gallery grave

General and rather obsolete term applied to those kinds of chambered tombs in northern and western Europe in which there is no marked distinction between the entrance passage and the burial chamber. The latter commonly leads off the access passage or is integral to it. Gallery graves are commonly contained within a broadly rectangular mound, the ends of which may be elaborated to create a forecourt area which presumably served as a focus of ritual. See allée couverte, simple passage grave, entrance grave, long barrow.