Dolmen de Cambous
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Liberliger · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Dolmen de Cambous is a megalithic chamber in a round cairn, standing beside the open-air museum 'Site préhistorique de Cambous', north-east of Viols-le-Fort near Montpellier, in the département of Hérault, France. In France the word dolmen is used as a general term for megalithic structures of every kind.
It belongs to the type that Bruno Marc called the 'tombe ovale' (oval tomb), and its chamber measures about two metres by one metre.
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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
Dolmen de Cambous
The monument lies in a round cairn about ten metres in diameter, around which are two concentric circles of hewn stones.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von CambousCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von CambousCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument lies in a round cairn about ten metres in diameter, around which are two concentric circles of hewn stones. In the centre is a chamber of about two metres by one metre. Apart from the end stone and two entrance stones, the chamber is built of drystone walling. There is no sign of a capstone.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von CambousCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von CambousCC BY-SA 4.0
The catalogue record gives a typological estimate of 4000 to 3000 BCE. Bruno Marc, who studied 20 oval structures in Hérault, regards them as evidence of the arrival of new peoples or new rites of the Copper and Bronze Age in Languedoc. The only real innovation of these structures, however, is their oval form.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von CambousCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von CambousCC BY-SA 4.0
Marc's study of the oval tombs was published in 1995 under the title 'Fragile witnesses of the Bronze Age: the oval tombs'. Other oval structures in Hérault named in the literature include the Tombe ovale de Boussagues, the Tombes ovales du Truc de Marti, the Tombe ovale des Camps, the Dolmen de Cazarils, the Tombe ovale Garrigue Gourmande, and the tumulus of Escout with the oval dolmen Peyrecor II.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von CambousCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von CambousCC BY-SA 4.0
Monuments of this kind in France are usually described as single-chamber megalithic tombs in which two or more upright stones carry a great capstone. Most are dated 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
4 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
- 43°45′16″ N, 3°43′44″ EFor a GPS or map app: 43.75438, 3.72896
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.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q56399935wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen von Cambous" (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): Dolmen von CambousCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q56399935CC0