dolmens du Devès
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 dolmens du Devès are three dolmens at Martiel, in the département of Aveyron, France. They are dolmens of simple type and all three have kept their tumulus. They are not to be confused with the two dolmens of the Devès des Gleyettes on the same commune.
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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
dolmens du Devès
It stands slightly east of centre in an elongated tumulus 23 metres long and 14 metres wide.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Devès (Martiel)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Devès (Martiel)CC BY-SA 4.0
Dolmen no. 1 is the largest of the three. It stands slightly east of centre in an elongated tumulus 23 metres long and 14 metres wide. Two orthostates delimit a burial chamber of 3 metres by 1,45 metres, oriented on azimuth 61°. The capstone has disappeared.
Dolmen no. 2 is a small dolmen set in an oval tumulus with a perimeter of between 16 and 20 metres. Its burial chamber measures only 2 m2 and is oriented on azimuth 113°.
Dolmen no. 3 has a round tumulus 18 to 20 metres in diameter. It is again small: the chamber measures 1,50 metres by 0,80 metres and is oriented on azimuth 52°. The capstone has disappeared and the end slab is reduced to a very small fragment.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Devès (Martiel)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Devès (Martiel)CC BY-SA 4.0
According to the Abbé Suquet, dolmen no. 1 was excavated by M. Maruéjouls and the Abbé Cérès. Caussanel and Arnal describe it as the Dolmen de Marin 3. They describe dolmen no. 2 as the Dolmen de Marin 1 and wrongly place it on the commune of Sainte-Croix.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Devès (Martiel)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Devès (Martiel)CC BY-SA 4.0
Dolmen no. 2 was classified as a historical monument in 1978.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Devès (Martiel)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Dolmens du Devès (Martiel)CC BY-SA 4.0
The catalogue record gives a typological estimate of 4000 to 3000 BCE, a date assigned on the form of the monuments rather than by absolute dating.
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
- 1978
Il est classé au titre des monuments historiques en 1978.
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
- 44°25′12″ N, 1°54′33″ EFor a GPS or map app: 44.42000, 1.90917
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.
- Dolmendolmen du Devès 14000–3000 BCE
- Dolmendolmen du Puech Mort 14000–3000 BCE
- Dolmendolmen du Puech Mort 24000–3000 BCE
Dolmen4000–3000 BCE
Dolmens du Devès des GleyettesPhoto: Association Sauvegarde Patrimoine Martiel · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dolmendolmen du Devès des Gleyettes 24000–3000 BCE
dolmen de Combemousseuse4000–3000 BCE- DolmenDolmen von Combemousseuse4000–3000 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q3034149wikidata.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
- dolmen du Devès 1<0.1 km W
- dolmen du Puech Mort 10.1 km NE
- dolmen du Puech Mort 20.3 km NE
- Dolmen0.4 km SE
- Dolmens du Devès des Gleyettes0.4 km NE
- dolmen du Devès des Gleyettes 20.7 km S
- Dolmen von Combemousseuse0.8 km N
- dolmen de Combemousseuse0.8 km N
- dolmen de Peyrofic1.0 km NE
- dolmen du Devès des Gleyettes 11.1 km S
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dolmens du Devès (Martiel)" (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