allée couverte de l'Étang des Essarts
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Marie-Lan Nguyen · CC BY 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The allée couverte de l'Étang des Essarts, also called the dolmen des Marets, is a megalithic structure in the commune of Champcenest, in the département of Seine-et-Marne, France. Its authenticity has not been established.
The structure seen today is a restoration of 1913 carried out on a heap of stones, without a precise record of its earlier state.
Read on Wikipedia2 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.
Article
allée couverte de l'Étang des Essarts
In 1913 the Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de l'arrondissement de Provins restored it, without making a precise record of the earlier arrangement.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
The site was reported in 1912 as a probable megalithic site. At that time it was an unordered heap of stones covered with brushwood. In 1913 the Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de l'arrondissement de Provins restored it, without making a precise record of the earlier arrangement. The reconstituted structure has a single capstone, 2.90 m long, 1.95 m wide and about 0.60 m thick, resting on three orthostats, with seven standing slabs in front of it. All the slabs are of meulière.
ArchaeologySources for this section
Sources for this section
Meulière does not occur naturally at the site, which implies that the slabs were deliberately brought there for a definite purpose, possibly the building of a megalithic monument. However, no archaeological material was found during the restoration to confirm this. Remains of burials attributed to the Gauls are reported to have been found in the neighbouring field.
ContextSources for this section
Sources for this section
France has some 4,500 dolmens spread across 60 departments. A dolmen is a single-chamber megalithic tomb with two or more upright stones carrying a great capstone, and most are dated to the Late Neolithic, about 4000 to 3000 BCE. A typological estimate gives the same range for this structure, although its authenticity is not established.
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
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 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
- 48°40′03″ N, 3°18′16″ EFor a GPS or map app: 48.66760, 3.30450
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 de Saint-Brice2800–1800 BCE
Pierre-Fitte2800–1800 BCE
Pierre Aiguë2800–1800 BCE- DolmenDolmen du Pavois4000–3000 BCE
- Dolmendolmen des Grèves de Frécul4000–3000 BCE
Menhir de la Grande-Pierre2800–1800 BCE- Dolmendolmen du Trou-du-Bœuf4000–3000 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Pierre couvée de Courtomer2800–1800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q56304860wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Allée couverte de Champcenest 2017-06.jpgMarie-Lan NguyenCC BY 4.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Allée couverte de l'Étang des Essarts" (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