Andy Burnham's Blog, page 177

Grøfte Langdysse 3

Langdysse (Long Barrow) in Sorø. 34 x 8 metes with two chambers each with 3 uprights and 1 capstone. 27 kerbstones remaining.

Dólmen del Espartal 1

A trapezoidal dolmen, 1.95 m long x 1.80 m (back wall of the room) / 1.40 m (next to the entrance). The width of the entrance to the chamber is 0.45 m. The height of the original chamber would be about 1.50 m and the diameter of the hill, according to the German archaeologists Georg and Vera Leisner, about seven meters. See our Nearby Sites list below for more sites in the local area.

Bori Kalimbuang

The Bori Kalimbuang site is an easy to access site in the Toraja land of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Toraja menhirs are part of a “living menhir culture” embedded in elaborate ceremonies to honour their ancestors. The afterlife is of major importance within the Toraja culture. During funerals, offerings of buffaloes and pigs are given.

Daudieck Huegelgrab 14

Round Barrow in Lower Saxony. There is a map at the parking place which shows this as number 14.

Godenstedt Steingrab

This site in Lower Saxony is listed in Sprockhoff's Atlas as No. 646, but the information (dated 1930) describes the remains of a tomb with all stones ripped out of place. So the tomb must have been restored in the meantime. The tomb is embedded in a 21 x 17m oval Round Barrow.

Announcing the Megalithic Portal photo competition winners for July to Dec 2017

As you may have seen last month, we have restarted to announce the winners of our photo competitions, as your votes have been continually collected by the Portal since these photos were posted. So before restarting the competition proper we thought we should do a bit of a catch up. With again thanks due to Peter Boyle (PAB) who is organising the results, I am delighted to announce the winners for the best images submitted to the Megalithic Portal in the second half of the year 2017 - voted for by you our visitors and contributors:

Fornholz Grabhügel

Seven graves were discovered in this burial site in Switzerland. Five cremations and two for inhumation (body) burials. The stone walls separating the individual tombs are typical of the middle to late Bronze Age (ca. 1500-1200 BC). Also, in the older Iron Age (Hallstatt period) between 700 and 500 BC, the dead were buried there. Clay vessels, bronze jewellery, Gagat arm rings and spearheads are typical of this era.

Rusheen radial stone cairn

Two linked radial cairns in Co. Cork. The southern and better preserved of two linked cairns (pictured top) consists of a ring of nineteen radially-set stones, diameter 5.5m protruding from the remains of a cairn of maximum height 0.5m. Stones vary in height from 0.22m to 0.65m above the cairn surface. The cairn extends to north-west as a narrow causeway-like feature of width 0.5m and length 3m, where it joins with its northern counterpart.

Slawenburg Wurlsee

On a peninsula in lake Wurlsee, Brandenburg is a circular plateau that rises up to six meters from the surrounding area. The site is known as a late Slavic island fort. The orientation of the peninsula to the northeast could also indicate a place of worship, since Slavic Sanctuaries were always oriented in this direction.

Ma'on synagogue

An ancient synagogue and archaeological site located in the Negev Desert. It is best known for its magnificent mosaic floor. The original date of the synagogue is uncertain but is before the 6th century. In a sixth-century renovation, the northern wall (closest to Jerusalem) was opened and a semi-circular apse to contain a Torah Ark was constructed.