A passage grave or passage tomb is a structure that has one or more rooms for burying people. These rooms are covered with earth or stone, and there is a narrow entrance made of large stones. These structures are usually from the Neolithic period and are mostly found in Western Europe. When covered with earth, a passage grave becomes a type of burial mound, which is found in many places around the world. When covered with stone, a passage grave is a type of cairn.

Construction and design

Passage graves were usually built using large stones called megaliths and smaller stones. The earliest passage tombs often looked like small dolmens, though not all dolmens are passage graves. In some cases, the passage of these tombs was aligned so that sunlight entered the chamber at important times of the year, such as sunrise on the winter solstice or sunset on the equinox. Later passage tombs were often built on top of hills or mountains, showing that the builders wanted them to be visible from far away.

The inside of passage graves can vary in the number of burials, shape, and other features. Some have more than one chamber, with smaller rooms branching off from the main burial area. One common design is the cruciform passage grave, which is cross-shaped. This shape existed before the Christian Era and has no connection to Christianity. Some passage tombs are covered with a cairn, which is a large pile of stones. Passage tombs with cairns often have complex, arched ceilings instead of simple slabs. Art has been found carved into some of the stones at certain sites. Not all passage "graves" have shown signs of being used for burials. One example is Maeshowe.

Origins and distribution

The passage tomb tradition is thought to have started in the French region of Brittany. People from Brittany later brought this tradition to other areas, such as Ireland.

In a 1961 study of large stone tombs in Ireland, scholars Seán Ó Nualláin and Rúaidhrí de Valera classified these tombs into four types: court cairns, portal dolmens, wedge-shaped gallery graves, and passage tombs. This was likely the first time the term "passage tombs" was used. The scholars may have borrowed the term from the Spanish phrase tumbas de corredor, which means "corridor tombs." These tombs are found in regions of Spain, including Cantabria, Galicia, and the Basque Country. In Ireland, passage tombs are the only type of large stone tombs that are found across Europe.

Passage tombs are located in many places along the Atlantic coast of Europe. They are found in Ireland, Britain, Scandinavia, northern Germany, and the Drenthe area of the Netherlands. They are also found in Iberia, parts of the Mediterranean, and along the northern coast of Africa. In Ireland and Britain, passage tombs are often found in groups, leading to the term "passage tomb cemeteries."