Aillevans dolmen
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Ginette Mathis · Public domainSource file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Aillevans dolmen is the first of the three dolmens of the Bois de Blusseret, a group on the territory of the commune of Aillevans in the département of Haute-Saône, France. The record gives a typological estimate of 4000 to 3000 BCE, but the excavators place the use of the group from the final Neolithic to the Bronze Age.
Dolmen no. 1 has been a classified historical monument since 2 March 1979 and is protected by a chalet in the middle of the forest.
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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
Aillevans dolmen
The three dolmens were built on a hill on the right bank of the Ognon, at an altitude of about 300 m.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Bois de BlusseretCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Bois de BlusseretCC BY-SA 4.0
The three dolmens were built on a hill on the right bank of the Ognon, at an altitude of about 300 m. Dolmens no. 1 and no. 3 are 600 m apart, and dolmens no. 2 and no. 3 are 280 m apart. Their very great architectural uniformity and shared burial practices suggest that they were built by the same settled population, from the final Neolithic to the Bronze Age.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Bois de BlusseretCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Bois de BlusseretCC BY-SA 4.0
The three dolmens were excavated in 1954 by Viellescazes, but no survey was drawn up and the furnishings found are unknown. In 1960 J.-P. Milotte, A. Thévenin and R. Antoine excavated all three again, but no overall study has been published. Dolmen no. 1 was excavated again in 1973.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Bois de BlusseretCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Bois de BlusseretCC BY-SA 4.0
Dolmen no. 1 went through five successive phases of construction, remodelling or reuse. It was originally a dolmen with antennae set in a circular tumulus of 3 m radius, oriented east-west and opening to the east. It has a vestibule 2 m wide and 1 m long, bounded north and south by two limestone orthostates set in pits 0.80 m deep filled with clay. The rectangular funerary chamber, 1.90 m long and 1.70 m wide, is bounded by four slabs. The east and west orthostates are large (1.70 m and 2.15 m long respectively) and thick (0.30 to 0.40 m), set to a depth of 1.80 m in narrow wedging pits. The north and south orthostates are smaller (1.33 to 1.85 m long, 1.30 m high, 0.13 to 0.15 m thick) and were wedged in small pits 0.20 m deep with limestone slabs. Some slabs show traces of bush-hammering. The chamber floor was dug to a depth of about 0.35 m.
In a second phase the original tumulus was enclosed in a large trapezoidal stone cairn 18 m long and 4 m wide at the narrow end to 9 m at the wide end, whose long sides consist of limestone slabs set upright in a straight trench (0.40 m deep and 0.60 m wide). Postholes were cut in the tumulus, six of them around the dolmen, and a paving was laid around the tomb. Apart from the antennae and the entrance, the whole was probably surmounted by a timber structure with a double-pitched roof, perhaps corresponding to a reuse of the site as a sanctuary.
In the Early Bronze Age the site seems to have been abandoned and the monument was damaged by frost and run-off water. In the Late Bronze Age the interior of the dolmen was remodelled: a clay-extraction pit and hollows were dug in the tumulus, the hollows being used to collect cremation remains. After the Bronze Age vegetation took over the tumulus, which gradually became a heap of cleared stones used until the twentieth century.
Dolmen no. 2 has exactly the same architecture as no. 1. Its chamber is a square of about 2 m on a side, bounded by four orthostates. The large east and west slabs, 2.30 m and 2.50 m long and 0.25 to 0.30 m thick, were set in a trench 1.80 m deep. The north and south slabs are smaller (1.65 m and 1.80 m long, 0.20 m and 0.25 m thick) and sunk only 0.25 m. The east corners of the chamber are closed by dry-stone walls. The tumulus is a mass of clay covered by paving four to six layers deep, forming a trapezoid about 15 to 17 m long, with a wide end of 2 m at the east in the middle of which is the opening. The chamber floor was dug to a depth of about 0.60 m.
Dolmen no. 3 is of the same architectural type as the other two, except that its chamber was not dug into the ground. The paving around the dolmen is at least 18 m long. The dolmen is in very poor condition and the supporting slabs are broken.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Bois de BlusseretCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Bois de BlusseretCC BY-SA 4.0
The human bones from dolmen no. 1 belong to a minimum of twenty-three individuals buried during the first three phases of use. The animal bones include intrusive fauna (rodents), but the presence of several mammal species (wild boar, sheep or goat, cattle) suggests food deposits, since they were found close to the human bones. Earlier excavations disturbed the archaeological layers, and most of the material was recovered from sieving earlier spoil. The stone tools include two hammerstones and flakes of quartzite, five sandstone blocks that may have served as bush-hammers, and flints (bladelets and fragments, various flakes, arrowheads and a dagger). The pottery dates mainly to the Late Bronze Age.
