Stone circle
As a stone circle (stone ring, stone or dance) round or oval arrangements of original standing, essentially unedited standing stones or boulders are called. The English word Cromlech is broader.
Circular set stones were also used as a border of dolmens, grave hills ( Cromlech of Saint -Marc- sur -Mer ), Tor Cairns or similar structures, but are usually referred to not as a stone circles, but as pseudo - stone circles.
Some Henges, including Avebury and the Ring of Brodgar, admittedly are of stone circles, but are also not called Stone Circle on other features.
Dissemination
Stone Circles of the British Isles
Stone circles are common with more than 700 copies in the British Isles, where they accumulate in particular in Cornwall, in Northern Ireland, in County Cork in Ireland and the River Dee in Scotland. Aubrey Burl (1926-2009) considers that stone circles were a British invention. Some researchers believe it is a stone implement the spread in the Lowlands, designed of wooden pilings Henges ( Woodhenge ), equipped with this resource in the mountain regions. The ring ditches the Henges were very difficult to work out in areas with rocky surfaces. Only the Ring of Brodgar, Orkney, has a carved into the sandstone underground ring ditch. There is a north- south running zone, occur in both Henges and Stone Circles. Nine of the 13 greatest British stone circles lie in this overlap zone. They originated 2100-700 BC, at the end of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.
England
On the main island, the center of origin of the megalithic, about 30 m wide stone circles was, according to A. Burl the Lake District ( Skiddaw ), which should be about the same age as the Stones of Stenness on ( Orkney ) for which a C14 dating 3040 BC exists. In general, the formation is assumed to 3400-3200 BC, based on the dating of the Great Langdale ax found there. The best known are Stonehenge Stone Circle ( at Salisbury, Wiltshire, England), Avebury (east of Bath in Wiltshire) and Mitchell 's Fold in Shropshire. In Cornwall there are the Merry Maidens and The Hurlers. There are also primarily in Wales, the " walled stone circles " (English embanked stone circle ) and the ring Cairns.
Scotland
Stone circles lie on valley bottoms, on river terraces, low passes and in the vicinity of water. The heavily damaged stone circle of Lochmaben at Gretna Green could be dated to 3275 BC. In Cumbria is average yield of diameter 37 m with stone circles, while they amount to 73 m for Henges. Later, the groups were larger and 14 of them have more than 61 m in diameter.
The Callanish Standing Stones belong to the largest known today Megalithformation in the British Isles. They are located on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.
At the River Dee set the " Recumbent Stone Circles ", the recumbent stone circles, a separate genus represents a true example of Nine Stanes. Widespread is this special form with few copies in Ireland. Its special feature is that the circle upright stones is interrupted at one point by an altar stone lying horizontally and is closely flanked by two horny often pointed stones.
Perthshire is the main distribution area of the small " Four Post Stone Circles " (eg Goatstones ), but also on the River Dee occur ( stone circle of Aboyne ).
Ireland
Seán ó Nualláin distinguishes four local groups:
- Cork and Kerry Series ( 107)
- Eastern Circles (10 )
- Western Circles (9 )
- Ulster series ( over 70 in Northern Ireland)
The oldest known rings come from the Irish Bronze Age, which began about 2000 BC hr. There are the stone circles of Beaghmore (1600 BC) near Cooktown ( Ulster, Northern Ireland). They consist partly of hundreds sometimes head-sized stones, and are therefore largely amegalithisch. The Beaghmore circles touch each other. They were overgrown prior to their discovery of the high moor.
The Irish stone circles have diameters of between three and 60 meters and are concentrated in the counties of Tyrone ( Northern Ireland) and Cork, where the Iron Age Drombeg Stone Circle is the best preserved and the stone circle of Templebryan North one of the larger ones. In the circular- poor regions in the west and east of the island rise among the 19 circles those at Lough Gur ( Stone Circle from Grange ) in County Limerick, the stone circles of Glebe in County Mayo and the Pipers Stones in County Wicklow out. Some are surrounded by a wall and moat. You can Boulder tombs, a menhir, but also passage tombs surround.
The circles in Ulster are on the plateau south of the Sperrin Mountains, are larger in diameter, but the stones themselves are usually small and only rarely more than a meter. The Ulsterkreise are often found in marshy areas and as a group and are accompanied by or menhirs alignments. The largest stone circles are Grange ( 113 stones 48 m diameter) in County Limerick and Beltany tops (64 of 100 stones are available 44 m in diameter) with the remains of Cairns in the center.
Concentrated in County Cork is a group of rather inconspicuous small stone circles (eg Carrigagulla, Cullomane, Glanbrack ), who became known as "Five -stone- circle". The mold is encountered but also in County Kerry ( Cashelkeelty ) and on the mainland UK ( Druid 's Circle, Five Stanes, at Jedburgh ). Another group is called a radial -stone cairns ( Kealkill, Knocknakilla, Knockraheen 1 ) because the stones show with its narrow side to the center.
Rest of Europe
A limited number of stone circles come in Brittany ( He Lannic ), Le Midi ( here the names of some Basque " Harrespil " ) before and in the Iberian Peninsula ( Almendres, Portela de Mogos ).
In addition there are younger stone circles in Switzerland and Scandinavia. In Sweden this is called in the north most widespread genus, Domarringar, so (Judges rings). The Domarring on the burial ground of Blomsholm in Sweden has a diameter of 33 m, the Stoplesteinane at Eigersund in Rogaland Norway have 21 m diameter.
Africa and Asia
Unexplored are the predynastic stone circles at Nabta Playa, in the Sahara. In Senegal and Gambia, there are about 50 Senegambische stone circles. Also on Malta ( Brochtorff Circle ), India, Jordan, Pakistan, Syria, and Kyrgyzstan come from stone circles.