View source for Kistvaen

{{Short description|Type of burial chamber}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Expand German|Steinkiste|date=May 2014}}
{{globalize|date=May 2014}}
[[File:Drizzlecombe kist 5.JPG|thumb|right|'''Kistvaen''' showing [[Coping (architecture)|capstone]] and [[cist]] structure ([[Dartmoor]] in [[Drizzlecombe]])]]
[[File:Drizzlecombe kist 1.JPG|thumb|'''Kistvaen''' on the southern edge of Dartmoor in Drizzlecombe]]

A '''kistvaen''' or '''cistvaen''' is a [[tomb]] or [[burial chamber]] formed from flat stone slabs in a box-like shape. If set completely underground, it may be covered by a ''[[tumulus]]''.<ref>Cyril M. Harris, ''Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture'' (Courier Dover Publications, 1983), p. 118 with illustration [https://books.google.com/books?id=6n4JLmyooTwC&dq=kistvaen&pg=PA118 online.]</ref> The word is derived from the [[Welsh Language|Welsh]] ''[[cist]]'' (chest) and ''maen'' (stone). The term originated in relation to [[Celts|Celtic]] structures, typically pre-Christian, but in [[antiquarian]] scholarship of the 19th and early 20th centuries it was sometimes applied to similar structures outside the [[Celtic nations|Celtic world]].

[[File:Kist off merrivale row-4.jpg|thumb|Kistvaen to the south of the stone rows at [[Merrivale, Devon|Merrivale]] on [[Dartmoor]]]]

One of the most numerous kinds of kistvaen are the [[Dartmoor kistvaens]]. These often take the form of small rectangular pits about 3&nbsp;ft. (0.9 m) long by 2 feet (0.6 m) wide. The kistvaens were usually covered with a mound of earth and surrounded by a circle of small stones. When a body was placed in the kistvaen, it was usually lain in a contracted position. Sometimes however the body was [[Cremation|cremated]] with the ashes placed in a [[cinerary urn]].

==Kistvaens and Celtic saints==
Kistvaens are also found associated with holy sites or burial places of early [[Celtic Christianity|Celtic saints]], who are often [[hagiography|semi-legendary]]. Saints associated with kistvaens include [[Callwen]] daughter of [[Brychan]], [[Gerent, Saint|Geraint]],<ref>S. Baring-Gould and John Fisher, ''The Lives of the British Saints'' (London, 1908) p. 67 [https://books.google.com/books?id=-G4AAAAAMAAJ&dq=Callwen+cistvaen+intitle%3Alives+intitle%3Aof+intitle%3Athe+intitle%3ABritish+intitle%3ASaints&pg=PA67 online] and  vol. 3, p. 51 [https://books.google.com/books?id=xDdaqXsOJbcC&dq=kistvaen&pg=PA51 online]</ref> [[Begnet]],<ref>In the quoted passage incorrectly identified as St. Benedict; Joseph P. O'Reilly, "Notes on the Orientations and Certain Architectural Details of the Old Churches of [[Dalkey]] Town and [[Dalkey Island]]," ''Proceedings of the [[Royal Irish Academy]]'' 24 (1903), p. 196 [https://books.google.com/books?id=quoAAAAAYAAJ&dq=Begnet+kistvaens&pg=RA3-PA196 online.]</ref> and [[Pennant Melangell|Melangell]].<ref>Nancy Edwards, "Celtic Saints and Early Medieval Archaeology," in ''Local saints and local churches in the early medieval West'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 234ff., with [https://books.google.com/books?id=8awpnzSjLC8C&dq=%22stone+slab+shrine%2C+Killabuonia%22&pg=PA241 photo.] Scholars may describe the kind of structure called a "kistvaen" rather than using the term itself.</ref> Foundation remains of stone slab- or gable-shrines, or the ''[[cella memoriae]]'' of Mediterranean origin, may sometimes have been misunderstood in an earlier era of scholarship as a kistvaen, and the subject is complicated by this "woolly nomenclature."<ref>''Ulster Journal of Archaeology'' 63 (2004), p. 144.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Dolmen]], a type of above-ground burial chamber

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary}}
{{commons category}}
*[http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/tomb_raider.htm Dartmoor tomb raiders] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707132126/http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/tomb_raider.htm |date=7 July 2017 }}
*[http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/kist_vaens.htm Dartmoor Kistvaen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630133523/http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/kist_vaens.htm |date=30 June 2017 }}

{{Prehistoric technology}}

[[Category:Burial monuments and structures]]
[[Category:Archaeology of death]]

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