The Merry Maidens
The Merry Maidens are a 3,000 to 4,000 year old stone circle from the early to middle Bronze Age. The stone circle located in the county of Cornwall in England and is also known under the name Dance Maine or Dawn's Men ( people of the dawn ), a corruption of the Cornish Dans Maen ( Dance of the stones).
Location
The Merry Maidens are located south of Penzance between the towns of St Buryan and Lamorna in South West Cornwall. They can be found if you drive from Newlyn after Lamorna, but not branched in the place, but the road continues follows. The stone circle is located within a few hundred yards on the left. 100 m to the southwest lies on a hillside grave, the Tregiffian. In the area you will find other megalithic sites:
- Boskednan
- Boscawen -Un
- Chun Quoit
- Lanyon Quoit
- Mên-an -Tol
- Mulfra Quoit
- Tregeseal
- Tregiffian
- Zennor Quoit
Construction
The Merry Maidens consist of 19 megaliths that form a nearly perfect circle with a diameter of 24 m. The stones are about 1.2m high and are at a distance of three to four meters from each other. On the east side, so looking in the direction West, there is a larger gap between the stones. In exactly the south another brick protruding from the ground, so that the plant receives a north- south orientation. Previously was 200 meters away, another stone circle, which was destroyed at the beginning of the 19th century. 300 m to the northeast are the Pipers, two about 3 meters high menhirs.
Origin of the name
The name of the stone circle as Merry Maidens ( merry maidens ) is based on the following legend: 19 girls were turned into stones, because they were happily dancing on hallowed Sunday here. The associated Pipers ( bagpipers ) were also petrified and now form the two farther standing megaliths. The legend arose during the Christianization of Cornwall in the 6th or 7th century.
History of Research
The Merry Maidens were 1769 first archaeologically investigated in detail by William Borlase, who also reported a second equally large stone circle. 1804 W. & G. Cooke made on an etching, where the stone circle is referred to as Dance - Maine. 1861 mentions John Thomas Blight the stone circle in his work A Week at the Land's End and refers to him as Dawns Myin. William Copeland Borlase 1872 delivered, a great-grandson of the elder Borlase, a more detailed description of the entire district and made the overview shown here. At this time, seven stones were from the second stone circle exists before he completely disappeared late 19th century. 1932 wrote Hugh O'Neill Hencken first modern scientific view of the archaeological site.
Was published in 1982 by John Barnatt a detailed discussion with the latest research results. Accordingly, today assumed that there were originally 18 menhirs. Middle of the 19th century, the stone circle was completed when a reconstruction experiment with new stones, but not in the correct position and number. In addition, the location of old stones was changed, so that the setting of the stones found on such today revealed.