Dolmen de la Pierre Couverte
DatedEst. 4500–3300 BCE
Photo Gregofhuest · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Dolmen de la Pierre Couverte is a former dolmen in the wood of Bruon, in the north-west of the commune of Parigné-le-Pôlin, in the department of Sarthe, France. Its capstone has collapsed.
It is classified as a historic monument.
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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 la Pierre Couverte
No further description of its structure is recorded, and a typological estimate gives a date range for it.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
La Pierre couverte is an ancient dolmen whose table, or capstone, has fallen. No further description of its structure is recorded, and a typological estimate gives a date range for it.
HistorySources for this section
Sources for this section
The monument has been classified as a historic monument since 16 December 1982. A guide to the megaliths of Sarthe by Jean-Paul Henri Berthet, published at Le Mans, treats the site.
ContextSources for this section
Sources for this section
General megalith records for France cover a range of monuments, including dolmens and covered alleys (allées couvertes), menhirs, cromlechs, tumuli, groups of stones and polissoirs. Some of the oldest monuments in Europe are in western France, and the Carnac stones in Brittany, with more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones, are the largest collection in the world.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
French megaliths
The Atlas's general "megalith" records for France cover a range of monuments: dolmens and covered alleys (allées couvertes), menhirs, cromlechs, tumuli, groups of stones, and polissoirs. Some of the oldest monuments in Europe are in western France, and the Carnac stones in Brittany, with more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones, are the largest collection in the world.
A polissoir, "polisher", is a Neolithic stone tool used for polishing and sharpening stone objects, especially axes, adzes and chisels. They date to about 5,000 years ago. Polissoirs are typically large stones with smooth, concave surfaces or grooves, made of hard and abrasive rocks such as sandstone, granite or quartzite, and the surface often shows distinctive wear patterns from the back-and-forth motion used to refine the edges of tools. They come in two types: earthfast, large and immovable and found in their original position, and portable. A polissoir is not strictly a megalith, but it is recorded with them because it is a large stone of the same period.
In the Atlas a record with an unspecified type receives a broad Neolithic range, since it cannot be tied to a particular phase. Many small dolmens survive only as a few stones in a field and cannot be dated closely.
Folklore: La Roche-aux-Fées near Essé takes its name, "the fairies' rock", from a legend that fairies placed the stones.
When visiting, look for the polished grooves on boulders near dolmens, and for the way a capstone is propped.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Dolmen, Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Carnac stones, Wikipedia: Polissoir, Wikipedia: La Roche-aux-Fées · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1982
L'édifice est classé au titre des monuments historiques depuis le 16 décembre 1982.
Source
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. 4500–3300 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for megaliths in France; this site has not been dated itself. The megaliths of north-west France are among the oldest in Europe; the Carnac stones date from 4500-3300 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
France
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 47°51′30″ N, 0°05′33″ EFor a GPS or map app: 47.85820, 0.09244
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 Q3387401wikidata.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 "Pierre couverte (Parigné-le-Pôlin)" (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