A recent holiday provided the opportunity to visit the fascinating Neolithic monuments at Antiquera, 20 miles to the north of Malaga in southern Spain.
Over the last 40 years or so i have visited many prehistoric sites, including stone circles, standing stones, burial mounds, and rock art sites etc. but it has been a while since i was actually ‘gobsmacked’ by a site. The Summer solstice at Stonehenge in 1980 was one such occasion, and being alone in the Newgrange Chambered burial mound in the 1990’s was another memorable occasion, and now this visit to the Dolmens at Antequera joins that list.
The research that has taken place at Antequera reveals a fascinating glimpse into the beliefs and skills of the people who lived there 5000 years ago, and who incorporated solar and terrestrial alignments into the monuments they built. In the light of these discoveries the Dolmens at Antequera are now listed as a UNESCO world heritage site –Recognised for their cultural, historical, and scientific significance and are considered to be of outstanding universal value.”
After visiting and reading about them i think they deserve at least a couple of posts amongst the Hobthrush pages.
Dolmen De Viera
The two large burial mounds of Dolmen De Viera and Dolmen De Menga stand only 70m apart on a low hill on the northern edge of Antequera town. On the west side of the hill is the town’s large cemetery – quietly highlighting a continuity and connection with those laid to rest in the nearby ancient grave mounds.
Out of the two burial mounds, Dolmen De Viera is perhaps the more conventional passage grave with the mound measuring 50m in diameter, and a stone lined tunnel leading into its interior. Across the entrance to the passage there are the remains of a stone doorway or portal stone which would require a person to stoop and step over a raised threshold to enter the mound.
The passage itself is around 1.5m wide and 1.8m high with its sides built from large blocks of stone, and roofed over with similar large blocks. This passage runs for 21m into the centre of the mound where the end is blocked by another large slab. A square opening in this end wall leads through into a small burial chamber.
This burial mound was constructed around 5000 years ago, and at that time the passage was carefully aligned due east to a point on the horizon where the sun rises at the equinoxes. This would seem to have held a great significance for the mound builders, and at sunrise on this day the rays of the sun shine down the passage and into the burial chamber.
At the equinoxes, the sun rises at a point on the horizon exactly mid way between the summer and winter solstice sun rise positions, and on the day of the equinox the hours of darkness equal the hours of daylight. Such points of balance are a kind of ‘threshold’ (a point where change occurs) and can be both a time and a location, and this concept was seen as important in the past. Perhaps, when connected with burial mounds, these points resonated with the transition from life to death (or the afterlife). Along with the solstices, the equinoxes effectively mark the turning of the year – its quarter days, and perhaps this was the time when the passage was opened to allow the bones of the recently deceased to be placed in the chamber next to their ancestors. Whatever the beliefs, the people who built the Dolmen De Viera expended a lot of time and effort moving huge stones and tons of earth to construct the mound and passage in order to channel the sun’s rays into the burial chambers at the equinoxes.
