[Note in the year 2010: the links to the West Caucasus Dolmens Project of Viktor Trifonov no longer exist and have been supplanted by a website on the "Project Archive" at Prehistoric Megaliths of the Western Caucasus. The website of Serg Valganov, The Dolmen Path - Russian Megaliths, at http://megalith.ru/articles/ also no longer exists but can be found at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.]
My decipherment of the Russian dolmens relies on the placement of the position of the dolmens as found on a map [originally] published by Dr. Viktor Trifonov of the West Caucasus Dolmens Project(Institute for History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab., 18, St.-Petersburg, 191186 Russia; Tel. +7 (812) 571-50-92, fax +7 (812) 571-62-71; e-mail: admin@archeo.ru.
The map of the positions of the dolmens [was originally] found at http://www.archeo.ru/eng/themes/dolmens/index.htm and http://www.archeo.ru/eng/themes/dolmens/map.1.jpg. [Note in the year 2010: the website of the West Caucasus Dolmens Project is no longer online, but the map of the position of the dolmens is found at Prehistoric Megaliths of the Western Caucasus and also at http://www.russia-ic.com/travel/places/1000/. Pictures of these dolmens are also found at Western Caucasus Dolmens.]
My interpretation of the positions of these dolmens as representing the stars of the major northern stellar constellations has been posted to the LexiLine Files under Russia Karelia and Eastern Europe as the file (shown in the graphic below) caucasusdolmensrussiadecipheredbykaulins.png
For more information, the two major websites which document the megalithic sites in the Caucasus [were originally]:
1. Viktor Trifonov, Prehistoric Megaliths in the Western Caucasus (West Caucasus Dolmens Project), at http://www.archeo.ru/eng/themes/dolmens - now at Prehistoric Megaliths of the Western Caucasus
2. Serg Valganov, The Dolmen Path - Russian Megaliths, at http://megalith.ru/articles/ [this website no longer exists - but can be found at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine]
The Dolmens of Russia are described as follows at the Wikipedia :
"These dolmens cover the Western Caucasus on both sides of the mountain ridge, in an area of approximately 12.000 square kilometres.... The monuments date between the end of the 4th millennium and .... While generally unknown in the rest of Europe, these Russian megaliths are equal to the great megaliths of Europe in terms of age and quality of architecture, but are still of an unknown origin. In spite of the variety of Caucasian monuments, they show strong similarities with megaliths from different parts of Europe and Asia, like the Iberian Peninsula, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Israel and India. A range of hypotheses has been put forward to explain these similarities and the building of megaliths on the whole, but still it remains unclear. Approximately 3000 of these megalithic monuments are known in the Western Caucasus, but more are constantly being found, while more and more are also being destroyed. Today, many of these monuments are in great disrepair and will be completely lost if they are not protected from vandals and general neglect."
