolmen had to be built by 150 people within two years.
The slabs of the Caucasian dolmens are made of sandstone. This stone contains little clay, absorbs less water, and over time its surface becomes stronger. This is facilitated by the rays of the sun, which, as it were, fuse individual grains of sand. Scientists divide dolmens into 4 groups: tiled, composite, trough-shaped, monolithic. The most common, beautiful and most difficult to build are tiled dolmens. They are also the most ancient. There are also composite, trough-shaped and monolithic. Composite slabs are made up of smaller slabs, trough-shaped slabs are hollowed out in the rock and closed on top with one slab, and monolithic slabs are completely carved into the rock.
Looking at such cyclopean buildings, you feel deep respect for the people who built them. At their disposal were only bronze tools, rollers for transporting plates, the simplest levers and blocks for setting huge stones. But often dolmens are located high in the mountains. The number of dolmens is also striking. So in the territory from to the city of Ochamchiri in Georgia, there are 2038 of them. And these are only the buildings found and described. If you try to evaluate the work that the ancient builders spent on the manufacture, transportation and installation of stone slabs, then it can only be compared with the work of building the Egyptian pyramids. But the main mysteries of dolmens are not related to the technology of their construction.
Firstly, it is surprising that all dolmens appeared on Earth at about the same time. It is not clear what made the people who inhabited the British Isles, Far East, Thrace, the Iberian Peninsula, at the same time begin to build buildings similar to each other.
Secondly, there is still no consensus on the purposes for which dolmens were built. If we assume that dolmens are burial structures, then why are archaeological finds so scarce during their excavations? Why do most of the finds in dolmens belong to later archaeological cultures?
Thirdly, it is not clear why the most ancient dolmens are the most progressive in their design. Why buildings architecturally degraded from tiled to monolithic, and did not evolve.
The wide distribution of dolmens around the world and their attraction to the shores of the seas and oceans makes us think that the “idea” of a dolmen was brought to the Caucasus from outside. But where? It is clear that not from the side of the mountains. Maybe the ancient Caucasians could see dolmens during sea voyages, or the dolmen builders themselves sailed to the Black Sea coast about 5000 years ago?
It is known that in the III-II millennium BC. people made long sea voyages on multi-oared and sailing ships. The builders of dolmens, setting sail, did not even know that the Caucasus existed somewhere, they accidentally landed on its shores and settled here. This hypothesis is supported by some facts. The closest features of the Caucasian dolmens can be found in the ancient buildings of the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal, Spain), in Corsica and on the nearest islands of the Mediterranean, in North Africa, Palestine.
Dolmens are especially similar in the territory of prehistoric Thrace (Lalapash). All these places are located along the sea currents. They go from Gibraltar along the northern coast of Africa and turn into the Black Sea, first washing the Caucasus. Apparently, these currents brought the builders of dolmens to our shores.
There is another line of connections between the Caucasus and the Pyrenees, which confirms this hypothesis. We're talking about Basques. Now they live mainly in Spain and southern France. This people, both in language and in culture, is quite close to the mountain peoples of the Caucasus. In addition, archaeologists attribute to the ancestors of the Basques a special Basque-Catalan megalithic culture, among the monuments of which there are dolmens similar to those of the Black Sea coast. So it can be assumed that the ancestors of the Basques built dolmens on the shores of the Black Sea.
Further, the builders of dolmens began to develop the coast, move deep into the mountains, compete for territory with the tribes of the Maikop culture. They were strong men, warriors who were looking for a new place to live, a place where they could apply their strength.
The winner in the migration process is always the strongest. But often the winners then “dissolved” into the defeated population. The descendants of yesterday's enemies begin to live together, perceive each other's culture and already feel like one people. So it is quite possible that the peoples who now inhabit the Western Caucasus and which are usually attributed to the Abkhaz-Adyghe ethnic group (Abkhazians, Adygs, Shapsugs, Circassians, etc.) originate from the tribes of dolmen builders.
This version is also confirmed by the degradation of the construction chronology of dolmen builders, which has been observed for a thousand years. Indeed, if the early tiled dolmens were built by the aliens themselves, then the subsequent composite, trough-shaped and monolithic ones are already their descendants, who did not cross the seas and who were closer to the caves and grottoes of the Caucasus, which found their expression in monolithic dolmens.
