dolmen de Coët-er-Rui
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Dolmen de Coët-er-Rui, also called the Dolmen de Guénestre, is a ruined megalithic tomb at Saint-Allouestre, Morbihan, France. The catalogue assigns it to about 4000 to 3000 BCE, a typological estimate, and it is a classified historical monument.
The monument is completely ruined and its original architecture is unknown. One of the surviving slabs carries engravings.
Read on Wikipedia1 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
dolmen de Coët-er-Rui
Of the original monument there remain only a buried orthostate and three slabs lying on the ground.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Coët-er-RuiCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Coët-er-RuiCC BY-SA 4.0
Of the original monument there remain only a buried orthostate and three slabs lying on the ground. One of these slabs bears engravings: six crosses, an arc of a circle and about ten cupules. The slabs are of granite, whereas the local bedrock is Precambrian schist, which implies that they were transported to the site.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Coët-er-RuiCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Coët-er-RuiCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument was classified as a dolmen among the historical monuments by order of 16 January 1935.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Coët-er-RuiCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Coët-er-RuiCC BY-SA 4.0
A dolmen is a single-chamber megalithic tomb with two or more upright stones carrying a great capstone. Most dolmens in France 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
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1935
L'édifice a été classé comme dolmen au titre des monuments historiques par arrêté du 16 janvier 1935.
Source - 1994
17-18 (lire en ligne) Philippe Gouézin, Les mégalithes du Morbihan intérieur, Rennes, Institut culturel de Bretagne et Centre régional d'archéologie d'Alet, coll. « Patrimoine archéologique de Bretagne », 1994, 127 p.
Source
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.
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
- 47°54′04″ N, 2°43′31″ WFor a GPS or map app: 47.90107, -2.72515
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.
Kergonfalz gallery grave4500–3300 BCE
Kergonfalz dolmen4000–3000 BCE
menhir de Lann-Douar2800–1800 BCE- Gallery grave (allée couverte)allée couverte de Kerjagu4500–3300 BCE
Menhir de Kerarmel2800–1800 BCE
Menhir du Moustoir (Saint-Jean-Brévelay)2800–1800 BCE
Dolmen de Roh-Koh-Koed4000–3000 BCE
menhir de Goh-Menhir2800–1800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q22927505wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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
- Kergonfalz gallery grave5.7 km SW
- Kergonfalz dolmen5.8 km SW
- menhir de Lann-Douar8.4 km S
- allée couverte de Kerjagu8.6 km SW
- Menhir de Kerarmel8.8 km S
- Menhir du Moustoir (Saint-Jean-Brévelay)9.5 km S
- Dolmen de Roh-Koh-Koed9.5 km S
- menhir de Goh-Menhir10 km S
- menhir de Goh-Menhir10 km S
- dolmen du Resto11 km SW
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen de Coët-er-Rui" (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
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen de Coët-er-RuiCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q22927505CC0