dolmens of ireland by william borlase 1897 vol iii
TRANSCRIPT
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-) Teampulgeal ; [c) Kilmalkedar. See also one drawn by Mr. Windele among his MSS. in the R.I.A. from Loughadrine. It was a much-venerated In front of the Rountl Tower at Clones is a tomb, the form stone, and was said to cure diseases. It has a projecting stone at either end of of which presents in survival that of the earlier structures. See Wakeman, in Journ. Kilk. Archaeol. Soc, vol. iii., 1874-75, p. 336. the ridgeway of the roof.: ; ,
Syria.
72>2>
with the injunction
in the Koran that the dead should face the Caaba in peace. Whilst, then, the general character of the dolmen has been preserved, this alteration in position is attribuThe Romans would seem to table to later religious notions. have treated the dolmens with care, and Roman buildings often lie
near them.In his work called"
Across the Jordan," Herr Schumacher
mentionstrict
many
megalithic remains.dis^^*-''''
So
thickly are the dolmens
of the Ain
Dakkar
grouped
togetherof
'
'"^
that,
standing on one
them, he could count one
hundred and sixty others. They are called by the Arabs Kubur Beni Israel, that is, " Graves of theChildren of Israel."terraces
Wt!slei-n side.
"They
are always built on circular
which elevate them about three feet above ground," in which respect they resemble some of the North- Africanexamples.
Fig. 682.
Dolmen near Ain Dakkar ("showing headings ").
Fro/n Schumacher.
They
are distant from each other about ten yards.six
"In most cases they are formed of
upright slabs and two
Fig. 683.
Terminal ornaments on gables of Irish(2)
Teampulgeal.
(3)
cilics. After Atkinson. Tobar-na-Dru.
(l)
Kilmalkedar.
covering-slabs
of irregular
shape
laid
close
together.is
Their
greater axis
is
E. and
W."
The western end
broader than
734the eastern, and
The Dolmensits
of Ireland.
cap-stone has high ends or headings which recall the high ends of Bedawin tombs, and the horned head onIrish oratories.
These dolmens vary from
7 to 13 feet in length.
So systematically are they constructedis
able to record the observation that in exceeds eight feet in length a second covering-slab is employed. This remark would hold good, I think, in the case of most of
Herr Schumacher where the chamber casesthat
Fig. 684.
Dolmen of
Tsil.
From
Schtimacher.
the dolmens ofparticular.
Western Europe, and of those of Ireland
in
2
In the case of one or two dolmens there is an aperture "about feet in diameter, large enough to crawl through, and of
roundish shape, pierced in the eastern slab."
The
terrace
is
not
always circular, but occasionally the dolmen is surrounded by a There are also "sacred" rectangular rectangular peristyle. enclosures. Bones of animals have been found in some, whichare attributed to feasts of jackals.
Another variety of dolmen seems to approach more closelyto
the
type"
of
Hiinebedden.\Tsil.
some German These occur atare
They
long
areasis
running E. and W., but therestone,
never more than one covering-
and that over the
W. end."circles,,
In the same district areFig. 685. Ground-plan of a dolmen with headings, from Schumacher.
avenues, and alignments formedof hugebasaltic
blocks.
A
monolith of basalt, 7 feet high and 4 feet broad, but probably It is split into at one time larger, is called the " Rock of Job." two portions, and there is a small depression on its upper surface.t See alsofig.
678, sttpra.
Syria.
735
Passing from dolmens to architectural structures, Herr Schumacher observes that towers are found here, and he describes arectangular building called the Wely enof whichis
Neby Sam,
at the S.
end
a tomb, and at the same place, which is held sacred dolk by Christians and Moslems, is a terebinth tree and a well, the whole presenting an exact parallel to the leaba or cille that
is
to say, the little building containing the grave, withtree, generally
its bild
or
venerated
an ash, and
its
tober-na-naomh, or saints'
well, so often
found associated
in Ireland.
fields.
In a third work,f Herr Schumacher describes several dolmenIn that of Ard-el-Mahajjeh there are twelve dolmens.
