Overview
About this site
Overview
The Boscorre Dolmen lies in a dense oak wood with thorn scrub, east of Puéchabon near Aniane, in the department of Hérault, France. The catalogue gives a typological estimate of 4000 to 3000 BCE.
It is a passage dolmen with a q-shaped plan and a largely preserved passage of dry-stone walling. Like many dolmens in Hérault it is damaged.
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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
Boscorre Dolmen
The burial chamber is complete, but one side has begun to collapse, and the chamber had to be filled with stones to prevent its falling in.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boscorre DolmenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boscorre DolmenCC BY-SA 4.0
The Boscorre Dolmen is a passage dolmen (dolmen à couloir) with a q-shaped plan. The passage, built of dry-stone walling, is largely preserved. The capstone is broken into several pieces, one large piece of which lies on the cairn. The burial chamber is complete, but one side has begun to collapse, and the chamber had to be filled with stones to prevent its falling in.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boscorre DolmenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boscorre DolmenCC BY-SA 4.0
The dolmen has been excavated, and the results were published in the 1950s. The Dolmen Carrière de l'Espinasse lies nearby.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boscorre DolmenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Boscorre DolmenCC BY-SA 4.0
In France the term dolmen is the general name for Neolithic megalithic structures of all kinds. France is the dolmen country of Europe, with some 4,500 dolmens scattered across 60 French departments. Most date to the Late Neolithic, about 4000 to 3000 BCE, and many were covered with earth or smaller stones to form a mound.
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
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
- 43°42′30″ N, 3°38′41″ EFor a GPS or map app: 43.70833, 3.64473
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.
dolmen de la Carrière de l'Espinasse4000–3000 BCE
Dolmen de la Draille4500–3300 BCE
dolmens of Cazarils4500–3300 BCE
Dolmen de Cambous4000–3000 BCE
dolmens de la Limite3470–2760 BCE
menhir du Lacam des Lavagnes2800–1800 BCE
menhir de la Mare des Lavagnes2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)menhir du Mouton2800–1800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q38223574wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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
- dolmen de la Carrière de l'Espinasse0.8 km W
- Dolmen de la Draille7.2 km NE
- dolmens of Cazarils7.4 km NE
- Dolmen de Cambous8.5 km NE
- dolmens de la Limite11 km NE
- menhir du Lacam des Lavagnes11 km NW
- menhir de la Mare des Lavagnes11 km NW
- menhir du Mouton12 km NW
- dolmen de Rigoule12 km NW
- Mégalithes de la Croix de l'Yeuse12 km W
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Boscorre Dolmen" (German), 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 (German): Boscorre DolmenCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q38223574CC0