Ferrussac-Esquirol dolmen
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Gachepi · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Ferrussac-Esquirol dolmen is the largest passage dolmen (dolmen à couloir) in the southern part of the Causse du Larzac plateau, at La Vacquerie-et-Saint-Martin-de-Castries in the department of Hérault, France. Its chamber is about 3.0 m long, and the capstone, 4.6 m long, weighs more than 13 tonnes.
Excavations in the 1960s recovered human bones from more than 60 individuals, together with beads, bone tools and metal objects. The catalogue record gives a typological estimate of 4000 to 3000 BCE.
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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
Ferrussac-Esquirol dolmen
The chamber is covered by the remains of an earth mound held by a stone wall, built of larger blocks, which projects on both sides of the entrance.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
The chamber is about 3.0 m long, 1.0 m wide and 2.0 m high. The passage is 6.8 m long, and its side slabs are about 3.5 m long, 0.9 m high and 0.2 m thick. The capstone is 4.6 m long and weighs more than 13 tonnes.
The chamber is covered by the remains of an earth mound held by a stone wall, built of larger blocks, which projects on both sides of the entrance. On top of the monument stands a simple stone table made of three slabs. Seen along the passage, the structure gives the impression of a double-decker dolmen. A restoration was carried out by the Groupe archéologique Lodévois (GAL).
ExcavationsSources for this section
Sources for this section
The dolmen was first mentioned in 1866 by Père Vinas and has been the subject of several excavations. In the 1960s the archaeologist Gaston Combarnous (1892–1987) recovered bone tools, 1500 steatite beads and a few copper ones, fragments of bronze bracelets, arrowheads, and human bones from more than 60 individuals.
SettingSources for this section
Sources for this section
Other remains lie in the surrounding area. The Saint-Martin d'Azirou dolmen produced building remains, pottery and lithic material. In the cave of Maurous, explored by Joseph Giry (1905–2002), nine large Bronze Age urns were found; they are displayed in the museum at Lodève. Below the cave entrance stands a menhir 1.5 m high, la Pierre de la grotte de Maurous. In the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age, cave cisterns were used to collect water.
Traces of Copper Age houses and enclosures are found at La Trivalle, La Vernède, Montsaloux, Sablières and Saint-Martin d'Azirou, together with the remains of Roman villas and of three ancient roads called La Trivalle. The remains of a lime kiln lie between the road and the dolmen. The Costa-Caouda dolmen is nearby.
ContextSources for this section
Sources for this section
In France the word dolmen is used as a general term for megalithic structures of every kind. A dolmen in the narrower sense is a single-chamber megalithic tomb with two or more upright stones carrying a great capstone. France has some 4,500 dolmens, and most date to the Late Neolithic, about 4000 to 3000 BCE; 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
- 1866
Der Dolmen wurde 1866 von Pater Vinas erstmals erwähnt und war Gegenstand mehrerer Ausgrabungen.
Source - 1892
In den 1960er Jahren hat der Archäologe Gaston Combarnous (1892–1987) Knochenwerkzeuge, 1500 Perlen aus Steatit und einige aus Kupfer, Fragmente von Bronzearmbändern und Pfeilspitzen sowie menschliche Knochen von mehr als 60 Individuen gefunden.
Source - 1905
In der von Joseph Giry (1905–2002) erkundeten Höhle von Maurous wurden neun große Urnen aus der Bronzezeit entdeckt, die im Museum von Lodève ausgestellt sind.
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
- 43°47′25″ N, 3°29′02″ EFor a GPS or map app: 43.79020, 3.48380
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.
Dolmens de Ferrussac4000–3000 BCE
Dolmens de Costa-Caouda4000–3000 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)menhir du Mouton2800–1800 BCE
- Dolmendolmen de Rigoule4000–3000 BCE
menhir de la Mare des Lavagnes2800–1800 BCE
menhir du Lacam des Lavagnes2800–1800 BCE
Mégalithes de la Croix de l'Yeuse4000–3000 BCE
La Prunarède dolmen4000–3000 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q9336880wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Dolmens de Ferrussac<0.1 km E
- Dolmens de Costa-Caouda3.6 km NW
- menhir du Mouton4.2 km SE
- dolmen de Rigoule4.2 km E
- menhir de la Mare des Lavagnes4.5 km SE
- menhir du Lacam des Lavagnes4.9 km E
- Mégalithes de la Croix de l'Yeuse8.7 km S
- La Prunarède dolmen9.2 km N
- Dolmen de la Bruyère d’Usclas9.9 km SW
- Coste-Rouge dolmen11 km SW
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen von Ferrussac-Esquirol" (German), 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