They He due E. and W. In one example, the two side-stones measure respectively 1 1 feet 5 ins. and 1 1 feet 9 ins. long, and from 2 feet 7 ins. to 3 feet high. At the W. end there is aterminal stone, but the E.
end
is
open.in
The1
cover
ing-slab,
typical
amples, measures
98
ins.ins.
long,
fromfeet
5
to
9
9i
broad, and about2 ins, thick.
Theis
interior
of the vault
3 feet
wide at the W. end, and narrows to 2 feet 6 ins. at the E. end. In the centreof the covering-slabis
a
Fig.
686. Dolmen
at
Mutrakibat).
Ard-el-Mahajjeh (El Ekla'a El Froin Schujuacher.
circular depression or hole,
measuring 10 inches in diameter, and 4 inches deep. I know no description of dolmens which recalls so precisely the more compact ones of Clare as does that of the ones in this group. Near Kefr Yuba the dolmens stand on terraces, consisting either of a single platform of large stones, or of two or three layers built up like steps one above the other. The environmentis
circular, but, as
a rule, the dolmen does not stand in the centre.it
The
enclosed area surroundingit
extends to the S. and
W.
of
the dolmen, so that
includes an area about double that of theitself.
portion which encloses the structure
This
is
an arrange-
ment commonlyt
to
be observed
in the
German
Hiinebedden.
"Northern
'Ajlun, within the Decapolis," pp. 131 and 165.
736
The DolmensThis eccentric position
of Ireland.
for the
dolmen
is
characteristic of
all
The covering-stones are described as of immense this group. In the upper surfaces of some of them depressions are size.
Fig. 687.
Dolmen from
Scluimacher, showing the basins and ducts in the covering-stone.
observed; but it is impossible, adds Herr Schumacher, to say whether they are naturally or artificially produced.
Fig. 688. rian of the dolmen El Ekla'a El Mutrakil)at.
From
Schtiniacher.
As
is is
the case with
cast end
all the dolmens of these districts, the narrower than the west. Some few of this group lie
Syria.
1Z1
is only one end-stone, and that is end being left open. These dolmens stand about 24 to 30 feet apart, and the intermediate spaces are occupied by lines of large blocks arranged in two parallel rows
N.W. and
S.E.
In
some there
at the west, the east
3 feet 3 ins. apart.
In the interior of the dolmens, 14 inches under the earth, found a mass consistino- of ashes mixed with small fraements Among the charred of charcoal, and remnants of decayed bone. remains copper rings are found, measuring 3 inches in diameter.is
Upon
these,
round a portion of the outer
side, a primitiveis
formslab
of decoration, consisting of a zigzag pattern,
engraved.
A
Fig.
689. Specimen
of architecture at Kherbet-Hass, Syrie Centrale. from an engraving in De Vogue's work.
Etched by the author
Such were the results of Herr Schumacher's exploration of more than one hundred out of the eight hundred to a thousand dolmens whichof Stone was always found under the charred mass.
compose
this
Kefr Yuba group.Irish
The
resemblances between
antiquities
and those ofin
Syria by no means stops short at the dolmen epoch. With regard to the buildings of the Roman period
Central
72>^
The DolmensI
of Ireland.
Syria,
will
merely
say, in
parenthesis, that their architecture
stands in closer relation to that of the early ecclesiastical structures To convince of Ireland than does any other style in existence.ourselves of the truth of this statement,Centrale," and then, taking
we have
only to glance" Syrie
through the plates of M. de Vogue's magnificent work,
up
Petrie's " Ecclesiastical Architecture
of Ireland," turn to such examples as Kilmacduagh on the coast of Connemara, or the interior of Trinity Church, Glendalough.
In
Syria, too, may be found structures seemingly analogous to the much-debated "Round Tower" of Ireland on the one hand, andto the minaret of the
Mosque (borrowedhaveI
also
from a pre-Christian
prototype) on the other.