If the migration hypothesis partially explains how dolmens could have arisen in the Caucasus, then it is more difficult to get an answer to the question of the purpose of construction. What all researchers agree on is that dolmens are structures associated with ritual actions. The orientation of the dolmens on the ground speaks about the worship of their builders to the sun. Most of the studied monuments face south. Some are to the southwest and southeast. However, if the dolmen stands in a heavily shaded area among high mountains or in a dense forest, then its facade faces a brightly lit spot - rocks, distant trees, even if it is actually north side. Some dolmens have solar signs and signs that look like waves. So, maybe dolmens are a kind of idols and at the same time receptacles for deceased ancestors, magical tools that should increase the wealth of their creators? Quite possible.
Some scientists make dolmens related to the pyramids of the Egyptians. They see the similarity in the massiveness, tightness, inaccessibility of the contents to prying eyes. The first dolmens were built without manholes. Some of them contained burials. Perhaps the buried were priests, leaders, or even gods of their tribes? This is also possible. After the appearance of holes in the portals, the buried could be fed and visited. And it was possible to bury several people in one dolmen and worship them together. In addition, any conqueror considered it his own worthy place for the afterlife. So, for example, did the Maikopians, and later the Alans.
Numerous reburials and looting have led to the fact that archaeological finds in dolmens are scarce, and the things found belong to different eras; it is impossible to establish exactly who was the first to occupy such an honorable place.
At the beginning of the century, a version arose according to which dolmens were special burial tables on which the ancients roasted their dead. The version is completely wild. Its only confirmation was seen in the fact that coals of fires are found in some dolmens. Bonfires were apparently kindled to fumigate the burial chambers. In any case, it is difficult to imagine to what temperature a giant stone must be heated in order for the human body to turn into dust.
In addition to scientific and archaeological hypotheses about the origin of dolmens, there is a whole group of folk and mystical ones. The Adyghe people, who for 4000 years acted as guardians of dolmens, call them "ispun", which means the house of isps (dwarfs). Remembering that all the megaliths scattered across the Earth are similar to each other, and given that on British Isles there are many similar structures, it can be assumed that they were built by the legendary "small people" - hobbits, elves, gnomes from English legends. The version seems quite crazy, but it is interesting that a structure called “Psynako I object” was recently discovered near Tuapse, which, according to its characteristics, is closest to the famous Stonehenge cromlech.
The Circassians, who appeared in the Caucasus later than the Circassians, say that these peculiar monuments were built by "giants" in order to shelter from bad weather a small tribe of people who did not have enough strength to build their own dwelling. The people were so small that they used hares for riding. You see, the "little people" appear again.
However, the most interesting and most mystical hypothesis arose quite recently. Its adherents believe that the dolmens were built not 4 thousand, but 10 thousand years ago. Moreover, they were built by other people, carriers of higher knowledge. A kind of Atlantis. Their civilization was dying, and, realizing the inevitability of their own extinction, they decided to pass on knowledge to their descendants. A man first built a dolmen, and feeling the approach of death, he went into it still alive and closed the stone plug behind him. After death, the intellect was absorbed by the walls of the structure and changed the very structure of the stone. Now anyone who wanted to could approach the dolmen, put his head against its wall and enter into direct communication with the bearer of higher knowledge. So each dolmen can be considered alive. Can you imagine what kind of torment a living brain experiences when tourists carve their own initials on ancient stones?
Since 1930, all the dolmens of our country have been under state protection. Try to treat these monuments of history and culture with due reverence when visiting them. No new inscription can decorate architectural structure, whose age is comparable to the age of mankind itself.Dolmen culture
A culture with burial structures in the form of dolmens was spread over a large area of the Black Sea region - from Taman Peninsula to the city of Ochamchiri and the Kuban River basin, occupying mainly mountain-forest areas. Ancient dolmens appeared in the Western Caucasus as early as the Early Bronze Age, between 2400-2100. BC. They are monumental (megalithic) buildings made of stone slabs and blocks or carved into a rock mass. Dolmens served as tombs. Among the Adyghes and Abkhazians they are known as "ispun", "spyun" ("houses of dwarfs", "caves"), as well as "keunezh", "adamra" ("ancient grave houses"). Now more than 2200 dolmens are known on the territory of the Western Caucasus. The most common structures are slab type, less often - monoliths carved into the rocks. They are equipped with round or arched holes through which the deceased was placed in the cells. The most ancient dolmens had no holes. The oldest dolmens contained from one to three dead, laid crouched and densely covered with red ocher (the Novoslobodskaya tanitsa, the Kizinka river basin). These were the burial places of tribal leaders. In the heyday of the dolmen culture (the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, mass graves in a sitting position appeared. Huge accumulations of dolmens (“glades”) with hundreds of buildings belong to this time.
