Megalithic structures of the Ancient World. Dolmens of the Western Caucasus. Dolmens of the Caucasus. Construction technologies

Dolmens- These are tombs of the Middle Bronze Age, built by the bearers of the dolmen culture and consisting of megaliths. On at the moment scientists extend the time frame for the creation of these structures to the late Bronze Age, but there is little evidence for this, since a significant part of the dolmens has already been destroyed.

Where and when were dolmens built?

The geography of dolmen placement is determined by the following boundaries: from the cape Tuzla(Taman Peninsula), mountainous part of Adygea and Krasnodar region to the Abkhaz city Ochamchira in the south and the Laba River valley in the north. Traces of the existence of these structures remained in Stavropol and Zheleznovodsk.

A unique “corner” of dolmen-shaped crypts is Karachevo-Cherkessia (Kyafar River basin).

As a rule, dolmens are located 250-400 m above sea level (maximum height - 1 km) on the sunny side of the ridges, at the top on a flat area or on a river terrace. The orientation towards astronomical objects and down the solar slope can be traced.

The time of construction of the majestic buildings is approximately determined by the end of the 3rd - second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. This dating applies to the largest megaliths (there are now ≈3000 of them, including those destroyed). While there are certain disagreements and problems in determining the time of construction of other buildings of this type (tombs under mounds, Karachevo-Cherkess crypts, small dolmens, underground parts of crypts in the form of wells, above-ground domes of tombs).

Who built the dolmens in the Caucasus?

The peoples of the Western Caucasus are not pioneers in the construction of stone tombs. More ancient parallels to the dolmen tradition can be traced throughout the world. The approximate distribution trajectory looks like this: Portugal - Sardinia - North Africa and Sicily - Jordan and Syria - Asia Minor and the Balkans - Western Caucasus. In addition, almost all Caucasian peoples used stone for burials.

What were they used for?

In addition to their direct purpose as burial places, there is indisputable evidence of the use of these structures as family sanctuaries, and some as common objects of worship (Psynako I mound in the Tuapse region, the Silver Mound in the Klady tract and the complex on the Zhane River).

Features of construction

The main material in the construction process was stone from the surrounding area (it was split using soaking wooden wedges, softer ones - with stone and even bronze tools). Suitable slabs were also used, both nearby and transported from several kilometers away. Various sand rocks served as connectors for stone parts. The surfaces were polished using stone trowels. The cover slabs were transported along an inclined embankment behind the dolmen.

Architectural specificity of dolmens

Basically, dolmens are houses consisting of slabs, the front openings in which are closed with stone plugs.

Depending on the design features, several types of dolmens are distinguished (classification by L. I. Lavrov): ordinary (consist of solid slabs), composite (have walls consisting of small slabs or stones), trough-shaped (carved into a huge stone or rock and a krisha slab or upside down), monoliths (made through the entrance to the rock, Volkonsky dolmen). This list does not include the later discovered Novosvobodnensky tombs.

Archaeologist A.D. Rezepkin proposed dividing dolmens into:

• rectangular,
• horseshoe tombs
• and the dolmens themselves.

The immediate predecessors of the dolmens of the Caucasus are the stone crypts of the Maykop culture, which did not yet have a foundation and thick slabs.

Almost each of the monoliths has some of its own design features that correspond to the time and customs.

Tile buildings can be rectangular, square or trapezoidal, while composite buildings can be round or completely round. Curved slabs can be installed straight or at an angle (often projecting like a canopy), connected (or not) by a groove. Often the side slabs, protruding forward, form a portal, which may have its own overlap.

There are also many differences in the design of the floor, side plates and other elements (for example, supports).

As a rule, there is an entrance hole of different shapes at the bottom. It may not exist (false portal dolmens), then the hole is located at the back or side. There may be remains of fastenings for a wooden shelf on the walls.