So
struck, indeed,
often been with these resemblances,
and with those of the concurrent (to which I have alluded) which accompanied them, that I have sometimes thought that a chapter must have been lost to history, and that a time comthere must have been mencing none can say when, butsuperstitions
not terminating before the
fifth
when a vast superstitioncentury,a.d.
a
mighty and far-
reaching system of Death-Cultus,
which had made its way westFiG.690.-windowintheeastendofSt.Mac ward from Central Asia perhaps Dara^ church on the island called Cruach settled down On thcse lands, Mic Dara (Connemara). Afier Peine. and was thence diffused nortliivards through Scythia to the Baltic and the Elbe, first by pagans, then by Christians, each of whom absorbed and assimilated its fetichism and its ceremonial forms, and southwards, again, to Arabia and Africa, where the followers of Mahomet preservethe traces of it to-day in their tomb-worship and well-worship and rag-offerings, just as, in the furthest island of North-Western Europe, do the followers of Christ. Granted the existence of such a centre in these parts, and we
know not how muchsuperstitions,
of our folk-lore, and
the originit.
of whichdessil,
is
sois
obscure,
how many of those may not bemoving sun-
attributable to
With the
that
to say, the
Syria.
739
ways, or right-hand ways, round some venerated spot.f we might connect the dance of the dervishes who, eight in number, move
round
an orbit, though in a contrary direction, perhaps in In these dervishes accordance with a Mahommedan precept.in
and
Conder thinks we may see a survival of the mystic Cabiri, "the Seven Great Ones, or planetary gods, revolving round the green centre of the terrestrial globe." Withtheir dance, Captain
the
Midsummer
fires,
again,
worship of
Tammuz
at the?
why summer
shouldsolstice
we
not connect thein
by the Phoenicians
their holy city of
Byblos
That
the merchant cruises of this latter people could have, as
^.^y\a-
-
Fig.
691. Trinity Church
at
Glendalough.
After Pclric.
some have asserted, borne any appreciable part in the implanting in all the Western and North-western lands of so widespread and It follows deeply rooted a system of mythos is inconceivable. into the countries that, if it started from Syria, it went overland where it is found.however, rather to Persia than to Syria that we would look for the oriorinal centre whence fire-worship went westward. The name of the present desert of Mogon, where the surface is ablaze with flames naturally produced, recalls the Baron vonItis,
" paganus cursus " so especially prohibited in the Capitularies of Charlemagne. t This was the iniectea on their travels, were popularly supposed to be Frankish stock, form of heresy. Poor Saint Rudbert, although of royal with this demonstrative vulgar crowds wno, mixed with the blood of Irish chieltains, had to put up with derision from the to look upo'jj" not content with laughing at his ignorance of their language, were accustomed ines. Cavisius, Scotic pilgrims as " deceptores, gyrovagi, et cursores " (see "Hist. S. Rudberti ;Irish bishops, as they called themselves,
Mon.
III.," pt.
ii.
p. 319).
740
The Dolmens
of Ireland.
Haxthauson's f account of the Holy-Land of Mugon, the country of the Median Magi, the cradle-land of the worship of Ormuzd, in the midst of the land of heroes, Iran proper, where burned theeternal
and sacred
fires
of Baku.
The course of historic immigrations, as pointed out by tradition, Thus was, we feel sure, that o{ prehistoric immigrations as well. when we find EustathiusJ and Theophylact speaking of theUnni (Huns) as a Scythian race on the Caspian, possessing vast treasures of gold, and tributaries, first of the Medes and then of the Babylonians, migrating into Europe by way of the Palus Meeotis, we may see reason to think that elder nations, too, hadpassed along that route.
have already spoken of trade-routes by which amber was Professor Virchow thinks that the transmitted to the south. earliest route by which bronze arrived in Europe went northwards from the Black Sea, his opinion being based on the fact that the bronze implement so common in Northern Europe, namely, the celt, was not found in Greece, Asia Minor, or the Caucasus. He considered that the original inventors of bronze were to be sought for in Central Asia, in the Hindu Koosh, and the Altai. Some archaeologists have thought that the origination of this compound metal is to be looked for among the Semitic peoples of Western Asia, and others among the Turanian aborigines of thelower Euphrates. Worsaae considered that India was the cradleland of the bronze industry, and that thence it spread to China and Sophus Siberia, and so over the Urals to the N.E. of Europe.
