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4 classic megalithic tomb types

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  • 20-05-2013 9:32am
    #1
    bridgetown1
    Registered Users Posts: 150 ✭✭


    The 4 classic Megalithic Tomb types are portal, wedge, court and passage.

    Are there any clear and hard defining feature to separate these 4 classifications, or can portal sort of morph into wedge and wedge into court?


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    #2
    bawn79
    Registered Users Posts: 419 ✭✭bawn79


    bridgetown1 wrote: »
    The 4 classic Megalithic Tomb types are portal, wedge, court and passage.

    Are there any clear and hard defining feature to separate these 4 classifications, or can portal sort of morph into wedge and wedge into court?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_megalithic_tombs


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    #3
    bridgetown1
    Registered Users Posts: 150 ✭✭bridgetown1


    I know the basic features!

    But..........

    Does a Portal by definition only have 1 capstone? If a second capstone was added, and it wasn't quite level, would we be calling it a wedge? If a wedge had a larger entrance area would we be calling it a court?

    Are we, here in the 20th/21st centuries imposing a classification on these structures which wasn't envisaged at all by the original people who constructed them?

    Are there really clear cut lines in style between them?


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    #4
    bawn79
    Registered Users Posts: 419 ✭✭bawn79


    bridgetown1 wrote: »
    I know the basic features!

    But..........

    Does a Portal by definition only have 1 capstone? If a second capstone was added, and it wasn't quite level, would we be calling it a wedge? If a wedge had a larger entrance area would we be calling it a court?

    Are we, here in the 20th/21st centuries imposing a classification on these structures which wasn't envisaged at all by the original people who constructed them?

    Are there really clear cut lines in style between them?

    I'm not an archaeologist but I've visited a good number of each of the types. In the beginning I often just went to look at them from the Megalithic Tomb symbol on the OS map. Pretty much all of them were identifiable from the 3 main classifications.
    Any examples or reasons why you think they may "blend" in together? Also what significance would this mean?


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