Often the portal of a building has the shape of a terrace, but more often it is a paved courtyard. It can be surrounded by fairly high (up to the level of the dolmen itself) slabs. In some cases, there may be a cromlech (stones dug into the ground around a structure) or a dromos (covered corridor). There have been cases when dolmens were completely covered with stones up to the roof.

The Karachay-Cherkessia tombs are distinguished by an order of magnitude higher level of craftsmanship.

Decoration of dolmens

The main ornaments of dolmens are engraved and convex. Few of them have survived, apparently due to erosion. Where the drawings have been preserved, they are located inside and along the portal. On the front plate there was a cross in a circle, a labyrinthine pattern with an outgoing zigzag, vertical zigzags, or a pattern of another portal and a convexity. There may be others geometric designs, denoting rivers, mountains, sun.

The inside of the dolmens is decorated with a horizontal zigzag and a straight line or stripe, sometimes complemented by vertical zigzags. And also a lot of unsolved ornaments and plot drawings (a deer hunt and a fight between two twins).

The surface of dolmens in Karachay-Cherkessia is almost completely filled with various symbols and wavy grooves.

A characteristic feature of the dolmens’ ornamentation is the absence of colorful designs on the façade and in the chamber.

In the Caucasus Mountains, somewhere between the cities of Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Novorossiysk and Sochi, there are hundreds of megalithic monuments, which are called dolmens. Age of all these megalithic dolmens dates back approximately 10,000 - 25,000 years, and what they were intended for is debated today by both Russian and Western archaeologists.

There is no single point of view regarding dolmens in the Caucasus - some archaeologists believe that the age of these megalithic structures is actually from 4000 to 6000 years. Thousands of prehistoric megalithic monuments are known all over the world, but those located on the territory of the former Soviet Union(including in the Caucasus) are little known in the West.

Dolmens are mainly located in the Western Caucasus (Russia and Abkhazia) on both sides of the mountain range, covering an area of ​​approximately 12,000 square kilometers. Caucasian dolmens are a unique type of prehistoric architecture - structures created from perfectly fitted cyclopean stone blocks. For example, there are stones in the shape of a bull “G”, which were used on the corners of dolmens, or stones in the shape of a perfect circle.

Although such “fragments ancient era» generally unknown in Western Europe, these Russian megaliths are no less significant for science than the megaliths discovered in Europe - both in terms of age and in terms of the quality of architecture. And the most amazing thing is that their origin is still unknown. Scientists note that despite the diversity of Caucasian stone structures, they show striking similarities with megaliths from different parts of Europe and Asia (Iberian Peninsula, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Israel and India).

A number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain such similarities, as well as guesses about the purpose of the construction of megaliths, but for now all this remains a mystery. At the moment, approximately 3,000 such megalithic monuments are known in the Western Caucasus, but new megaliths continue to be found constantly. At the same time, unfortunately, many of the Caucasian monoliths are in an extremely neglected state and will be completely lost if they are not protected from vandals and natural destruction.

Most of the megaliths, dolmens and stone labyrinths that are found in the Caucasus Mountains (but they are little studied) look like rectangular structures made of stone slabs or carved into the rocks with round holes as an entrance. However, not all dolmens look like this. In fact, you can find very diverse examples of architecture here: multi-story stone buildings, square, trapezoidal, rectangular and round.

What is noteworthy is that in all such buildings there is a hole on the façade leading inside. Most often it is round, but occasionally square ones are found. Also often stone “plugs” are found in dolmens, which were used to close the entrance hole. Sometimes such stone plugs have a phallic shape. Inside the dolmen there is most often a round platform onto which light falls through a round hole. Scientists believe that some kind of rituals may have been carried out at such sites. Such a site was surrounded by large stone walls, sometimes more than a meter high.

It was in this area that archaeologists found Bronze and Iron Age pottery that helped date these burials, as well as human remains, bronze tools and jewelry made from silver, gold and semi-precious stones. Typically, the repertoire of decorations for such graves is not particularly diverse. The most common types of carvings found on stone blocks are vertical and horizontal zigzags, triangles and concentric circles.

