{{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 capstone and cist structure (Dartmoor in Drizzlecombe)]] 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 ''cist'' (chest) and ''maen'' (stone). The term originated in relation to 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 world.
[[File:Kist off merrivale row-4.jpg|thumb|Kistvaen to the south of the stone rows at 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 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 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 saints, who are often semi-legendary. Saints associated with kistvaens include Callwen daughter of Brychan, 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 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