h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I recently came across a reference to the kistvaen in Devon - partcularly on Dartmoor.

An link to our "trusty" Wikipedia.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmoor_kistvaens

Although the tombs are neolithic, the name itself is obviously Celtic.

My question was "who named these?", and when.

Kistvaen also exist in Cornwall, and especially on the Isles of Scilly, but it seems that Dartmoor has a large number.

Kistvaen is just one of a number of Brythonic names given to ancient stone monuments, some others being ‘menhir’, ‘dolmen’ (or ‘cromlech’), ‘tolmen’, and examples of these can be found in Devon.

Another type of stone monument is the stone circle, many of which can be found on Dartmoor. Although the descriptive name ‘stone circle’ is not Brythonic, some of these circles have been given the local name ‘Nine Maidens’, despite the fact that none of them actually consist of nine stones, supposedly signifying nine maidens who were turned to stone for some misdeed. However, a more likely origin for the name is that it is a corruption of the Brythonic words ‘ni’, meaning ‘sacred’ (also found in Devon place-names containing the elements ‘Nymet’ and ‘Nympton’), and ‘maen’, meaning ‘freestanding stone’ (also found in Devon place-names such as ‘Mainstone’ and ‘Mainbow’). Therefore the name ‘Nine Maidens’ would be a corruption of ‘ni-maen’ implying ‘sacred stone(s)’, which they probably were to our ancient ancestors.

It is interesting that the Brythonic versions of these monument names persist, rather than their English equivalents.