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The Distribution and Date of the Passage-Graves of the British Isles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

G. E. Daniel  and
T. G. E. Powell
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Extract

It is the object of this paper to examine the evidence for the relative and absolute chronology of the Passage-Graves of the British Isles. The title of the paper as well as this bald statement of purpose begs the immediate question of what exactly the authors mean by Passage-Graves.

We define a Passage-Grave as a prehistoric chamber tomb consisting of a passage leading to a round, polygonal, or square chamber, in which the collective burials were normally made. This type of monument may be walled with orthostats and roofed trabeate-wise by capstones, or it may be dry-walled with small stones laid horizontally and roofed by a false or corbelled vault, or again there may be present a combination of these techniques. On the other hand this type of monument may be wholly or partly cut in the rock or again there may be a combination of surface and rock-cut features in its construction. In almost all cases the surface forms of Passage-Grave are incorporated in a barrow or cairn of earth or stones. The constructional variety of the tomb does not affect its classification in a morphological category; the rock-cut tombs of Alcaide and Palmella are as much Passage-Graves as the corbel-vaulted tombs of He Longue and Alcalá, or the capstoneroofed tombs of Kercado and Bryn Celli Ddu.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 15 , 1949 , pp. 169 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1949

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References

page 170 note 1 It is this third constructional analogue that was referred to as the Pavian Passage-Grave in Daniel, ‘Dual Nature of the Megalithic Colonisation of Prehistoric Europe’, Proc. Preh. Soc., 1941, 1 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 170 note 2 On this see Childe, V. G., ‘Megaliths’, Ancient India, 4 (1947–1948), 5 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 170 note 3 ‘Scottish Megalithic Tombs and their affinities’, Trans. Glasgow Arch. Soc., 1931–1933, 120–37Google Scholar. This paper should now be read in conjunction with Childe, 's ‘Megalithic Tombs in Scotland and Ireland’, Trans. Glasgow Arch. Soc., 1947, 1–16Google Scholar.

page 171 note 1 For a general account of the nomenclature and classification of prehistoric chamber tombs see Daniel, Dual, 1–10Google Scholar, and The Prehistoric Chamber Tombs of England and Wales, Cambridge, 1950,Google Scholar chapter 1.

Entrance Grave is perhaps an unfortunate term in that it suggests the type of tomb is a comparable main variety like Passage Grave and Gallery Grave. The term V-shaped Passage Grave or V-Passage Grave better suggests the real nature of the type.

page 171 note 2 This map supersedes than given in Daniel, 1941, 11, and is based on the new maps provided by the Leisners, op. cit. infra, pls. 164 and 174–6.

page 171 note 3 G. and Leisner, V., Die Megalithgräber det Iberischen Halbinsel. Vol. 1, 1943Google Scholar.

page 172 note 1 We are using the term B–Dolmens here as defined in Daniel, , Dual, 3–4Google Scholar. The B–Dolmen is a single polygonal chamber, the A–Dolmen a single rectangular chamber. These terms are descriptive abbreviations only.

page 172 note 2 For descriptions and plans of these see Cazurro, M., Los Monumentos Megaliticos de la Provincia de Gerona, Madrid, 1912Google Scholar, and Garcia, L. Pericot yLa Civilization Megalitica Catalana y la Cultura Pirenaica, 1925Google Scholar.

page 172 note 3 These south French Passage-Graves were classified as ‘Pseudo-Passage-Graves’ in Daniel, 1941, 16, 30 and fig. 9, but it now appears that they should properly be regarded as falling within the normal Passage-Grave category. Information from Professor Piggott; see also Arnal, , ‘Nouveaux Megalithes en Languedoc’, Revue d'études Ligures, 1948, 104–111Google Scholar; Arnal, and Martin-Granel, , ‘Influencia Ibérica en el sur de Francia durante la época de los dólmenes’, Crónica del IV Congreso Arqueológico del sudeste español (Cartagena, 1949)Google Scholar; and Louis, M., Préhistoire du Languedoc Méditerranéen et du Roussillon (1948), 72–80Google Scholar.