Archaeological finds from dolmens and individual settlements allow us to talk about the high culture of their builders. These were tribes engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, and in the coastal strip - sea fishing; they perfectly mastered the skill of not only working stone, but also metal; they knew how to sculpt durable earthenware, sparingly decorated with ornaments.
Researchers believe that the shape of dolmens or their appearance in the Caucasus is explained by the distant maritime connections of the Caucasian peoples. Be that as it may, the Caucasian builders did not just borrow someone else's practice of erecting such buildings, but put their own ingenuity into it. The era of the existence of dolmens in the Northwestern Caucasus was a time when property inequality arose, and the clan was still a strong social organization, although it had already divided its once collective economy between individual families, when building technology reached a high level of development and the funeral cult became widespread.
The culture of dolmens is usually associated with the most ancient Abkhaz-Adyghe ethnic group.
Dolmens in the vicinity of Sochi are represented by tiled composite, monolithic, trough-shaped and well-shaped tombs. Let's consider each of these groups separately.
The first, most common type, recorded in many places (Lazarevskoye, Krasnoaleksandrovskoye, Tsukvadzhe, Solokhaul, Medoveevka, Krasnaya Polyana), are dolmens, which were built using four monolithic quadrangular slabs that formed the walls, while the fifth slab served as a cover. In such tombs, there is often a stone floor, formed by one or more slabs that underlie the front or back walls. The front wall was usually made higher and wider than the back wall, due to which such a dolmen had a trapezoidal plan, and its roof had a slight slope back. The side slabs and the roof, as a rule, protrude beyond the front slab, forming a U-shaped portal, which was sometimes built up with additional slabs dug right up to the ends of the side walls. The latter usually protrude from behind. Outside, they were often supported by additional, inclined substituted pylon slabs. A rounded hole in most cases is located in the front wall of the dolmen, it was plugged with a massive stone plug. One of the dolmens on the Tsukvadzhe River has a hole in the back, smaller slab. The dimensions of the considered dolmens are different. The height of the facade slab is 2-2.5 m, the length of the side walls is 3-4 m, the thickness of the slabs varies between 0.11 and 0.75 m.
In front of the dolmen there was a platform, which apparently served for certain ritual functions associated with the next burial, or commemoration of the dead. This site was sometimes surrounded by a fence of slabs set on edge (Lazarevskoye). Some dolmens are hidden under kurgan-like mounds or surrounded by a double crown-shaped fence (Medoveevka).
Composite dolmens are distinguished by the fact that their walls were completely or partially folded into 2-3 tiers of carefully fitted slabs. One of these horseshoe-shaped dolmens (Lazarevskoye) had only the facade and cover plates monolithic. Its side and rear walls were built from blocks stacked in two tiers. The platform in front of the façade of this dolmen was surrounded by similar slabs placed on edge in one tier.
A remarkable example of a monolithic dolmen is the tomb on the Godlik River southeast of Lazarevsky (Chemitokvadzhe). A flat area was carved in a huge fragment of sandstone rock at a height of 4 m. Above it hangs a niche-shaped façade wall with a hole through which the main horseshoe-shaped chamber with a spherical ceiling is hollowed out. On the roof of this dolmen there is a round recess with a diameter and depth of up to 60 cm. There is the only convenient stepped approach to it from the platform in front of the facade along the end of the wall.
Trough-shaped dolmens were found in Krasnoaleksandrovsky, Solokhaul, in the upper reaches of the Laura River. The chamber of such structures is carved into a block of stone and covered with a separate slab from above. The design of their façade usually corresponds to tiled tombs: portal protrusions imitating the ends of the side walls, a platform in front of the façade, and a hole plugged with a massive cork. Sometimes the chamber of the dolmens was processed from the side of the bottom, in which case the tomb acquired a truly trough-shaped appearance. A number of such dolmens have a false facade: in addition to the portal ledges, there was also a false hole, as if plugged with a cork, while the real hole was made in the back or side walls (Thessaloniki, Solokhaul).
