What are dolmens?
Dolmens are tombs. The word dolmen derives from Breton meaning stone table. There are different types of dolmen, but all have similar features: a funeral chamber where the deceased was placed. The access to the chamber differs depending on the type of dolmen, but in our territory almost all are passage tombs. It means there was a small corridor to access the chamber closed off with stones. When we are in front of the dolmen, what we can see are the remains of the stones that made up part of the chamber and the corridor.
Originally, these elements were covered with a big tumulus or small hill made of stone and soil that covered the big stones. This small hill was marked with a ring of standing flagstones or small walls.
These tombs were reusable, although the small dimensions leads to think that it was not reused many times and they were probably more related to a funeral cult.
These monuments are discovered at the end of XIX century, when naturalists studying the environment start to identify these monuments. A lot of them were destroyed to make cultivation terraces and to reuse some of the flagstones.
The first scholars that talk about dolmens in El Port de la Selva are: First, in the XIX century, Antoni de Nouvilas talks about Mores Altes I dolmen and de la Pallera paradolmen using other names and Romuald Alfaràs talks about de la Cendrera dolmen and de la Taballera dolmen; in the XX century, Manuel Cazurro, Pere Bosch Gimpera and Lluís Pericot; and in the thirties Eusebi Rius and Antoni Costa rediscover Mores Altes I. There will be many following studies until the Geseart publications appear at the end of the eighties and the work of Josep Tarrús is published in 2002.