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page 173 note 5 The only general map of British Passage-Graves known to the writers is that of Childe, in Trans. Glasgow Arch. Soc., 1947, 9Google Scholar. There are also general maps distinguishing Passage-Graves in Davies, M., Ant. J., 1945, 133Google Scholar and id., 1946, 133 and in Childe, , Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles, 48Google Scholar.

page 175 note 1 Fabre, Mll. G. has argued (Gallia, 1946, 1 ff)Google Scholar that the distribution and siting of Gallery-Graves and A-Dolmens in south-west France argues for a mainly pastoral population. On this matter of environment in relation to occupation by builders of megalithic tombs see Evans, and Gaffikin, , Irish Naturalists Journal, V, (1935) 7 ff.Google Scholar; Watson, E., Ulster Journal of Archaeology (1945), 80, 90Google Scholar: de Valera, R. in ÓRíordaín, Proc. Preh. Soc., 1946, 152Google Scholar; Daniel, , Proc. Preh. Soc., 1937, 77Google Scholar.

page 175 note 2 We should recollect here in passing that the Passage-Grave builders in south Iberia were without any doubt dwellers in small Chalcolithic townships.

page 175 note 3 Grimes, (Proc. Preh. Soc., 1936, 129)Google Scholar would also classify as a Passage-Grave the northernmost of the four chamber tombs at Marros, Carmarthenshire.

page 175 note 4 For a full account of the Anglesey group see Daniel, 1950, 54 ff.

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page 176 note 1 Though the barrow may contain other chambers than the one at present visible.

page 176 note 2 Childe used the designation Beauly group in his Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles (1940), 74Google Scholar but has now abandoned this term in favour of the Clava Group (Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., LXXVIII (1943–1944), 26Google Scholar. Daniel used the term Moray Group in 1941 (p. 17), but it now seems best to call the group the Clava or Clava-Avielochan Group.

page 176 note 3 op. cit., pl. 1–7.

page 176 note 4 For plans and descriptions of the Clava-Avielochan sites see Proc. Scot. Ant. Soc., XVIII (1883–1884), 328–62Google Scholar, and 40 (1905–6) 240 ff. and 44 (1909–10), 189 ff.

page 176 note 5 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., LXXVIII (1943–1944), 26 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 176 note 6 This is not so improbable as it may at first sound. The Danish Passage-Graves are now generally derived from Iberia or Brittany; and from the Straits of Dover to Jutland is no further than from the Straits to the Moray Firth. All through Europe the distribution of Passage-Graves is essentially one of selective colonization.

page 177 note 1 Professor and MrsPiggott, (Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., LXXX (1945–1946), 83–4Google Scholar and 93–7) argue for the Firth of Lome-Great Glen route.

page 177 note 2 R.C.A.M. Scotland, Kirkcudbright Inventory, no. 350 (fig. 139, p. 187). This site was excavated in 1949 by Professor Piggott and Mr T. G. E. Powell.

page 177 note 3 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., LXXX (1945–1946), 83–4Google Scholar and 93-7. The Dunan na Nighean site has since been shown by excavation not to be a chambered tomb.

page 177 note 4 On the Loch Etive sites see Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., IX (1870–1872), 409 ff.Google Scholar; LXI (1926–7), 226; and LVII (1932–3), where M. E. C. Mitchell describes several round barrows which, if chambered, may, with the known sites, form a Passage-Grave cemetery of tombs.

page 177 note 5 Trans. Glasgow Arch. Soc., new ser., 8, 129; and Anuario del Cuerpo Facultativo de Arch. Bib. y Arch., Madrid, 1934, 205Google Scholar.

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page 177 note 7 Approximate figures from the R.C.A.M. Inventories and Childe are Skye and Western Isles, 39 Sutherland 28, Caithness 43, Orkneys 48, Shetlands 24.

page 177 note 8 Childe has drawn attention (Trans. Glasgow Arch. Soc., new ser. XI, 1947, 10Google Scholar)to the stone carved with spirals in the style of the New Grange spirals, formerly described as from an ‘earth-house’ on Eday, but now recognized by Calder as from a chamber-tomb (vide Proc. Soc Ant. Scot., IV (1860–1862), 185–6Google Scholar and R.C.A.M. Orkney Inventory, no. 225). This may be the remains of another passage-grave, but spirals alone do not make one, of course. The Ballarragh, Kirk Lonan stone in the Isle of Man is engraved with spirals in the Passage-Grave style (Megaw, op. cit., 225), and Margaret Davies has classified the Calderstones as the remains of a Passage-Grave on the strength of the engravings (Ant. J., 1945, 130Google Scholar). Spirals do occur on cists, e.g. the capstone of the Beaker cist at Carnwath, and the whole question has recently been discussed by McWhite, (Journ. Roy. Soc. Ant. Ireland, LXXVI (1946), 59–80Google Scholar.