About a dozen dolmen-shaped well-shaped tombs have been registered in the Krasnaya Polyana area. All of them are stacked deep in the ground from raw limestone in several tiers. Pebble powder is marked around, outside and on the floor.
In addition to the tombs themselves, dolmen culture includes fragments of rocks found near dolmens with pits, circles and other images carved on them that had cult significance (Solohaul).
A special place is occupied by the Kudepsten "sacrificial" stone, known to the local population as the "Circassian" stone. This is a block of sandstone, in plan having the shape of a triangle, each side of which is about 5 meters long. In its northeastern edge, two recesses in the form of seats are carved. Behind the seats, on the upper plane of the stone, two parallel trough-shaped depressions were made, up to 2 m long and up to 1 m wide. Four pits were carved here, a bowl-shaped depression up to 0.2 m in diameter. Next to the first block lies another of the same size. Cup-shaped depressions are also visible on its surface. In front of the boulders, the remains of a stone foundation from a building were found, which, judging by the nature of the fragments of pottery, belongs to the early Middle Ages. The mutual position of the boulders and the foundation suggests that at that time the boulders no longer played any role in the life of the local population. The nature of stone processing, individual design details and the fact that the complex of blocks was independent of the foundation make it possible to attribute this monument not to the 16th-17th centuries, as it was believed until a certain time, but to the dolmen time, when these stones undoubtedly played the role of a sanctuary.
In dolmens excavated in the vicinity of Sochi, cylindrical carnelian and paste beads and imitating pendants made from the teeth of a young deer, various ceramics, stone axes, and a bronze spearhead were found. A series of bronze items, mainly axes and adzes, kept in the Sochi Museum of Local Lore, and also, possibly, a human head made of sandstone, found in the vicinity of Adler, should also be attributed to the dolmen culture.
The settlement of this time was recorded only in the upper cultural layers of the Big Vorontsovskaya cave. Stone, flint, ceramic and metal items were also found here. Flint tools are represented by scrapers, chisels, sickle inserts, and pike-type hoes. Of the stone tools, wedge-shaped axes with drilled holes, bars and other items should be noted. Ceramic finds include flat-bottomed vessels decorated with rich carved ornaments, and a whorl. A bronze awl of a tetrahedral section was also found here.
In the Middle Bronze Age, as before, the basis of the land economy of the local population was hoe farming, domestic cattle breeding, hunting, and various crafts designed to meet intracommunal needs. Farming is illustrated by the finds of flint hoes and inserts for sickles in the corresponding layers of the Bolshaya Vorontsovskaya Cave. A horse's jaw was found in front of the entrance to one of the dolmens of Solokhaul. Of the crafts, it should be noted the manufacture of ceramics, spinning and weaving, leather and bone processing, and metallurgical production. A particularly high level was achieved in connection with the construction of dolmens in stone processing technology. It is necessary to dwell on this activity of the ancient settlers in more detail.
Large (tiled, composite, monolithic, trough-shaped, horseshoe-shaped) dolmens were built in advance: people during their lifetime prepared strong tombs for themselves and their descendants. For this purpose, a suitable place was chosen near the settlement. In some cases, the placement of dolmens near springs was noted, and the dolmen on the Godlik River is located next to mineral spring. An indispensable condition for choosing a site for the tomb was, of course, sandstone and limestone outcrops. These rocks usually occur in layers, which to a certain extent facilitated work in quarries. The slabs were broken out, probably, with the help of wooden pegs driven into pits hollowed out along a contour previously drawn on the surface of the rock. The pegs were poured with water: when they swelled, they broke off slabs of the required size. The slabs were subjected to rough processing and thrown with the help of rollers, levers and ropes, a large number people and possibly draft animals to the installation site. Then, both sides of the facade slab and the inner surface of the remaining slabs, as well as all the edges and the corresponding grooves in the side and cover plates, were carefully processed. The grooves are usually round or rectangular in cross section. This processing was carried out with the help of adze-shaped bronze tools with a rather narrow blade, small chips that left holes.
Near the dolmens, slate tiles with traces of smoothing were also found, which, as they lay, served to polish the details of structures.
High art required the manufacture of cork, which was decorated with grooves, bulges and other elements. The calculation of the size and shape of plates, holes, plugs was carried out in advance, which indicates certain mathematical knowledge: the concept of right angles, various dimensions of a square, circle, etc.