One of the most interesting megalithic complexes is a group of three dolmens, which is located on a hill above the Zhane River on the Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar region near Gelendzhik, Russia. This area has perhaps the largest concentration of all types of megalithic objects, including settlements and dolmens.

Photo: thelivingmoon.com
Based on materials from ewao.com

And in the north - to the valley of the Laba River. But previously there were in the area of ​​​​the city of Zheleznovodsk in the Stavropol Territory and, possibly, in other places. A separate closed region of distribution of peculiar dolmens or “dolmen-shaped crypts” of late construction is the Upper Kuban region (the basin of the Kyafar River in Karachay-Cherkessia). Continued to be used into the Late Bronze Age and beyond. In total, about 3,000 dolmens are known, including destroyed ones. Of these, no more than 6% have been studied.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Architecture (“Kolikho. The secret of the dolmens of the Caucasus”)

✪ On the other side of the dolmens

✪ V. Pyatibrat about Dolmens.

✪ Interesting facts from the history of the North-West Caucasus (Part 1)

Subtitles

Local names

• Russians (since the 19th century): heroic huts or huts, didov's and devil's huts.

Security problem

Falsification of history and obscurantism

From the second half of the 90s of the last century, after the appearance of literature of occult-mystical content, designed for a public completely free of specific knowledge, but which brought to it the news of the existence of such objects, a near-dolmen boom began. The burial grounds became a place of constant pilgrimage and even a place of residence for an exalted sectarian and inadequate public. The media are filled with speculations of various “researchers”, as well as authors completely far from the subject being studied, who are looking for popularity or gathering flocks and clients for themselves, talking about certain “knowledge”, “resonances”, “power”, about some alternative options purpose of the buildings. The most accessible dolmens were invented proper names and they, having become an element of popular culture, are included in the commercial and tourism business. Near some dolmens, structures (labyrinths, etc.) are created from small stones that have never existed here, but which are mistaken by tourists for real antiquities. Regularly, teams of “researchers” far removed from both archeology and geology produce more and more films filled with the same standard fabrications and outright lies.

Dating

The main number of dolmens appeared in the first half of the 3rd - second half. 2nd millennium BC e. . Megalithic burial mounds of the Novosvobodnaya culture and carved tombs in Karachay-Cherkessia are often also called dolmens. There are assumptions about the latter that they were either built by medieval Circassians - Kasogs or Alans in the 8th-12th centuries, or these are structures of the late period of the dolmen culture, and the Alans simply inserted their stone boxes into them, since they have exactly this design.

In addition to classical dolmens, small dolmens assembled from random stones were also built on the southern slope of the Main Caucasus Range. There are also small underground well-shaped composite tombs. They are covered by an incomplete false vault and a cover slab. There are even above-ground tombs with a real dome filled with small stones and tiles. If the well-shaped tombs clearly belong to the dolmen culture, then the chronology of the others is not yet completely clear.

Origin

Regardless of their origin, dolmens in the Western Caucasus did not appear out of nowhere. More ancient stone tombs are known in the mounds of the Maikop and Novosvobodnaya cultures (or in another way - in the early and late periods of the Maikop-Novosvobodnaya community). Some structures represent a transitional phase from the Novosvobodnaya tombs to classical dolmens. At the same time, there is a version about the initial impulse that caused the start of dolmen construction in the Caucasus, from the Mediterranean. Since it is there that the closest architectural analogues to the Caucasian dolmens are found. There are parallels in ornamental symbolism. Temporal correspondence is also observed. The path of the bearers of the dolmen tradition can be traced back to the Iberian Peninsula in 4000-3500. BC e. (Los Millares culture). Or perhaps an earlier center was in the Balearic Islands (Pre-Talaiot period), Sardinia (Bonu Ighinu culture 4600-3300 BC - Pre-Nuragic Sardinia) and Corsica. Next - North Africa (Rocknia) and Sicily - Jordan and Syria - Asia Minor and the Balkans (3rd-2nd millennium BC) - Western Caucasus - Crimea (3rd millennium BC). Also many items material culture Dolmen builders have their predecessors in the Aegean and Asia Minor.

