Dolmen de Pierre Couverte
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Gregofhuest · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
Le dolmen de la Pierre couverte est un dolmen situé à Vaas, en France.
Article in FrenchRead on Wikipedia2 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.
The full article
Dolmen de Pierre Couverte: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
Sources for this section
The Dolmen de la Pierre couverte is a dolmen at Vaas in France. It stands about 3 kilometers north of Vaas in the Bois des Bouleaux, on the heights of the hameau du Tertre, at an altitude of about 110 meters.
The available description does not set out the dolmen’s construction or explain which visible remains survive. In general, a dolmen is a single-chamber megalithic tomb with two or more upright stones carrying a great capstone. Many dolmens in France were covered with earth or smaller stones to form a mound.
The Dolmen de la Pierre couverte is dated by typological estimate to 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. It has been listed as a historic monument since 12 February 1984.
The monument is also known as the Dolmen de Pierre Couvert and appears in connection with Vaas, the monuments historiques of the Sarthe, and the megalithic sites of the Sarthe. A published guide to the megaliths of Sarthe includes it: Jean-Paul Henri Berthet, À la découverte des mégalithes en Sarthe, Le Mans, Berger, 1992, 72 p., p. 39.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
Sources for this section
Dolmen de Pierre Couverte is a dolmen in Vaas, 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 la Pierre couverte (Vaas)", shown in the original language.
Le dolmen est situé à environ 3 kilomètres au nord de la commune de Vaas, dans le Bois des Bouleaux, sur les hauteurs du hameau du Tertre, à une altitude d'environ 110 mètres.
LocalisationSources for this section
Sources for this section
Le dolmen est situé à environ 3 kilomètres au nord de la commune de Vaas, dans le Bois des Bouleaux, sur les hauteurs du hameau du Tertre, à une altitude d'environ 110 mètres.
HistoriqueSources for this section
Sources for this section
L'édifice est inscrit au titre des monuments historiques depuis le 12 février 1984.
AnnexesSources for this section
Sources for this section
Bibliographie
Jean-Paul Henri Berthet, À la découverte des mégalithes en Sarthe, Le Mans, Berger, 1992, 72 p., p. 39
Articles connexes
Liste des monuments historiques de la Sarthe
Sites mégalithiques de la Sarthe
Vaas
RéférencesSources for this section
Sources for this section
Portail des monuments historiques français Portail de la Sarthe Portail du mégalithisme
How this page was madeSources for this section
Sources for this section
The summary at the top of this page was written by MiniMax-M3 (2026-11-08) from the cited Wikipedia article “Dolmen de la Pierre couverte (Vaas)”, translated from French. The numbers in it were checked automatically against the source text. The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.
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
- 1984
L'édifice est inscrit au titre des monuments historiques depuis le 12 février 1984.
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.
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. 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°41′46″ N, 0°19′35″ EFor a GPS or map app: 47.69610, 0.32639
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.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q3034098wikidata.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
Text from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen de la Pierre couverte (Vaas)" (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