Champvermeil dolmen

The Champvermeil dolmen stands in the commune of Bidon, in the Ardèche department of France. It was listed as a historic monument in 1910. The Atlas catalogue gives a typological estimate for its date of 4000 to 3000 BCE, a range that rests on the type of monument and not on direct dating.

Little more is recorded about this particular dolmen. Nothing is stated here about the size of its chamber, the number of its stones, whether it was covered by a mound, or what was found inside it. There is a drawing of the monument by Jules Ollier de Marichard, which shows how it was seen in the past.

Dolmens in general are single-chamber megalithic tombs, with two or more upright stones carrying a great capstone. In France they are very common: the Dolmen de Bagneux at Saumur is the largest of 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.

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. La Roche-aux-Fées in Ille-et-Vilaine is a covered corridor about 20 metres long, built of some 48 blocks, the heaviest around 45 tonnes. These give a sense of the wider tradition to which monuments of this kind belong.

Champvermeil dolmen is a dolmen in Bidon, France. 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 Champvermeil", shown in the original language.