In the Caucasus, the oldest dolmens appeared on the southern slope, in the coastal and mountainous zones in the Early Bronze Age in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. These include dolmens in Eshera, Azanta, Othara, Kulanurkhva, Shroma, Doi. They have small and medium sizes.

In the Southern Crimea, somewhat later than in the Caucasus, carriers of the Kemi-Oba culture built stone boxes (cysts), sometimes with grooves in the slabs, and even painted them. In general, throughout the Caucasus (including in the steppe regions) graves were lined with stone slabs, and in some places huge megaliths were built (Armenia, Georgia). The only question is whether there is mutual cultural influence in each of these cases.

Location of dolmens

Since clusters of dolmens are cemeteries of the dolmen culture, several settlements of this culture are usually located in their vicinity: either at a considerable distance or nearby. There are some regularities in the location of dolmens. They are usually found on flat areas on the peaks or on the sunny slopes of ridges (mostly at altitudes of 250-400 m above sea level, maximum height - 1300 m) or on river terraces. The vast majority of dolmens are oriented down the sunny slope, which implies a fairly wide range of directions. If this was impossible, then the dolmen was oriented at least towards a sunlit area on the opposite ridge. In addition, orientation to specific astronomically significant points on the horizon is noted. The assertion that dolmens are linked to water sources has no basis.

Purpose of dolmens

The purpose of dolmens is not just an established fact, but has always been known fact. As a type of tomb, dolmens of the Western Caucasus stand on a par with many similar structures from different times and many peoples. Identified oldest burials in dolmens were left precisely by their builders. And although a certain number of ground burials of the dolmen culture are already known, they were apparently less common, and their known number does not at all correspond to the many fairly large settlements.

Of course, the structures also served as a sanctuary, most likely a family or clan one: this is evidenced, for example, by the discovery of a stone altar during the reconstruction of the dolmen complex on Zhan (located in Gelendzhik local history museum). The newly reconstructed complexes on the Zhane River and on Mount Nexis (both near Gelendzhik), as well as many dolmens with “courtyards,” allow one to imagine the ceremonies that once took place there.

Some dolmen complexes were clearly designed to be visited by a significant number of people. This is, first of all, the megalithic mound of Psynako I near the village of Anastasievka in the Tuapse region, the Silver Mound in the Klady tract near the village of Novosvobodnaya, and the same complexes on the Zhane River and on Mount Nexis. All of them could well serve as common tribal objects of worship. Unfortunately, the museumification of the first from the list was not carried out, and the second was practically destroyed.

Construction of dolmens

For the construction of dolmens, whenever possible, stone from the closest deposits was used. If there were suitable slabs of natural origin nearby, they were collected. But if there was no choice, then the cut slabs could be transported several kilometers away. Used for buildings various types sandstones and limestones. marl. Different breeds could be combined in one building.

In the quarry, the force of wooden wedges swollen from water was used to break stone. Fresh stone from the quarry is softer and can even be processed with stone tools. But the builders of the dolmen culture also had bronze chisels in their arsenal, whose clear traces are constantly encountered when studying buildings. It is assumed that the treated slabs could have been kept for some time before use to gain sufficient hardness. Grinding of surfaces and grooves was carried out with stone trowels, which are found in construction sites. The cover slab was dragged along the inclined embankment behind the dolmen. Animal power could also be used in construction.

Frequent speculation about the impossibility of repeating the exact fit of dolmen slabs in our time, for example, after moving it to a new place, occurs only due to a misunderstanding of the fact that in a new place it is almost impossible to re-duplicate all the features of the old foundation. Which leads to various distortions and discrepancies.

