Chamber tomb
Encyclopedia
A chamber tomb is a tomb
for burial
used in many different culture
s. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interree than a simple grave
. Built from rock
or sometimes wood
, the chambers could also serve as places for storage of the dead from one family or social group and were often used over long periods for multiple burials. There are numerous terms for them depending on the period, design and region in question. Most were constructed from large stones or megalith
s and covered by cairn
s, barrow
s or earth, but the term is also applied to tombs cut directly into rock and wooden-chambered tombs covered with earth barrows. Grave goods are a common characteristic of chamber tomb burials.
In Neolithic
and Bronze Age
Europe
stone-built examples are known by the generic term of megalithic tombs.
Chamber tombs are often distinguished by the layout of their chambers and entrances or the shape and material of the structure that covered them, either an earth barrow
or stone cairn
. A wide variety of local types has been identified, and some designs appear to have influenced others.
Tomb
A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...
for burial
Burial
Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
used in many different culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
s. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interree than a simple grave
Grave (burial)
A grave is a location where a dead body is buried. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries....
. Built from rock
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
or sometimes wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
, the chambers could also serve as places for storage of the dead from one family or social group and were often used over long periods for multiple burials. There are numerous terms for them depending on the period, design and region in question. Most were constructed from large stones or megalith
Megalith
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. Megalithic describes structures made of such large stones, utilizing an interlocking system without the use of mortar or cement.The word 'megalith' comes from the Ancient...
s and covered by cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
s, barrow
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
s or earth, but the term is also applied to tombs cut directly into rock and wooden-chambered tombs covered with earth barrows. Grave goods are a common characteristic of chamber tomb burials.
In Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
and Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
stone-built examples are known by the generic term of megalithic tombs.
Chamber tombs are often distinguished by the layout of their chambers and entrances or the shape and material of the structure that covered them, either an earth barrow
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
or stone cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
. A wide variety of local types has been identified, and some designs appear to have influenced others.
Types and examples
General terms:- Chambered cairnChambered cairnA chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a cairn of stones inside which a sizeable chamber was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves....
- Chambered long barrowChambered long barrowChambered long barrows are a type of megalithic burial monument found in the British Isles in the Neolithic.Long barrows either contained wooden or stone burial structures beneath the barrow and the surviving megalithic stone in the latter means that they are the ones referred to by archaeologists...
- CromlechCromlechCromlech is a Brythonic word used to describe prehistoric megalithic structures, where crom means "bent" and llech means "flagstone". The term is now virtually obsolete in archaeology, but remains in use as a colloquial term for two different types of megalithic monument.In English it usually...
s, dolmenDolmenA dolmen—also known as a portal tomb, portal grave, dolmain , cromlech , anta , Hünengrab/Hünenbett , Adamra , Ispun , Hunebed , dös , goindol or quoit—is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of...
s and Hunebedden - Corbelled tombCorbelled tombA corbelled tomb is a generic term given to burial structures with corbelled roofs rather than simple slabs which generally denote an earlier type of construction.In Europe they include the Mycenean tholos tomb type....
- Chamber tumulusChamber tumulusA Chamber Tumulus is a large megalithic construct found in certain early neolithic societies. They have been uncovered along the Atlantic coastline in northern Europe, in countries such as France, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. These megaliths have also been found in southern Scandinavia, primarily...
- Gallery graveGallery graveA Gallery grave is a form of Megalithic tomb where there is no size difference between the burial chamber itself and the entrance passage. Two parallel walls of stone slabs were erected to form a corridor and covered with a line of capstones. The rectangular tomb was covered with a barrow or a cairn...
including:- Allées couvertes
- Court cairnCourt cairnThe court cairn or court tomb is a megalithic type of chamber tomb and gallery grave, specifically a variant of the chambered cairn, found in western and northern Ireland, and in mostly southwest Scotland...
