Dolmen
Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000–3000 BCE) and were sometimes covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus (burial mound).
The name was supposedly derived from a Breton language term meaning 'stone table' but doubt has been cast on this,[citation needed] and the OED describes its origin as "Modern French".
[7] Dolmens are known by a variety of names in other languages, including Galician and Portuguese: anta, Bulgarian: Долмени, romanized: Dolmeni, German: Hünengrab/Hünenbett, Afrikaans and Dutch: hunebed, Basque: trikuharri, Abkhaz: Adamra, Adyghe: Ispun Danish and Norwegian: dysse, Swedish: dös, Korean: 고인돌, romanized: goindol (go-in = 'propped' + dol = 'stone'), and Hebrew: גַלעֵד.
In Catalan-speaking areas, they are known simply as dolmen, but also by a variety of folk names, including cova ('cave'),[8] caixa ('crate' or 'coffin'),[9] taula ('table'),[10] arca ('chest'),[8] cabana ('hut'), barraca ('hut'), llosa ('slab'), llosa de jaça ('pallet slab'),[11] roca ('rock') or pedra ('stone'), usually combined with a second part such as de l'alarb ('of the Arab'),[9] del/de moro/s ('of the Moor/s'),[9][12] del lladre ('of the thief'), del dimoni ('of the devil'), d'en Rotllà/Rotllan/Rotlan/Roldan ('of Roland').
The etymology of the German: Hünenbett, Hünengrab and Dutch: hunebed – with Hüne/hune meaning 'giant' – all evoke the image of giants buried (bett/bed/grab = 'bed/grave') there.
[13] Early in the 20th century, before the advent of scientific dating, Harold Peake proposed that the dolmens of western Europe were evidence of cultural diffusion from the eastern Mediterranean.
[16][17] Dolmens in the Levant belong to a different, unrelated tradition to that of Europe, although they are often treated "as part of a trans-regional phenomenon that spanned the Taurus Mountains to the Arabian Peninsula.
[16] They are mostly found along the Jordan Rift Valley's eastern escarpment, and in the hills of the Galilee, in clusters near Early Bronze I proto-urban settlements (3700–3000 BCE), additionally restricted by geology to areas allowing the quarrying of slabs of megalithic size.
[16] In the Levant, geological constraints led to a local burial tradition with a variety of tomb forms, dolmens being one of them.
[18] In 2000,[18] the dolmen groups of Jukrim-ri and Dosan-ri in Gochang, Hyosan-ri and Daesin-ri in Hwasun, and Bujeong-ri, Samgeori and Osang-ri in Ganghwa gained World Cultural Heritage status.
They are mainly distributed along the West Sea coastal area and on large rivers from the Liaoning region of China (the Liaodong Peninsula) to Jeollanam-do.
