Dolmen de Fontanilles
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Vicenç Armangué de Via Pirena · Public domainSource file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
La dolmen de Fontanilles est un site archéologique mégalithique qui se situe dans la commune de Sant Climent Sescebes, dans la province de Gérone en Catalogne (Espagne).
Il est inscrit à l'Inventaire du patrimoine architectural de Catalogne.
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
Dolmen de Fontanilles: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de FontanillesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de FontanillesCC BY-SA 4.0
Dolmen de Fontanilles is a megalithic archaeological site in Sant Climent Sescebes, in the province of Gérone in Catalonia, Spain. It is listed in the Inventaire du patrimoine architectural de Catalogne and lies north of the menhir of the Murtra.
It is a corridor tomb with a short rectangular chamber measuring 1,60 × 0,90 m and 1,35 m high. Three vertical supporting orthostates and the covering slab remain visible. The tomb has a broad corridor with parallel walls, described as a small U-shaped Catalan gallery, while its tumulus was 8 m in diameter.
The site was discovered in 1920 by Joan Costal, maître d'Espolla, and Josep Bosch Cusí. Excavations by Pere Bosch Gimpera and Lluís Pericot i Garcia in 1923 found a knife on a flint plate and coarse pottery fragments. Further excavations by Júlia Chinchilla and Josep Tarrús in 1985 uncovered several stone tools and ceramic fragments dating to the Bronze Age.
The monument is assigned to the Copper Age, in the first half of the IIIe millénaire av. J.-C. Its dating is also given as 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE, based on a typological estimate. As a wider context, Spain has many megalithic tombs, with the Atlas’s Spanish dolmens extending from Andalusia in the south to Galicia in the north-west.
No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Dolmen de Fontanilles", shown in the original language.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de FontanillesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de FontanillesCC BY-SA 4.0
Dolmen de Fontanilles is a dolmen in Sant Climent Sescebes, Spain. A typological estimate: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. Elevation: 200 m. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Dolmen de Fontanilles", shown in the original language.
HistoriqueSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de FontanillesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de FontanillesCC BY-SA 4.0
Le site fut découvert en 1920 par Joan Costal, maître d'Espolla, et par Josep Bosch Cusí. Les fouilles menées par Pere Bosch Gimpera et Lluís Pericot i Garcia en 1923 mirent au jour un couteau sur une plaque de silex et des fragments de poterie grossière. Bien plus tard, les fouilles de Júlia Chinchilla et Josep Tarrús en 1985 révélèrent un couteau/grattoir sur une plaque de silex trapézoïdale, un grattoir droit sur un éclat de quartz bleuâtre, un fragment de bol à bord aminci, des fragments de bol, des fragments de vase de l'âge du bronze, des fragments d'urne, des fragments de plat/couvercle, des fragments d'urne ou de plat/couvercle à fond plat de l'âge du bronze récent.
Ce dolmen est situé au nord du menhir de la Murtra.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de FontanillesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de FontanillesCC BY-SA 4.0
C'est un tombeau à couloir, avec une courte chambre rectangulaire (1,60 × 0,90 m pour une hauteur de 1,35 m) dont trois orthostates de soutien verticales et la dalle de couverture sont encore visibles. Il possède un large couloir aux murs parallèles, ou une petite galerie catalane en forme de U. Son tumulus avait un dimètre de 8 m. Il date de l'âge du cuivre, de la première moitié du IIIe millénaire av. J.-C..
How this page was madeSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de FontanillesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de FontanillesCC BY-SA 4.0
The summary at the top of this page was written by MiniMax-M3 (2026-11-07) from the cited Wikipedia article “Dolmen de Fontanilles”, 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
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
- 42°24′35″ N, 2°58′02″ EFor a GPS or map app: 42.40975, 2.96711
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.
- DolmenSalt d'en Peió4000–3000 BCE
Menhir del Castellà4000–3000 BCE
Menhir de la Murtra2800–1800 BCE
Menhir de Vilartolí2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)menhir de Santa Fe dels Solers2800–1800 BCE
Dolmen de la Gutina4000–3000 BCE
Dolmen de Tires Llargues4000–3000 BCE- DolmenDolmen de la Gutina/Puig del Pal4000–3000 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q11917561wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Dolmen Fontanilles 01.JPGVicenç Armangué de Via PirenaPublic domain
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Salt d'en Peió0.9 km N
- Menhir del Castellà1.0 km E
- Menhir de la Murtra1.2 km SE
- Menhir de Vilartolí1.6 km S
- menhir de Santa Fe dels Solers1.6 km SW
- Dolmen de la Gutina1.8 km SE
- Dolmen de Tires Llargues1.9 km SE
- Dolmen de la Gutina/Puig del Pal2.2 km SE
- Dolmen de Coma de Gall2.4 km NW
- Dolmen del Prat Tancat2.5 km SE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen de Fontanilles" (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 FontanillesCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q11917561CC0