We
remarked the resemblance (implying relationship) of the forms of the old North and Middle European bronzes to the Siberian ones, and the difference between them and those of Greece, and from this concluded that the bronze culture came from Asia to Northern and Middle Europe northwards from the Black Sea, but that Greece received it by a southern route. All these authorities were acjreed that it ori, side wall slabs; c, round hole in centre slab; d cf, upright slabs for entrance: Contents, broken pottery, calcined bones, ashes (human), and charcoal mixed with grey earth.
be found of dolmens in Keljhar. A tradition A exists that these were raised by the Kurumbar shepherds. large one at Muhl was undoubtedly a place of worship, as a goat had been sacrificed in front of it only half an hour before the author of the account arrived on the spot. This temple, as he an accountwill
calls
It was 4 feet broad, and 4 feet high. At the back closed on three sides, but open towards the east.it,
was 6
feet long,
was a raised terrace of earth on which were set up a number of stones smeared with vermilion, each said to be a Kurmar Devi the Gondi name for the deity of the Kurumbar shepherds. These " temples " are called Malldna by the shepherds themselves, and they are generally built in pairs, one dedicated to Mallana Deva, and the other to Mallana Devi. There was a second small "cromlech" at Muhl close beside the larger one. The Kurumbars sacrifice a goat to the Mallanas to save their flocks from tigers and murrain. The shrines are generally opentliere
to the east, but
sometimes completely closed for the purpose of keeping the sacred stones which represent the Mallana deities quite safe. Wooden figures are offered by sick people to avertSee note by Rawlinson, " Herod." vol. iii. pp. 58-62, and a section t " Hist.," lib, iv. c. 71. of a Scythian tomb, with the construction of the roof of which compare New Grange. X Cunningham, 1879, P'- ^^v. p. 140.
India.
755
death.similar
by tigers and snakes are buried under dolmens raised on low mounds on which relatives placekilledItis
Men
rude representations of horses.Fifteen villaores have two dolmens each.
added that
Fig. 698.
Dolmen in the Province of I\Iadras.
From Mr.
0^ Hara' s paper in Proc. R.I.A.
Colonel
Meadows-Taylor considered them
as templesin
and not
tombs, and that he found no
human remains
them.
dolmen of a different form to those we have been considering has been figured and described by Mr. O'Hara in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.f It is in the province In outline it bears a great resemblance of Madras (Fig. 698). to that at Knockatotaun in Sligo. \t Vol.ix.,
A
1864-1866, p. 190.
X Fig. 169, supra.
756
The Dolmens
of Ireland.
PART HI. NAMES. LEGENDS, AND SUPERSTITIONS ASSOCIATED WITH DOLMENS AND OTHER MEGALITHIC REMAINS AND VENERATED SITES INIRELAND.borne by dolmens in Ireland may be divided into two those which are simply descriptive (d) those which are derived from some current opinion as to their origin and purpose, which may be referable, either (i) to imagination pureclasses:
The names
(a)
;
and simple, orquarian
(2) to false
etymological conceits, or (3) to antilast
speculations
dating from the
century,in the
or
(4) to
endeavours to connect them with events set down
medieval
MSS., or (5) to genuinely ancient oral tradition. With regard to the latter category, to imagine for a moment that any, even the faintest, echo of a tradition as to the />erso7is by whom the earlier examples were erected, could have survived from the Neolithic or the Bronze Age, when they were built, until thepresent day,
may berecord,
dismissed as an absurdity.
On
the othersybil
hand, a
ctiltiis
dies a very lingering death,
and Folk-lore, the
who keeps
its
was
already an old
woman when,
race com-
mingling with race, and language supplanting language, and a newreligion assimilating the earlier forms, History
was moulded from thein cases
rude materials of the prehistoric past.
Traces, then, of the p^irpose
for and
luhich these structures
were erected may, although
few
far between, have reached our times, either in the form in which they were committed to writing by scribes in the eleventh
and following centuries, or in some faint orally transmitted story still hanging round the once venerated and still awe-inspiring spot. As examples of names simply descriptive, we may take {