Dolmen architecture

Design

Ornamentation

Compared to the total number, quite a few dolmens are decorated with engraved and even convex ornaments. But, probably, many of the ornaments simply did not survive to our time due to erosion of the stone. They are located throughout the portal and inside the chamber. There is a known image on the front plate with a cross in a circle and a comb-like labyrinth-like pattern with a zigzag extending from it and the inlet. Sometimes there are simply rows of vertical zigzags. On the front slab there is sometimes an image of another dolmen portal, as well as one or two pairs of large convexities above it. Or a rectangular recess is simply made, occupying a larger area of ​​the slab. Rows of vertical and horizontal zigzags can have the ends of side plates. And the attached portal slabs on the inner plane are sometimes decorated with a landscape consisting of a series of triangles (mountains) and vertical rows of zigzags (rivers). The sun is placed above the mountains in the form of an oval with a cross. Sometimes the entire portal slab is covered with horizontal stripes, each of which is formed by a herringbone pattern of chisel incisions. Side plates can also be decorated in this way. Recently, dolmens have been found whose facades were decorated, in one case, with convex diagonal stripes forming a large “Christmas tree” enclosed in a frame; and in the other - already deepened horizontal rows of a wide stretched zigzag. This zigzag is further complicated by segments of single vertical zigzags on the sides and sides of the inlet. Sometimes a stone with an unusual surface was chosen for buildings, due to its internal structure. Such a dolmen, without special treatment, received decorative design in the form of fancy dents and bulges.

The inside of the dolmen chamber is sometimes surrounded by a horizontal zigzag of a wide stripe and a straight line above the horizontal zigzag. In the second case, you get a series of hanging triangles or scallops. This design can be further complemented by areas with vertical zigzags. Stone plugs can also have raised concentric circles on the cap, a nipple-like appearance in the center, four bulges around the circumference and one in the center, or a raised cross.

Sometimes on the roof of a dolmen there are numerous small cup-shaped depressions or holes, scattered randomly across the surface or forming short rows and circles with crosses inside. Similar signs are also found on the side and front slabs of dolmens. And also on individual stones near dolmens, where they may also have rings around them.

Some of the stone blocks that form the courtyard have bulges on their surface - bosses. They do not have such a regular shape as those on the facade slab. These are remains preserved after leveling the entire plane of the wall. Whether they had any meaning other than decorative is unknown.

There are also several simple engraved petroglyphs on or near the dolmens. Their meaning is not yet clear, just as the time of their application is unknown.

Recently, two engraved images of the plot were discovered on a dolmen in the village of Dzhubga: a scene with a man and animals and a fight between two “twins”. The second plot fully corresponds to the known images on anthropomorphic steles of the Kemi-Oba culture. Perhaps the same plot is present on the triple hook from the Novosvobodnaya tomb.

The crypts with medieval Alan burials in Karachay-Cherkessia stand apart, almost completely covered with wavy grooves and various symbols. It is believed that it was the Alans who decorated the more ancient buildings. The so-called “royal mausoleum” especially stands out for its subject images, in which Christian motifs are found.

There are almost no dolmens that have traces of colorful painting in the chamber and on the facade. The poorly preserved painting in the dolmen of the Silver Mound has now been completely disfigured by vandals. And the color drawings in the two two-chamber Novosvobodnaya tombs represent an earlier culture.

List of some notable dolmens

Gallery

Ancient crypts, built from huge stone blocks around the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, are found throughout the vast territory of the Western Caucasus: from capes Fontalovsky and Tuzla on the Taman Peninsula to the mountainous regions of Adygea and the Krasnodar Territory, in the north reaching the Laba river valley, in the south - the outskirts of the Abkhaz city of Ochamchira. The basin of the Kyafar River in Karachay-Cherkessia is known for individual clusters of dolmen-shaped tombs.

About 3 thousand megalithic structures representing the dolmen culture of the Middle Bronze Age have been preserved, and only approximately 6% of them have been studied by scientists. Many stone tombs are gradually destroyed by time and natural elements, but large number of these are destroyed by vandals, who stretch stone monoliths across their farmsteads using powerful tractor equipment.

A certain pattern can be traced in the location of the structures: as a rule, tombs were found on small plateaus at a level of 250-400 m above the sea, less often - up to 1000 m, on the sunny slopes of low ridges or in river valleys. Construction material They used stones mined nearby, usually limestone or various types of sandstone - yellow or reddish ferruginous.

Design Features

Externally, the dolmen is a stone house consisting of 4 slabs installed vertically, covered with a heel on top. An entrance hole was made on the facade in the form of a hole, usually round, closed with a stone plug, but there are crypts with an oval, square or arched opening.

Depending on the design features, archaeologist I. Lavrov proposed classifying dolmens as follows:

• tiled, or ordinary - built from solid stone slabs;
• composite - made up of several stone fragments, fitted using grooves carved into the stone;
• monoliths - carved into the rock in the form of a chamber with a round hole, from which the internal space expanded;
• trough-shaped - cut down in a huge block and covered with a lid or turned upside down.

Each of the dolmens belonging to one type or another is distinguished by its individual traits, for example, in plan it has the shape of a trapezoid, square or rectangle. The roof slab can lie horizontally or at a slope towards the rear wall. Its dimensions sometimes exceed the length of the side walls - it turns out to be a canopy. Often there is something like a facade portal, in front of which there was even a small courtyard paved with stones. Occasionally, the portal finds a continuation in the form of a kind of corridor leading to an entrance-hole. The floor inside consists of one or more stone slabs, sometimes simply covered with pebbles. The entrance hole is not always located on the facade wall; quite often its imitation is observed, and the entrance itself is on the side or behind the dolmen, in this case called false portal.

Only a few of the buildings are decorated with a peculiar semblance of an ornament - zigzag stripes carved in stone or even lines arranged in a herringbone pattern. Small bowl-shaped recesses are found on roofs, side slabs of the facade and are also considered as decorative elements. Subject engravings are rare: most famous images- a man surrounded by animals and the struggle of two “twins” on the slabs of a dolmen near the village of Dzhubga. The paintings and petroglyphs on the inner walls of the dolmens have practically not survived, and it is not entirely clear whether they were left by the builders of ancient tombs or by those who used them later.

Connection with the dolmens of the world

Scientists involved in the study of megalithic structures around the world are increasingly expressing the opinion that the Caucasian dolmens have common features with similar stone crypts discovered in different parts of the planet. For example, their similarity with the dolmen buildings of the Deccan Plateau of Hindustan can be traced; ceramic fragments found in Western Caucasian dolmens are similar to beak-shaped bowls from North African megalithic structures; strongly protruding portals, borders around entrance openings, grooves on the side slabs of Mediterranean dolmens are also similar to Caucasian monuments of the Bronze Age. Famous buildings Turkey, especially in Buyunlu, are almost similar to those in the Caucasus, many common features buildings in the upper reaches of the Kuban with dolmens of Corsica and the Iberian Peninsula.

The dolmen structures erected later in Japan, Korea, and China have nothing in common with the megaliths of the Caucasus.

The most notable of the dolmens

In the vicinity of Greater Sochi:

No less famous is the dolmen excavated from a mound in Dzhubga with petroglyphs, in the Tuapse region near the village of Maloye Pseushkho an ancient stone structure on a triple terrace, a megalithic complex in the Novorossiysk region near the village of Vasilievka in the valley of the Ozereika River, consisting of several dilapidated dolmens.

The crypts on the Zhane River are located east of the village of Vozrozhdenie near Gelendzhik. They are considered one of the easily accessible ancient megalithic complexes of the Caucasus, which includes five structures. The central tiled dolmen was named “Tsarsky”, next to it there were several low block structures in the shape of a truncated cone. Nearby there are buildings named “Ecumenical”, “Harmony”, “Hidden Possibilities”, and a little to the side of them, like a mushroom under a hat - “Force of Spirit”.

