Unpacking the Term ‘Dolmen’ Around the Black Sea Coast
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2019-04-14

‘Dolmen’ is defined as a ‘tomb with a large flat stone laid on upright ones.’ (OED). Yet, its subsequent use in archaeological parlance has resulted in the term becoming synonymous with the Neolithic of western Europe. ‘Dolmen’, therefore, needs to be unpacked in order to help explain the megalithic phenomena around the Black Sea coast (Russia and Bulgaria) which dates from the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age (cf. Трифонов и Шишлина, 2014:19-37; Смирнов, 2010:169-184; Кудин, 2008:27-31). There has seldom been Anglophone research on this phenomena in eastern Europe since Minns (1913) and Velkov. (1938). Consequently, the occurrence of megaliths in eastern Bulgaria and south western Russia remains relatively unknown in Anglophone scholarship. Interestingly, the megaliths in both regions share numerous characteristics which they do not share with the dolmens of western Europe. Nevertheless, that has not stopped local archaeologists from calling these megalithic structures ‘dolmens’. Therefore, this talk will have three aims. Firstly, I shall aim to assess what the term dolmen means and whether it can be applied to these megaliths. Secondly, I shall present the phenomena of Russio-Bulgarian megaliths to an Anglophone audience. Thirdly, I shall seek to fit their occurrence within a wider narrative of European prehistory. 

Donald Crystal (Cardiff University)