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UPLAND LANDSCAPE ALTERATION IN SOUTH EAST IRELAND.
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tjj
tjj
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Re: UPLAND LANDSCAPE ALTERATION IN SOUTH EAST IRELAND.
Feb 11, 2012, 11:45
tiompan wrote:
rockhopper wrote:

As for the Irish Dlomen s? (What exactly is the plural of dolmen??!)
I've always had a problem with the idea that these were covered with mounds. If they were, and I've seen no evidence to prove conclusively that this was so, why did the mounds covering the dolmen vanish when other mounds did not? And if they were covered with mounds, how would anyone know what was underneath? It seems strange to me that if these mounds existed in the first place, why should they have exclusively vanished, whilst all other mounds (i.e. Knowth, Dowth, the English long barrows) have remained in place? Once a mound is in place, it seems to remain so.


There is quite a difference between the mounds of long barrows , passage tombs etc and the cairns that surrounded portal tombs .
The former dwarf the latter have kerb stones and are not composed of stones to anything like the same extent . It is this differece that could explain why some cairns were removed i.e. a useful source of stone .Furthermore none have been shown to cover the capstone suggesting the possibility that not only stabilising the orthostats the purpose may have also been to help the raise the capstone .


This has become an interesting and refreshing discussion. I like Rockhopper's anarchic and challenging approach. I have often wanted to ask such questions here but fear of looking uninformed and 'ignorant' stopped me. Your answer is helpful as always Tiompan - as ever with prehistory, more questions than answers. Am I right in remembering that you had said almost all of the the dolmens (portal tombs) are on the east/south-east coast of Ireland and west coasts of southern England and Wales - which seems to indicate it was a nation of sea going peoples who built them. I wonder if Rockhopper could say how far west in Ireland portal tombs are found (I know there is one in the Midlands at Aughnacliffe in Longford, where my mother came from).

I have the opportunity to spend some time in West Cork in May and will be looking at stone circles - was hoping there may be some portal tombs too. I'll be travelling from Fishguard so plan to see Carreg Samson on the way back.

All the best
J
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