- Giants' graveGiants' gravethumb|300px|sa Ena 'e Thomes Giants' grave in [[Dorgali]].thumb|300px|Interior of the sa Ena 'e Thomes tomb.Giants' grave is the name given by local people and archaeologists to a type of Sardinian megalithic gallery grave built during the Bronze Age by the Nuragic civilization...
- NavetaNavetaA naveta is a megalithic chamber tomb unique to the Balearic island of Minorca. It dates to the early Bronze Age.It has two vertical and two corbelled walls giving it the form of an upturned boat which is where the name comes from....
- the Peak District tomb group
- Severn-CotswoldSevern-Cotswold tombSevern-Cotswold is a name given to a type of Megalithic chamber tomb built by Neolithic peoples in Wales and South West England around 3500 BC.-Description:...
or Cotswold-Severn tomb - Transepted gallery graveTransepted gallery graveTransepted gallery grave is a term used to describe a number of similar megalithic chamber tombs built across Atlantic Europe during the Neolithic period.It refers to burial monuments with side rooms extending laterally from a central chamber...
- Wedge-shaped gallery graveWedge-shaped gallery graveA wedge-shaped gallery grave or wedge tomb is a type of Irish chamber tomb. They are so named because the burial chamber itself narrows at one end , producing a wedge shape in elevation. An antechamber is separated from the burial area by a simple jamb or sill, and the doorway generally faces west...
- Entrance graveEntrance graveEntrance grave is a term given by archaeologists to a type of megalithic chamber tomb found in parts of Atlantic Europe, dating the early to middle Bronze Age....
such as- Portal dolmen
- Scillonian entrance graveScillonian entrance graveThe entrance graves of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, and south east Ireland are megalithic chamber tombs of the Neolithic and early Bronze Age in the British Isles. Comparable sites are also known in Brittany and the Channel Islands...
- Passage gravePassage gravethumb|250px|right|A simple passage tomb in [[Carrowmore]] near [[Sligo]] in IrelandA passage grave or passage tomb consists of a narrow passage made of large stones and one or multiple burial chambers covered in earth or stone. Megaliths are usually used in the construction of passage tombs, which...
including:- The tholos tombs of Mycenaean GreeceMycenaeMycenae is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north...
. - Mycenaean chamber tombMycenaean chamber tombThe term chamber tomb is used to refer to a form of mortuary architecture in use in the Late Bronze Age of the areas under the cultural influence of the Aegean. This is based on a previous form of architecture made by the Akkadians, specifically those located in Old Babylonia. This progenitor to...
- V-shaped passage graveV-shaped passage graveV-shaped passage graves are a type of megalithic chamber tomb found in parts of Atlantic Europe including Ireland and the Channel Islands. They date to between 3500 and 2500BC....
- Cruciform passage graveCruciform passage graveCruciform passage graves describe a complex example of prehistoric passage grave found in Ireland, west Wales and Orkney and built during the later Neolithic, from around 3500 BC and later....
- Clava cairnClava cairnThe Clava cairn is a type of Bronze Age circular chamber tomb cairn, named after the group of 3 cairns at Balnuaran of Clava, to the east of Inverness in Scotland. There are about 50 cairns of this type in an area round about Inverness...
- The tholos tombs of Mycenaean Greece
- Other types:
- Domus de JanasDomus de JanasDomus de Janas are a type of pre-historic chamber tombs found in the Mediterranean area, but typically in Sardinia. They consist of several chambers quarried out by the Ozieri and Beaker cultures, resembling houses in their layout.Built between 3400 and 2700 BC, more than 1000 of the rock-cut...
- DyssDYSSSuper Radyo DYSS 999 Cebu is the flagship AM station of GMA Network, Inc. in the Philippines. The station's studio is located at the GMA Network Center, Nivel Hills, Apas, Cebu City, while its transmitter is located at Mambaling, Cebu City...
er - Medway tomb
- Shaft and chamber tombShaft and chamber tombA Shaft and chamber tomb is a type of chamber tomb used by some ancient peoples for burial of the dead. They consist of a shaft dug into the outcrops of rock with a square or round chamber excavated at the bottom where the dead were placed....
- Domus de Janas