Dolmen des Pierres Folles
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Claude Wehrlen · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
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Overview
About this site
Overview
The Dolmen des Pierres Folles, also called the Dolmen de l'Epinaise, is a ruined dolmen at Bouges-le-Château, in the department of Indre, France. A typological estimate places it between 4000 and 3000 BCE.
It was long thought to have been destroyed, but it was rediscovered in 1970 during land clearance.
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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 des Pierres Folles
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen des Pierres FollesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen des Pierres FollesCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument is ruined. The capstone measures 2.50 m on each side and is 0.50 to 0.70 m thick. Two orthostats remain visible. One is a large slab 3 m long and 1.20 m high, which may correspond to the former back slab on the north-west side. The other is a triangular slab 1.30 m long and 1.10 m high. Various scattered blocks also survive. The chamber probably opened originally to the south-east.
It is described in Gérard Coulon's guide to the dolmens and menhirs of the Indre, published in 2011.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen des Pierres FollesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen des Pierres FollesCC BY-SA 4.0
The dolmen was considered destroyed until it was found again during clearance in 1970. It is described in Gérard Coulon's guide to the dolmens and menhirs of the Indre, published in 2011.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen des Pierres FollesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmen des Pierres FollesCC BY-SA 4.0
A dolmen is a single-chamber megalithic tomb with two or more upright stones carrying a great capstone. France has about 4,500 dolmens spread across 60 departments. 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
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1970
Le dolmen était considéré comme détruit mais il a été redécouvert lors d'un défrichement en 1970.
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°02′44″ N, 1°41′41″ EFor a GPS or map app: 47.04560, 1.69470
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.
Dolmen de la Pierre Levée4000–3000 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)tumulus de Liniez5000–3000 BCE
dolmen de La Pierre4000–3000 BCE
Menhirs of Tréfoux2800–1800 BCE
Pierre couverte de Bué4000–3000 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)pierre levée de Boisy2800–1800 BCE
- Dolmenpierre Levée4000–3000 BCE
dolmen de la Pierre-Folle4000–3000 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q139846270wikidata.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 des Pierres Folles" (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