Adyghe dolmens:

• Khadzhokh-3 and Khadzhokh-4 are located near the village of Kamennomostkogo, both tiled and portal, and Khadzhokh-3 is hidden in a stone mound. In 2013, work was carried out on the restoration of unique ancient crypts.
• Novosvobodnensky dolmens were discovered in several places near the village of the same name: on the Stone Kurgan, a crypt with a cromlech rises on a base made of an inclined slab; in the Klady tract, the dolmen of the Silver Mound is known with preserved elements of internal and external painting and a rectangular courtyard with menhirchiks.

Attractions near the dolmens of the Western Caucasus

Visiting buildings often coincides with exploring other interesting places nearby. Thus, a trip to the dolmens located in the vicinity of Greater Sochi is combined with hikes through the territory of the Sochi National Park and one is left impressed by visiting the Zmeykovsky waterfalls, the Khmelevsky lakes or the observation tower of Mount Akhun.

In addition to the dolmens on the Zhane River near Gelendzhik near the village of Vozrozhdenie, tourists incredibly admire beautiful scenery waterfalls, look with interest at the town, called the center of positive creativity, which annually hosts unusual festival- in small wooden houses they sell freshly squeezed juice, freshly planed figurines, freshly collected honey. The most enduring ones reach the baths of Aphrodite and then climb Mount Shakhan or Mount Cossack.

Near the monuments of the village of Vasilievka in the Novorossiysk region there are picturesque places of the Ozereyka valley and very close to the famous wine cellars of Abrau-Durso, the mysterious Lake Abrau, and the sights of Novorossiysk.

A trip to any of the Caucasian dolmens can always be combined with a visit to interesting places located nearby.

Where to stay

It is quite accessible to explore the dolmens in the vicinity of Greater Sochi by staying at one of the hotels in the famous resort. The closest of them are Bridge Resort, Udacha Plus, Sport Inn, Arfa Park, Azimut, Caucasus with accommodation prices of 1050 - 1500 rubles per day.

You can see the buildings of the Zhane River 8 km from Gelendzhik by staying at one of the recreation centers in the village of Vozrozhdenie - the Yagoda-Malina country complex, the Rafael hotel complex, the Minutka guest house, as well as at the local spa center - eco-friendly village “Zdorovye”, a kind of balneological mini-resort with a healing iodine-bromine well.

It is quite possible to visit the dolmens near the village of Vasilyevka, Novorossiysk region, by staying in hotels in nearby settlements, 3-4 km away: in the Izumrud guest house in the village of Glebovskoye, the Wind Rose hotel in the village of Borisovka, in the guest houses in the village of Tsemdoliny Lazurny, Alibi, Paradise , Chill Out with price offers 1660-3000 rubles per day

How to get to the Caucasian dolmens

From Moscow to Sochi (Adler) you can travel by train or take an air flight; the cost of train tickets, respectively, is from 2,780 rubles, for a plane - an economy ticket from 2,960 rubles. A trip from Moscow to Novorossiysk by rail will cost approximately the same amount as to Adler. Buses from Novorossiysk and Sochi regularly follow coastal highways, which can take you to the nearest settlement from the buildings.

Municipal buses depart from Novorossiysk to Vasilyevka on routes 101 and 102, the fare is 15 rubles.

The dolmens in the valley of the Zhane River are easily accessible by bus 112, running between Gelendzhik and the village of Vozrozhdenie.

You can get to the Sochi dolmens by any transport, following the coast through Lazarevskoye, and to the famous Volkonsky - by train to Volkonskaya station. Many travel agencies in Sochi organize excursions to various attractions, including visits to monuments.

Note to tourists

When choosing an excursion to the Caucasian dolmens, you should carefully review its program. As a rule, based on the compiled program, it is not difficult to understand whether a qualified specialist will lead you along the tourist route. Unfortunately, representatives of various sects organize trips to the buildings, presenting unique archaeological sites as places of power. Indeed, many scientists have noticed that people near buildings experience various changes in well-being, but they are most likely associated with the placement of megalithic structures on fault lines in the earth’s crust. First of all, dolmens are ancient crypts in the burial places of primitive people.

