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