page 178 note 1 Claims have been made for a Passage-Grave on Kilda, St. (Somerville, Boyle, J.R.A.I., LII, 1912, 25–52Google Scholar; Reliquary, XI, 32Google Scholar; M. Davies; but this structure now seems more likely to have been an earth-house (R.C.A.M. Inventory Hebrides, no. 158, pp. 46–7, and figs. 74 and 75; Mathieson, J., Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., 1927–1928, 123 ff)Google Scholar.

page 178 note 2 The degree of fusion of the two traditions in any one monument in the North Scottish province must always be a matter of dispute. For varying views on the status of Clettraval, see Childe, (Prehistory of Scotland, 41)Google Scholar; Daniel (1941, 44); Hawkes, (Prehistoric Foundations of Europe, 192)Google Scholar; Scott, Lindsay (Antiquity, 1942, 303)Google Scholar and Piggott, (Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., LXXX (1945–1946), 96)Google Scholar.

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page 179 note 5 New Grange and other incised tumuli of Ireland (1912), passim.

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page 181 note 3 Dawn of European Civilisation, 1st edition, 130; 4th edition, 332.

page 181 note 4 For a summary of the various views regarding the chronology of the Iberïan Passage Graves, see Leisners, op. cit., 586–9.

page 181 note 5 To take the most recently proposed Minoan dates. Vide Sidney Smith, American Journal Arch., 1945, 1 ff.Google Scholar; Hutchinson, R. W., ‘Notes on Minoan Chronology’, Antiquity, 1948, 61 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 181 note 6 These bone plaques have sometimes been attributed to Troy II, at other times from Troy 11 to V. Bittel, (Marburger Studien, 1, 12)Google Scholar would limit them to Troy III and IV, dating them to 2100 to 1800 B.C.; while in the most recent analysis, Schaeffer would restrict them to Troy III (as redefined by him) and dated 2300–2100 B.C. (Stratigraphie Comparée et Chronologie de l'Asie Occidentale, pp. 244–5).

page 181 note 7 Sestieri, P. C., ‘Primi Risultati Dello Scavo Delia Necropoli Preistorica di Paestum’, Rendiconti dell' Accademia di Archeologia … di Napoli, 1947–1948, 1 ffGoogle Scholar.

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page 182 note 2 Nor does it seem possible to tie down the chronology of the prehistoric chamber tombs of Iberia through the knife of allegedly Egyptian type found at Vilanova de San Pedro, obviously a contemporary Chalcolithic settlement of the Passage-Grave builders (vide E. Jalhay and Afonso do Paço, Actas y Memorias de la Sociedad Española de … Prehistoria, XX, 1945, 5 ffGoogle Scholar. and plate XIX.

page 182 note 3 The dates given by the Leisners are: Los Millare period 1 2200–1800, 11 1800–1500, and El Argar from 1500 B.C. onwards.

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page 183 note 3 The evidence from Conguel has often been cited to prove a pre-Beaker date for some Breton megaliths. It is indeed extremely probable that many Breton chamber tombs date from before the appearance of Iberian Bell-Beakers. Conguel is not a Passage-Grave.

page 184 note 1 Childe, (Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles, (1949) 67 ff.)Google Scholar gives a summary of the material from the Irish tombs.

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page 186 note 4 Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles, 68.

page 186 note 5 Revista de Guimaraes, LVII (1948), fasc. 3/4, 11 ffGoogle Scholar.

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page 186 note 7 Revista de Guimaraes, LVII (1948), fasc 3/4, 11 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 187 note 1 Childe, (Dawn, 4th edition, p. 333Google Scholar, dates the Danish and South Swedish Passage-Graves from 1900 B.C. to 1500 B.C.). Note also the equation that can be made between the beginning of the Passage-Grave period in Denmark and the use of the Alcalá cemetery in Algarve; Childe, in London Inst. Arch. Fourth Ann. Report (1948), 57Google Scholar.

page 187 note 2 On this see Crawford, Long Barrows of the Cotswolds; Mrs E. M. Clifford, ‘The Cotswold Megalithic Culture,’ in Fox, and Dickins, , Chadwick Memorial Studies (1950), Daniel, 1950, 125 ffGoogle Scholar.