Dolmen de Charcé

The Dolmen de Charcé, also known as the Pierre couverte de Beaupreau, is a dolmen at Charcé-Saint-Ellier-sur-Aubance in Maine-et-Loire, France. It was built between 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE, according to a typological estimate, and was classified as a historic monument in 1889.

The burial chamber was originally preceded by a portico that has since collapsed, with much of its covering slab buried. The main covering slab rests over both the main chamber, measuring 3 m long by 2.30 m wide, and a smaller chamber that opens to the southeast. A short cross passage separates the two spaces.

All the slabs are made of Eocene sandstone. The underside of the covering slab has natural cupules decorated with around forty striations arranged in nine groups. These are described as artificial, parallel, vertical and polished, and as resembling smaller examples on the dolmen de l’Etiau. The site later served as a shelter for agricultural machinery, and the floor of the chamber was dug out.

Two short flint blades and a polished axe were recovered from the chamber. The Dolmen de Charcé lies about 20 m from the Pierre Levée de Beaupreau. It belongs to a wider tradition of dolmens in France, where most date to the Late Neolithic, about 4000 to 3000 BCE, and many were covered with earth or smaller stones to form a mound.

Dolmen de Charcé is a dolmen in Charcé-Saint-Ellier-sur-Aubance, France. A typological estimate: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Pierre couverte de Beaupreau", shown in the original language.