Dolmen

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In antiquity (especially in France), a word for a megalithic tomb consisting of orthostats and capstone or for megalithic chamber tombs in general. This was usually a stone structure consisting of upright columns supporting a slab roof and known from Neolithic times. In English archaeological literature 'dolmen' should be used only for tombs whose original plan cannot be determined or for tombs of simple unspecialized types which do not fit into the passage grave or gallery grave categories; it is also used for relatively small, closed megalithic chambers, such as the dysser of Scandinavia. The name was probably derived from Cornish 'tolmen' (stone table). The word has a second meaning for the enclosure for burial in a jar of the Yayoi period in Japan consisting of a single large stone slab supported on a ring of stones. A third meaning is for a megalithic stone burial feature in western China and coast Yellow Sea area, dating to the 1st millennium BC, of which there are three forms - raised table, low table, and unsupported capstone.

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Term once used to describe any megalithic chamber tomb. Today it is used by French archaeologists to describe a megalithic tomb of simple form, whereas in England its use is retained only in the specialized term portal dolmen. In other areas of the world the term is still used in the general sense.

The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied

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