menhirs de la forêt du Devens
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
The menhir known as Menhirs de la forêt du Devens lies in Gorgier, Switzerland. In open records it appears as Wikidata item Q99895709, mapped at 46.9044° N, 6.7956° E.
Built from structured records, not from an articleSources and licences
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.
The full article
About menhirs de la forêt du Devens
This kind of monument hereSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
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. Further down this page, About this kind of monument gives the whole of “Central and southern European menhirs”.
DatingSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
The Atlas shows 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE for this site, but that is a regional estimate for this kind of monument, not a date for this particular menhir. No excavation, radiocarbon sample or other measurement is recorded for it, so the real age could fall anywhere within the range, or outside it.
The range rests on this regional background (source: the Wikipedia article “Menhir”): Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.
Landscape and neighbours
Within 10 km lie 5 other catalogued sites (0 within 1 km, 4 within 5 km); 4 of them are also classed as menhir. It is one of 1 menhir records among the 1 sites catalogued in Gorgier, Switzerland.
Nearest to it are Menhir von Gorgier (2.1 km west, menhir); ensemble mégalithique de Treytel-A Sugiez (2.1 km north, stone row); Vauroux, Neolithic menhir (2.2 km north, menhir); menhir de Saint-Aubin-Sauges (3.7 km south-west, menhir). The catalogue is assembled from open records and is not complete, so unrecorded monuments may lie closer.
Records and protectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
No heritage register entry is attached to this site in the records the Atlas uses; that does not show whether national law covers it. The open records for it are Wikidata (Q99895709), where corrections and further identifiers can be added. Many such sites stand on private land; check local access rules and respect the monument and its surroundings.
How this page was madeSources for this section
Sources for this section
This page was built automatically from Wikidata (CC0) and the regional article “Central and southern European menhirs”, written for the Atlas from the Wikipedia articles it cites (CC BY-SA 4.0), plus distances and counts computed from the catalogue coordinates. It contains no AI-written text.
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.
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 Switzerland; 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
Switzerland
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 46°54′16″ N, 6°47′44″ EFor a GPS or map app: 46.90444, 6.79556
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.
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir von Gorgier2800–1800 BCE
- Stone row (alignment)ensemble mégalithique de Treytel-A Sugiez
Vauroux, Neolithic menhir2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)menhir de Saint-Aubin-Sauges2800–1800 BCE
Menhirs of Corcelles2800–1800 BCE
Dolmen of Praz Berthoud
Bonvillars Menhir2800–1800 BCE
menhir de Grandson2800–1800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q99895709wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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
- Menhir von Gorgier2.1 km W
- ensemble mégalithique de Treytel-A Sugiez2.1 km N
- Vauroux, Neolithic menhir2.2 km N
- menhir de Saint-Aubin-Sauges3.7 km SW
- Menhirs of Corcelles9.3 km SW
- Dolmen of Praz Berthoud10 km SW
- Bonvillars Menhir12 km SW
- menhir de Grandson15 km SW
- Champs des Echâtelards, neolithic menhir15 km SW
- Menhirs de Clendy17 km SW
Credit
Text, licence and sources
This page is assembled from open records (Wikidata, CC0; OpenStreetMap, ODbL) and a tradition article paraphrasing Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). No article exists for this site, and nothing here is written by a model.
- Wikidata Q99895709CC0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0