Overview
About this site
What the sources say
Le dolmen de Belkoain est un site archéologique mégalithique qui se situe dans la commune de Andoain, dans la province de Guipuscoa au Pays basque (Espagne).
Il est classé bien d'intérêt culturel.
Article in FrenchRead on Wikipedia3 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
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
Belkoain: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de BelkoainCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de BelkoainCC BY-SA 4.0
Belkoain is a megalithic dolmen in Andoain, in the province of Guipuscoa in the Basque Country, Spain. It stands in a mountain pass on Belkoain at an altitude of 465 m. The site forms part of the megalithic station of Andatza and is classified as a site of cultural interest.
The dolmen has collapsed, and its mound is now much deformed. It measures 11 m in diameter, with a height of 1,60 m to the north and 1 m to the south. A hollow to the south exposes several detached orthostats that once formed the burial chamber. The monument was built from local sandstone.
The site was discovered by J. Eltuna and K. Mariezkurrena in 1978 and has not been excavated. It has been associated with the Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age. Its estimated date is 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE, based on typological comparison.
Spain has many megalithic tombs. The country’s dolmens extend from Andalusia in the south to Galicia in the north-west. Some of the finest are at Antequera in Andalusia, where the Dolmen of Menga, dated to about 3750 to 3650 BCE, is among Europe’s largest ancient megalithic structures.
No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Dolmen de Belkoain", shown in the original language.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de BelkoainCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de BelkoainCC BY-SA 4.0
Belkoain is a dolmen in Aduna, Spain. A typological estimate: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Dolmen de Belkoain", shown in the original language.
HistoriqueSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de BelkoainCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de BelkoainCC BY-SA 4.0
Ce dolmen se trouve dans un col du mont Belkoain à 465 m d'altitude..
C'est un des éléments de la station mégalithique d'Andatza (eu). Le site a été associé aux périodes néolithique, âge du cuivre et de l'âge du bronze.
Il a été découvert par J. Eltuna et K. Mariezkurrena en 1978. Il n'a pas été fouillé.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de BelkoainCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de BelkoainCC BY-SA 4.0
Il s'agit d'un dolmen effondré dont le tumulus très déformé mesure 11 m de diamètre et dont la hauteur varie entre 1,60 m au nord et 1 m au sud. Au sud se trouve une dépression où sont visibles plusieurs orthostates détachées qui composaient la chambre funéraire. Les matériaux utilisés pour sa construction sont des grès locaux.
How this page was madeSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de BelkoainCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de BelkoainCC BY-SA 4.0
The summary at the top of this page was written by MiniMax-M3 (2026-11-08) from the cited Wikipedia article “Dolmen de Belkoain”, translated from French. The numbers in it were checked automatically against the source text. The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Dolmens of Andalusia, Extremadura and Galicia
Spain has a great many megalithic tombs, and the Atlas's Spanish dolmens run from Andalusia in the south to Galicia in the north-west. The finest are at Antequera in Andalusia, where the Dolmen of Menga, dated to about 3750 to 3650 BCE, is among the largest ancient megalithic structures in Europe. It is 27.5 metres long, 6 metres wide and 3.5 metres high, built with thirty-two megaliths, the largest weighing about 180 tonnes. After the chamber was finished it was covered with soil and built up into the hill seen today; when it was opened in the nineteenth century archaeologists found the skeletons of several hundred people. The Dolmen of Viera stands 70 metres away, and the tholos of El Romeral lies about 4 kilometres off; the three were inscribed as the Antequera Dolmens Site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 2016.
In the south-west, the Dolmen de Soto at Trigueros in Huelva province is a Neolithic tomb estimated to date between 3000 and 2500 BCE, one of about 200 Neolithic burial sites in the province. It was found in 1922 when its owner, Armando de Soto Morillas, wanted to build a house; the German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier found eight bodies in a fetal position with artefacts, and its engraved and painted uprights have been studied more recently.
In Galicia and Portugal a dolmen is an anta, and in Catalan-speaking areas dolmens have folk names such as cova (cave), caixa (crate or coffin), taula (table) and arca (chest). These names are tradition: they record what people made of the monuments, not what they were built for.
When visiting Menga, look at the great capstones from inside the corridor, and at the way the mound was built up over the chamber.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Dolmen of Menga, Wikipedia: Dolmen of Viera, Wikipedia: Antequera Dolmens Site, Wikipedia: Dolmen de Soto, Wikipedia: Dolmen · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1978
Mariezkurrena en 1978. Il n'a pas été fouillé.
Source
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
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000–3000 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for dolmens in Spain; this site has not been dated itself. Most dolmens date from the Late Neolithic period (4000-3000 BCE); the Dolmen of Menga in Andalusia dates to about 3750-3650 BCE.Source for this date
Where it stands
Spain
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 43°13′17″ N, 2°02′57″ WFor a GPS or map app: 43.22132, -2.04924
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.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q133514927wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen de Belkoain" (French), 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 (French): Dolmen de BelkoainCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q133514927CC0