The Local Beliefs
The touristy site, which I call Pshada South, has a brochure, in English to my surprise, it says:
"The Dolmens - are the unique ancient installations, which are located on the black sea coast and in the western Caucasus mountains. Outwardly they look like small stone houses, built from the massive slabs of sandstone. The material for the construction of the installation of such kind was usually in the vicinity, but rarely was it taken some kilometers far from the construction site. One slab of the dolmen could wight from three to thirty tons.
Its architectural features and the drawings on the dolmens say that the dolmens are the ancient sanctuaries and temples. They are dedicated to the great goddess - Earth Mother and to the sun - the father on the sky. The dolmens are connected with the fertility cult. Here the people were praying to gods for pregnancy and birth of nice, healthy babies.
The drawings on the dolmens reflect the hidden druidic wisdom. It develops that the ancient man of the bronze age has learned the movement of the luminaries, has used the solar and lunar calendars, has applied the golden proportion and has got the mathematical system, has monitored the reincarnation process has known the starting baby calendar and the process of embryo-fetal development.
The dolmen culture had arisen in the Caucasus, 5 thousand years ago, in the Early Bronze Age and has existed during two thousand years until the early Iron Age.
The discovered non-Glagolitic script point to suppose that the builders of the dolmens were the Indo-European tribes: Slavyano-Aryan - our direct ancestor."
In contrast, this sign, located at a tourist attraction on top of the hill range overlooking Gelendzhik, claims that we don't really know what those dolmens are, who built them and how. Like the brochure, the sign also dates the dolmens to the Bronze Age. It claims that the Cossacks called the dolmens - houses of the super heroes - and that the Circassians called them - houses of the Dwarves.
At the museum in Gelendzhik i found a 19th century map, made by the french man, Frederic Du Bois. It marks the dolmens as tombs.
Most local people in the villages and towns around Gelendzhik believe that the ground and stones them selves are sacred. There is a strong believe in the dolmen's stones possession of energy. People come to the different sites to touch the stones, they leave little tokens in the shape of little stones, cloth bands and figures. People install signs containing poetry and wisdom.
