Overview
About this site
Overview
The Menhirs of Oppagne are three menhirs in the village of Oppagne, in the municipality of Durbuy in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. They stand about one kilometre north-west of the village and about one and a half kilometres south-west of Wéris.
Originally there were probably only two standing stones, one of which has split in two.
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Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Menhirs of Oppagne
In and around the valley in which Wéris lies there are another dolmen and a number of other menhirs.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Menhirs van OppagneCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Menhirs van OppagneCC BY-SA 4.0
About 600 metres to the north-east lies a dolmen, the Dolmen of Oppagne. In and around the valley in which Wéris lies there are another dolmen and a number of other menhirs. The various megaliths of the area are said to form several alignments lying parallel to one another.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Menhirs van OppagneCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Menhirs van OppagneCC BY-SA 4.0
The menhirs stand in the middle of a field under a tree. Ribbons are hung in the tree, which is treated as a fever tree (koortsboom). Originally there were probably only two standing stones, one of which has cracked into two pieces.
HistorySources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Menhirs van OppagneCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Menhirs van OppagneCC BY-SA 4.0
In the 19th century the stones lay flat on the ground. They were set upright in 1906 and restored in 1942.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Central and southern European menhirs
Outside the Atlantic fringe, menhirs also occur across central and southern Europe. In the Czech Republic there are about 40 real menhirs and dozens of stones that could also be menhirs, and others have been erected recently. The largest real menhir is Kamenný pastýř, the "stony shepherd", near Klobuky, 3.3 metres high; the Czech menhirs are probably the last outcrop of a tradition that ran across northern Germany. Some of the Czech stones in the Atlas may be natural boulders.
Italy has its most famous menhirs in Sardinia, where at least 332 standing stones can be seen. They include elaborate "statue-menhirs" that show a human face at the top and gendered symbols on the flat front; over a hundred of this standardised type have been found, mostly around the village of Laconi. In the Sardinian language they are called perdas fittas or perdas lungas. In Switzerland, in the canton of Vaud, several menhirs form linear patterns at Clendy in Yverdon-les-Bains, and date back to the third millennium BCE.
A statue menhir is a carved standing stone of the later European Neolithic, in which a slab or pillar has a stylised human figure cut into it, sometimes with hints of clothing or weapons. They are most commonly found in southern and western France, Catalonia, Corsica, Sardinia, Italy and the Alps.
Menhirs are usually difficult to date, and those without excavation can only be given a broad range. A stone's present position is not always its original one.
When visiting, check whether a stone stands in its original position and look for signs of shaping.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: List of menhirs, Wikipedia: Statue menhir · CC BY-SA 4.0
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
8 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 2800–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for menhirs in Belgium; this site has not been dated itself. Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Belgium
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 50°19′02″ N, 5°30′32″ EFor a GPS or map app: 50.31736, 5.50879
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q4321985wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Menhirs d'Oppagne.JPGT1supCC BY-SA 3.0
- Oppagne menhirs, Wéris, Durbuy, 2023.jpgDimiTalenCC0
- Wéris-Menhirs d'Oppagne (1).jpgRomaineCC0
- Wéris-Menhirs d'Oppagne (2).jpgRomaineCC0
- 20100626 oppagne04.JPGJean HousenCC BY 3.0
- 20100626 oppagne06.JPGJean HousenCC BY 3.0
- Deus pires levêyes Opagne.jpgLucyinCC BY-SA 4.0
- 20100626 oppagne21.JPGJeanhousenCC BY 3.0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Menhirs van Oppagne" (Dutch), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Menhirs van OppagneCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q4321985CC0