The installation of the dolmen itself probably took place as follows. In the grooves of the floor or in grooves specially dug for this purpose in the soil, first, apparently, the front and rear, and then the side plates were installed. They were brought to a vertical position with the help of wedges, levers and ropes and supported from the outside by one or two plates on each side. The walls fixed in this position must have been covered from the outside to the very top with soil and stone. Then, most likely, along the back slope of the embankment, a cover slab was pulled in, which lay with the grooves of the inner side on the upper ends of the walls specially hewn for this. In those cases when the dolmen had composite walls made of ill-fitting slabs or slabs not connected by a system of grooves, which did not allow it to stand without solid support from the outside, the embankment was left. This scheme of building large tiled and composite dolmens using earthen mounds can be controversial, since the mound could be replaced by a roll of logs or a heap of stones. It is possible that some specific system of levers and blocks, which is still difficult to reconstruct, was used here.
The processing technique of monolithic dolmens required the knowledge of several other techniques associated with cutting rooms in solid rock. Moreover, this work was complicated by the small size of the front opening, through which the stone was taken out and the fragmental material was taken out. The construction of trough-shaped tombs was an easier task, which boiled down to the open gouging of the burial chamber and the manufacture of only one cover slab. During the construction of horseshoe-shaped dolmens, certain knowledge of the geometric properties of the circle and the accuracy of measuring work were necessary. It was necessary to manufacture a series of arcuate blocks, and then combine them on the spot in two or three tiers. Well-shaped tombs did not represent a difficult technical problem at all. Here, both the need to move significant weights, except for the lid, and work with the adze, have already disappeared.
The construction of large dolmens, even if it was assumed that those who built them could use all the tools and techniques listed above, required the efforts of such a large team, which could only be a tribal community. At the same time, one should think that not all members of the family were honored with burials in dolmens, but only individual persons chosen for some reason. Thus, we can conclude that the dolmen group is, apparently, a special family cemetery, which served to a certain extent, judging by the sacrificial platforms and other attributes (bowls, recesses, solar signs, etc.) at the same time for periodic prayers and played the role of a kind temple complex. The existence of such a complex system of religious beliefs suggests the allocation of a fairly influential priestly caste. However, the widespread use mountain zone testifies to the emergence of distant pastoral cattle breeding, which could not but lead to an increase in the role of the latter in the life of dolmen builders. During this period, the foundations of patriarchal relations were formed, a tribal elite was formed: leaders, elders, priests, who somehow stood out against the background of ordinary community members.
There are no regularities reflecting the ritual character in the orientation of the dolmens. As a rule, it is directed with the facade down the slope. This is explained by the fact that the builders of dolmens took into account the accumulation of soil near the walls, carried down from the slope by precipitation, and sought to keep the approach to the hole open as long as possible. However, in some cases (trough-shaped dolmens with a false portal), a hole was noted in the back or side walls facing up the slope. This can be explained by some reasons of a religious nature, which forced the real manholes to be hidden.
There are still discussions about the ritual of burials in dolmens. However, in its main features, this rite is already manifested in the territory under consideration. First of all, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that in most of the dolmens of the Sochi region, where an undisturbed layer has been preserved, the presence of only individual, mainly large human bones has been noted. This phenomenon was traced in two tiled dolmens (Krasnaya Polyana), in a trough-shaped dolmen (Thessaloniki). The results of the study of one of the well-shaped tombs in Krasnaya Polyana are also indicative. Only large bones belonging to at least 6-7 individuals were also noted here. At the same time, there were only three fragments of skulls, and in one of the vessels were the remains of a skull, bearing traces of fire. The presence of features of cremation in similar tombs in Krasnaya Polyana was noted earlier. In the same tomb, 16 both very small and quite normal-sized vessels were found, which also indicates a large number of burials, most likely made not simultaneously, but with some interruptions. At the same time, in the small well-shaped tombs of Krasnaya Polyana, in two cases, single burials were noted, apparently, of women lying in a crouched position on their side with their heads to the east and having one mug vessel each.
A characteristic feature of the funeral cult of the builders of the West Caucasian dolmens is the desire to isolate the interior of the dolmen from outside world. The amazing thoroughness in the mutual adjustment of the plates did not allow the slightest gap. The diminutiveness of the ceramics found in the dolmens was caused, as is believed, by the fact that these dishes were intended not so much for the deceased, but for his soul, which, according to the ideas of that time, had a small size. Probably, to a large extent, anxiety, fear forced the living to invent such a durable dwelling designed for millennia for the souls of their relatives, forced them to create conditions for complete tightness for their eternal peace. Fear of death, clothed in the form of fear of the spirit, the shadow of the deceased, characterizes a certain stage in the development of human consciousness.
