cromlechs architecture
Introduction
A cromlech,[note 1] word from the Welsh crom-lech or crom-leach,[1] is a megalithic monument formed by stones or menhirs inserted into the ground and that adopt a circular shape similar to a wall or elliptical, enclosing a piece of land. It is spread throughout Great Britain and French Brittany, as well as in the Iberian Peninsula, Denmark and Sweden.
In Spanish they also receive the compound names circle of stones, rings of stones or megalithic circle.
The word cromlech in British English was used for dolmens and not for stone circles, although in technical environments it does have the same use as in Spanish.[2] In French, this Anglophone term is given the same use as in Spanish.
Etymology
The word cromlech comes from English, which acquired it from Old Welsh. It is formed by crom, "curved" (crom in feminine), and lech, "flat stone", and means "flat stone (placed on) a curve."
[1][note 2].
Main features
A cromlech is a megalithic monument formed by several dozen menhirs planted in a circumference. There are menhirs arranged in a rectangular shape, as in Brittany in the "quadrilateral of Crucuno", but the fact that they are not a circular arrangement means that they are not cromlechs in the strict sense. These stone circles could be isolated, paired with another stone circle or associated with alignments of menhirs. The best known and most important cromlech is the Stonehenge cromlech, in England.
It is believed that initially the cromlechs were only funerary monuments surrounding dolmens or mounds and that, later, they could have become sacred enclosures and, in some cases, a type of temple. These are hypotheses maintained by scientists whose research on megalithism can only be supported by archaeological data and not written sources.
Cromlechs are much rarer than other megalithic monuments, such as dolmens, menhirs, etc.
Most seem to date, especially in Europe, to the Bronze Age (between 1000 BC and 2000 BC – 2500 BC to 1000 BC). The (such as that of Bilheres, in Aquitaine, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques) continued to be used during the Iron Age. However, there are some older ones, which have been dated thanks to the Neolithic objects (especially ceramics) found, such as on the islet of Er Lannic, in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany.