Gallery grave

A gallery grave is a form of megalithic tomb built primarily during the Neolithic Age in Europe in which the main gallery of the tomb is entered without first passing through an antechamber or hallway. There are at least four major types of gallery grave (complex, transepted, segmented, and wedge-shaped), and they may be covered with an earthen mound (or "tumulus") or rock mound (or "cairn").

Archeologist T. Douglas Price argues that the gallery grave was a form of community burial site. Those placed in a gallery grave were most likely members of the same family or hamlet, and probably were intended to reinforce the sense of community.

Gallery graves may be straight, or they may form an ell. In some cases, a burial chamber exists at the end of the gallery. The walls of gallery graves were built of orthostats, slab-like stones set upright in the earth. They were roofed with multiple flat stones, although the burial chamber (if one existed) was usually roofed with a single large stone. Multiple burials could occur all at one time, the grave could be reopened several times to accept new burials, or the grave could remain open over an extended period of time to accept multiple burials.

Burials in gallery graves were made in the gallery itself, or in small burial chambers opening off the gallery. This is known as a "complex gallery grave". When the adjacent burial chambers are paired, the structure is known as a "transepted gallery grave". Gallery graves may also have their galleries subdivided by interior stone slabs. These are known as "segmented gallery graves". When two parallel galleries lead to a single terminal burial chamber, this is known as a "parallel gallery grave".

Some gallery graves were not rectangular in shape, but rather narrowed toward the rear. These are known as wedge-shaped gallery graves. The ceilings of wedge-shaped gallery graves often sloped toward the rear, and a sill of stone set some distance inside the away from the entrance or one or two slabs set upright in the earth defined a sort of antechamber. The wedge-shaped gallery grave was usually topped by a cairn (covering of stones) rather than an earthen mound (or "tumulus"), although an earthen mound was sometimes used. The cross-sectional shape of the cairn could be round, oval, or D-shaped, and often a kerb (ring of stone) was used to help revet the cairn and keep it in place. Some wedge-shaped gallery graves had curved rear walls, while others were linear. A few had the terminal burial chamber at the rear of the gallery, although this was usually blocked off. Wedge-shaped gallery graves sometimes had a set of outer walls. These could be parallel to the inner walls, or they could be set at an even stronger angle (emphasizing the wedge-like nature of the tomb). Wedge-shaped gallery graves usually faced west, and often had a pair of upright stone slabs linking the inner and outer walls at the entrance.

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