Antonio Correia
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Dolmen / passage grave in Vidigueira, Portugal
- Thread starter Antonio Correia
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- alentejo dolmen portugal vidigueira
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Antonio,
This looks like epic architecture. What’s the story behind it!
Asher
This looks like epic architecture. What’s the story behind it!
Asher
Jerome Marot
Well-known member
I think I have posted about megaliths in an earlier thread. Dolmens are actually the remnant of the inside chamber of a tumulus, the gravel and earth covering have been taken away. In western Europe, tumuli were all the rage between 4000 and 3000 BC, so this one is presumably that old. They are believed to be tombs, in the sense that human bones are found in the chamber. Of course we would not know whether they were built for that purpose or built for another purpose and a few century later some dynast would find out that they would be a cool place to bury him or her. We have plenty of tombs within medieval churches and we know these were not built as tombs. But maybe they were indeed built as tombs, just like the pyramids in Egypt (which date about 1000 years later).
Scientists recently learned a few things about them:
-they were not built, then burial happen and the tumulus would be closed for good; they were frequented for a few decades or even centuries after they were built.
-the bones usually belong to people of the same family
-they were built on prominences so as to be seen from afar, while the villages were usually in lower grounds to have access to water
-the population needed to erect them was much larger than the number of people buried at the place.
Scientists recently learned a few things about them:
-they were not built, then burial happen and the tumulus would be closed for good; they were frequented for a few decades or even centuries after they were built.
-the bones usually belong to people of the same family
-they were built on prominences so as to be seen from afar, while the villages were usually in lower grounds to have access to water
-the population needed to erect them was much larger than the number of people buried at the place.
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Antonio Correia
Well-known member
Thank you for commenting Asher and Jerome 
"...The architectural characteristics of this monument and the materials collected inside allow its construction and use to be framed at the end of the 4th, beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. C. (3500 / 2500 BC)..."
"...The architectural characteristics of this monument and the materials collected inside allow its construction and use to be framed at the end of the 4th, beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. C. (3500 / 2500 BC)..."
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
It would imply a hierarchical society to give that amount of effort for a few burials!
Jerome Marot
Well-known member
On such matter, I would like to point out that the economist Thorstein Veblen wrote that increase in productivity at the beginning of the neolithic period with the invention of agriculture allowed free time and that this, in turn, lead to a stratification of society.
Maggie Terlecki
Moderator
Wonderful photograph, Antonio. Thanks also to Jerome for the history behind it! Maggie
Maggie