A rare megalithic structure, dating back 4,000 years, has been discovered at the Shamir Dolmen Field on the western foothills of the Golan Heights.
The 4,000-year-old ‘multi-dolmen,’ the Shamir Dolmen Field, Israel. Image credit: Gonen Sharon, Tel Hai College.
The newly-discovered megalithic stone structure is a unique, monumental, multi-chambered dolmen: a central chamber roofed by a gigantic engraved capstone and surrounded by a giant tumulus (stone heap) into which at least four additional sub-chambers were built.
This is the first reported complex ‘multi-dolmen’ in the Levant and one of the largest dolmens ever reported from the region, according to a team of archaeologists led by Tel Hai College Professor Gonen Sharon.
“The dolmen tumulus, built around a central chamber, is 20 m in diameter. The total weight of the basalt stones used is estimated at 400 tons,” Prof. Sharon and colleagues explained.
“The four sub-chambers built into the tumulus are each medium-sized (1 x 3 m) and elongated, and covered by one to three massive basalt capstones.”
“In the upper part of the tumulus is the central chamber. The chamber is rectangular, 3 m long by 2 m wide, and the ceiling is 1.7 m above the present day surface prior to excavation.”
“Topping the central chamber of the dolmen is a single giant, basalt capstone. The stone, irregular in shape, measures over 4 m in length, 3.5 m in width and more than 1.2 m in thickness, with an estimated weight of over 50 tons.”
The archaeologists also discovered rock art engravings on the ceiling of the central chamber.
“This is the first art ever documented in a dolmen in the Middle East,” said team member Dr. Uri Berger, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“The ceiling panel, located at the southeast quarter of the chamber ceiling, includes 14 clearly identified schematic, engraved elements,” the researchers said.
“The forms represent variations on a single motif, comprising a vertical line with a downturned arc attached to its upper part.”
“The length of the central line differs between elements as does the curvature of the arc. The average size of the elements is about 25 cm.”
“The forms were made by pecking into the face of the basalt rock. The inner surface of the engraved lines is relatively uniform and could have been made by chisel or hammer/axe either of metal (bronze) or stone such as flint.”
The newly-discovered dolmen is just one of more than 400 huge stone structures dating to the Intermediate Bronze Age (2350-2000 BC) that are located in the Shamir Dolmen Field.
“The gigantic dolmen is without doubt an indication of public construction that required a significant amount of manpower over a considerable period of time,” said Prof. Sharon, lead author of a paper published in the journal PLoS ONE.
“During that time all of those people had to be housed and fed. The building of such a huge construction necessitated knowledge of engineering and architecture that small nomadic groups did not usually possess.”
“And even more importantly, a strong system of government was required here that could assemble a large amount of manpower, provide for the personnel and above all direct the implementation and control of a large and lengthy project.”
“Despite all this, the circumstances surrounding the construction of the dolmens, the technology involved in it and the culture of the people who built them are still one of the great mysteries of the archeology of Israel.”
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G. Sharon et al. 2017. Monumental megalithic burial and rock art tell a new story about the Levant Intermediate Bronze ‘Dark Ages.’ PLoS ONE 12 (3): e0172969; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172969
