Cromlech

A Cromlech (deprecated Cromleh, Breton Cromlec'h ) is a Megalithformation from the Neolithic or Bronze Age, which consists of broadly oval, circular or semi- circularly arranged megaliths. The term is used for facilities in Ireland, the UK, France and Portugal.

Word Meaning

Cromlech can mean two things:

What significance does the word, depends on the region. In France and Portugal is meant by a Cromlech a stone circle -like structure in which the real stone circle is excluded. In the British Isles, however, dolmens and regionally specific Henges are called cromlechs.

The term is also used for the remains of tumuli, which have nearly circular mounts. Such graves are referred to in the British Isles and in France commonly referred to as Cairns.

If it is a stone circle, the age is about 3000 to 4000 years old and dates back to the Bronze Age. A dolmen, however, can be up to 6500 years old and dates back to the Neolithic period. Because of these substantive blur Cromlech is a technical term no longer in use and is now used only as a proper name.

Word origin

The word Cromlech comes from the Welsh and is composed of the syllables Crom and Llech. Crom means crooked, curved, concave and Llech is the name for a flat, smooth stone. As Breton as Welsh is one of the Britannic languages ​​, the word could also be used in Brittany.

Word usage

The oldest known use of the word was in 1588 with the translation of the Bible into Welsh by William Morgan, Bishop of Llandaff and St Asaph. For the name of a prehistoric tomb in the form of a dolmen, it was first used in 1650 by Reverend John Griffith from Llanddyfnan, so the more perpendicular monoliths described, who wore a horizontally lying capstone.

1769 called William Borlase in his treatise on megaliths in Cornwall all portal tombs of the area known as cromlechs. Today we call these buildings quoits. Soon monuments such as Stonehenge were in the British Isles called Cromlech. Stone circles, however, remained conceptually separated sharply from cromlechs.

In the French language the word Cromlech is in use since the 18th century and was taken from the English. It was understood among them a circular arrangement of standing stones. More recently, using some English archaeologists expression Cromlech again as a synonym for the stone circle.