In dolmen no. 2 the uniformity of the archaeological layer indicates that the chamber was used without interruption. Earlier bones were pushed back along the walls to make room for new burials. According to the excavation report, between 3500 and 4000 human teeth were found. Counting of bone fragments gives an estimate of about fifty burials (33 adults, 8 children). The presence of 200 to 300 teeth of wild boar or pig may represent food offerings for the dead. Grave goods are scarce: five flint tools, three metal objects and sherds from three different vessels. The stone tools include four arrowheads and a notched dagger that was probably hafted. The two S-profile vessels are of poor, badly fired pottery, grey inside and red outside. The round-bottomed beaker, also of poor quality, is black inside with a beige slip outside and contains crushed calcite temper. The metal objects, of copper or bronze, comprise a large melted bead, a hammered bead for stringing and a small double-pointed awl. The uniformity of the material supports continuous use, and it is likely that dolmen no. 2 was used only after the reuse of dolmen no. 1.
In dolmen no. 3, a few very fragmentary human bones that are hard to identify and animal bones (pig family and sheep or goat) were found on the paving. The grave goods are poor: a fragment of a brown-black vessel with rough, badly fired paste and coarse calcite temper, and four other vessel fragments.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
French dolmens
France is the dolmen country of Europe: the Dolmen de Bagneux at Saumur is the largest of some 4,500 dolmens scattered across 60 French departments, and one of the largest in Europe. A dolmen is a single-chamber megalithic tomb with two or more upright stones carrying a great capstone. Most date to the Late Neolithic, about 4000 to 3000 BCE, and many were covered with earth or smaller stones to form a mound.
Some of the oldest megalithic monuments in Europe are in western France. The Cairn of Barnenez in Finistère dates to the early Neolithic, around 4000 BCE, and with the Tumulus of Bougon and the Locmariaquer megaliths it is among the earliest megalithic monuments in Europe; it also has megalithic art. La Roche-aux-Fées near Essé in Ille-et-Vilaine is a covered corridor about 20 metres long, built of some 48 blocks, the heaviest around 45 tonnes, and divided into two chambers. It is thought to date from 3000 to 2500 BCE, and its entrance is aligned on sunrise at the winter solstice.
Folklore: the name of La Roche-aux-Fées, "the fairies' rock", comes from a legend that fairies placed the stones. Such stories are traditions about the monuments, not evidence of how they were built.
Because the Atlas draws on national inventories, its French records include many small and ruined dolmens, often reduced to a capstone resting on a few supports. Dates rest on the typology of the monument and, where a dolmen has been excavated, on radiocarbon dating of material from the chamber.
When visiting, look for the capstone and its supports, for the low rise of the old mound around the stones, and for the direction in which the entrance faces.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Dolmen, Wikipedia: Dolmen de Bagneux, Wikipedia: La Roche-aux-Fées, Wikipedia: Barnenez, Wikipedia: Carnac stones · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1954
Les trois édifices ont été fouillés en 1954 par Viellescazes mais aucun relevé n'a été dressé et le mobilier découvert est inconnu.
Source - 1973
Une nouvelle fouille du dolmen no 1 est réalisée en 1973. Les trois dolmens ont été édifiés sur une colline, sur la rive droite de l'Ognon, à environ 300 m d'altitude.
Source - 1973
Les fouilles antérieures à celle de 1973 ont bouleversé les couches archéologiques et l'essentiel du mobilier retrouvé l'a été dans le tamisage des déblais antérieurs.
Source - 1979
Le dolmen no 1 fait l’objet d’un classement au titre des monuments historiques depuis le 2 mars 1979 et l'édifice est désormais protégé par un chalet, au milieu de la forêt.
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
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. 4000–3000 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for dolmens in France; this site has not been dated itself. Most dolmens date from the Late Neolithic period (4000-3000 BCE).Source for this date
Where it stands
France
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 47°35′04″ N, 6°24′25″ EFor a GPS or map app: 47.58432, 6.40684
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 Q651202wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Dolmen à antennes d'Aillevans, Haute Saône, France.jpgGinette MathisPublic domain
- Aillevans Dolmen.JPGPhil25Public domain
- Aillevans Dolmen1.JPGPhil25Public domain
- Coffre funéraire et dallage.jpgEspiratCC BY-SA 4.0
- Dallage du podium du dolmen.jpgEspiratCC BY-SA 4.0
- Dolmen d'Aillevans. (2.jpgEspiratCC BY-SA 4.0
- Dolmen d'Aillevans.jpgEspiratCC BY-SA 4.0
- Informations sur les dolmens régionaux.jpgEspiratCC BY-SA 4.0
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Around this place
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dolmens du Bois de Blusseret" (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