The reconstruction of the funeral rite in the dolmens of the city of Sochi can give the following picture. The deceased was left in a sacred grove near the dolmen, where after a certain time, as a result of natural transformations, only large bones remained on the site. Then they proceeded to the main rite, in which, as can be assumed, the main role belonged to the priest and his assistant.
The average size of dolmens is 2 meters wide, 2 meters high and 3 meters long. The diameter of the hole is about 40 cm. The weight of each plate is from 3 to 8 tons, the weight of the cork is about 100 kg. The word "DOLMEN" comes from the Breton (Kola) word, in which tol means a table, and men - a stone.
Adygs, for example, call them "ISPUI" - the house of a dwarf. Their legend says that giants and dwarfs lived in ancient times. Giants were big and often offended dwarfs, and dwarfs were small and cunning. Therefore, the dwarfs, with the help of cunning, forced the giants to build dolmens for themselves from huge slabs. In these houses they felt safe. The dwarfs rode on hares and jumped right on them to their homes, through a hole in the front slab. The Cossacks called dolmens heroic huts.
Archaeologists estimate the start of construction of some Caucasian dolmens as the end of the third millennium BC. This means. What are dolmens older than the pyramids! They attribute them to burial structures, because they find in them the remains of human burials. But neither the dolmen builders themselves nor their other contemporaries left any records with answers to our main questions.
Translated from the Breton "dolmen" means "stone table". Ancient structures, built of large stone slabs, outwardly really look like a table - two vertical slabs and one horizontal. But there are structures consisting of five or six slabs, shaped like houses with a flat roof. The secret of construction and purpose has not yet been fully disclosed. In age, many of them are much older than the pyramids.
These mysterious structures are found in different parts of the globe - in Europe, America, Africa, India, Indonesia. It is surprising how people who have absolutely no connection with each other could build structures that are similar in appearance. Regarding the purpose of dolmens, there are many hypotheses, both scientific and mythological.
The most popular scientific theory has been put forward by archaeologists. They suggest that the dolmens were intended for funerary burials - like burial mounds or Egyptian pyramids. The arguments are the remains present in some structures, as well as shards found nearby, ancient amulets and jewelry. Opponents of this theory argue that burials are not found in all dolmens. In addition, when considering specific dolmens, it turns out that their age is much greater than the age of the burial. These facts indicate that the dolmens were originally intended for other purposes.
Another popular hypothesis claims that the purpose of the dolmens was cult and religious. Its supporters explain the presence of a round hole in a vertical slab as the creation of a symbolic original gate to the other world. As an argument, the fact is given that it is the image of the gate that is carved on some plates with holes. But if the purpose of dolmens is religious, then why were no sacrificial objects found near them, no ancient settlements?
A lot of dolmens have been found in the Caucasus region, especially in the Krasnodar Territory. It is assumed that the age of some of them exceeds five thousand years. If you look at dolmen map Black Sea coast, you can see that their largest concentration is located in the area of Gelenzhik, Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Sukhumi. Researchers studying dolmens in the Gelenzhik region have put forward an interesting theory. They noticed that the dolmen model is similar to the "black body" model, and suggested that ancient structures were used as an information receiver and transmitter.Quartz sandstone - the material from which they are built dolmens of the Krasnodar Territory, widely used in radio engineering. It has the ability to generate electric current and emit waves under mechanical stress. Researchers believe that dolmens were used as a prototype of the Internet, only information was transmitted at the subconscious level - one person next to the dolmen transmitted visual and mental images, the other instantly received them near another dolmen.
Some guidebooks for the Krasnodar Territory provide interesting legend about giants and dwarfs. In ancient times, only two tribes lived in these parts - huge stupid giants and small, but cunning dwarfs. The giants lived on good lands in the valley, while the dwarfs were forced to huddle in dark mountain caves. The dwarfs involved in witchcraft managed to get the giants to build comfortable stone houses out of stones for themselves. Such dwellings served as reliable protection, because no one could climb into round small holes, except for the dwarfs themselves.
Long-term studies have not yet answered the question of why ancient people built dolmens, and this secret has yet to be discovered.
