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Dartmoor kistvaens are burial tombs or cists from the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, i.e. from c 2500 BC to c 1500 BC. Kistvaens have been found in many places, including Dartmoor, a area of moorland in south Devon, England. The box-like stone tombs were created when the ancient people of the area lived in hut circles. Cists are often to be found in the centre of a cairn circle although some appear solitary which could be the result of the loss of an original slight mound. There are over 180〔Newman 2011, p.51.〕 known cists on Dartmoor although there could be up to 100 that remain buried underneath unexplored cairns.〔Of the cairns excavated by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee 12% contained buried cists which would suggest around 100 cists remain concealed, Butler 1997, p.173.〕 In the South West there are no cists to be found on the Quantock Hills, only 2 to be found on Exmoor and 58 to be found on Bodmin Moor.〔 The Dartmoor cists are unique in that about 94% have the longer axis of the tomb oriented in a NW/SE direction〔R. Hansford Worth, ''Worth's Dartmoor'' (David & Charles, 1971) pp.176-180.〕〔Butler 1997 p.176〕 It appears that Dartmoor cists were positioned in such a way that the deceased were facing the sun.〔 In August 2011 an untouched cist, on Whitehorse Hill, near Chagford, was the first to be excavated on the moor for over 100 years. ==Description== The word "kistvaen" is derived from the Cornu-Celtic ''Cist-veyn'' or ''Cist-vyin''; in Welsh the word is ''Cist-faen''. All these names mean "a stone chest" (''cist'' is a chest or box, ''maen'' is a stone). Kistvaens are formed using four or more flat stones for the sides and for the ends, and a larger flat stone (the "capstone") for the cover. Some kistvaens are surrounded by circles of erected stones. In general, if a body was to be buried without cremation, it was placed into a kistvaen in a (contracted position ). If on the other hand a body was cremated, the ashes were usually put in a cinerary urn, and then the urn was placed in a kistvaen. However, the majority of the known Dartmoor kistvaens were opened at some time in the past, and whatever they used to hold is missing. The cists were probably robbed in the hope of finding treasure. Kistvaens were known by many common names, including "money pits", "money boxes", "crocks of gold", "caves", "Roman graves" and so on. The idea that ancient tombs might contain valuable items is a very old one; one of the first mentions of searching tumuli in Devon dates back to 1324. Permission to search was granted by Edward II of England. Currently archaeologists usually use the word cist when talking about kistvaens, but in the past 120+ years other terms have been used, including "chest", "maen" or "vaen", "a stone" "a stone coffin" and so on. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dartmoor kistvaens」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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