Many scientists have tried in one way or another to resolve the issue of the origin of dolmens, to find out the details of their origin and appearance in the Caucasus. Among the antiquities of the Kuban region and the Black Sea region, such monuments have not yet been found that would be structurally close and at the same time precede them. Obviously, they will not be found. It turns out that the dolmen culture of its genetic roots among the antiquities of the Kuban region and the Black Sea region. No "long antecedent development" local culture“in the Western Caucasus, which could lead to the independent emergence of dolmens, there was no such thing, even if we try to connect the evolution of the “stone industry” from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age with a continuous line.

An attempt to explain the emergence of dolmens in each part of the world independently, in the case of the Caucasus, finds no basis. Jacques de Morgan writes about the autochthonous origin of dolmen structures: “... one does not at all need to be influenced by distant centers in order to erect large stones and cover them with a roof.” mistaken for dolmens, and the well-known theory that the dolmen structure could have arisen “from a grotto that served as a tomb, the artificially reproduced form of which was the dolmen.” This “cave theory” had many supporters among Western European scientists (Gabriel de Mortillier, K. Schuchhardt, Christian Tservos and others). Our compatriots who were engaged in Caucasian archeology (D.N. Anuchin, M.M. Ivashchenko) also leaned towards it. However, if the position on the transition from burials in rocks (caves, grottos, under canopies) to to a certain extent, this is true for some islands of the Mediterranean Sea (Corsica, Sardinia, etc.), where buildings are known that are half-grottos - half-dolmens, then the features of the monuments of the Western Caucasus indicate a different path of development.

The lack of initial routes for the appearance of dolmens in the Kuban and Black Sea regions led some researchers to search for directions along which the “idea” of a dolmen could come to the Caucasus. In the 70s of the 19th century, the scientist S. Bayern, collecting information about them, was surprised that all the dolmens were located either near the Black Sea or not so far from the coast. Having studied the map of the location of dolmens, we can come to the conclusion that in the Caucasus they could only appear from the sea.

Famous archaeologist B.A. Kuftin also intensively searched for ways to clarify this issue of interest. He believed that it could be resolved only on “the basis of taking into account the real engines of the historical process and their correlation with the geography of natural forces to the extent of their development by human economic activity.” Using the concept of “cultural-production groups”, B.A. Kuftin believed that for dolmens such a “group” could exist in the Mediterranean, on the Deccan Peninsula and in the Southern Caspian region. L.N. Soloviev, highlighting the “southern dolmen culture,” assumed that the bearers of this culture did not come to the construction of dolmens on their own, but using “ready-made forms” that were widespread in “Asia Minor,” especially in Syria and Palestine. This construction, in his opinion, arose early “under the influence of connections with the Asia Minor cultural world carried out by sea.” L.N. Solovyov paints quite vivid pictures of the life of the bearers of the “Southern Dolmen culture.” They had peaceful relations with the population of the Kuban region, which “ was also reflected in the spread of dolmen construction to this part of the Caucasus.” at the turn of III--II millennia, according to L.N. Solovyov, from Asia Minor there is an invasion of the Kashki - tribes “in all likelihood related to the southern Dolmen” population, while the Kashki (according to L.N. Solovyov they are carriers of the “Proto-Colchian culture”) introduced new types of dishes and skills in metallurgy into the local environment .

A number of other well-known scientists connect the appearance of dolmens in the Western Caucasus with the development of trade and military navigation among coastal peoples in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, when “Caucasian masters” could see dolmens in other countries and then erect them in their homeland. It is also worth recalling the statement of Academician B.B. Piotrovsky, who noted that “the shape of the Caucasian dolmens coincides so much, even in detail, with the Mediterranean and European ones that the question of their connections is quite natural.”

megalithic cromlech dolmen architecture