first Kerbourg dolmen
Also known as1st Kerbourg dolmen · Kerbourg dolmen (A) · Kerbourg dolmen 1
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo TV78 · Public domainSource file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
First Kerbourg dolmen is a dolmen in Saint-Lyphard, France. It is also known as 1st Kerbourg dolmen, Kerbourg dolmen (A), Kerbourg dolmen 1. It lies at 47.3631° N, 2.3618° W, at an elevation of 18 m.
Catalogue recordSources and licences
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
first Kerbourg dolmen
ContextSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
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. The regional background, “French dolmens”, is given below.
DatingSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
No scientific date has been published for this site. Monuments of this type in France are generally dated 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE; the site itself may fall inside or outside that range.
Most dolmens date from the Late Neolithic period (4000-3000 BCE).
Setting
33 other recorded monuments lie within 10 km (3 within 1 km, 14 within 5 km), 9 of them of the same type. In Saint-Lyphard, France, 4 of the 10 recorded monuments are of this type.
The nearest recorded monuments are Kerbourg dolmens (0.0 km south, dolmen); second Kerbourg dolmen (0.1 km south, dolmen); Kerbourg menhir (0.7 km west, menhir); Allée couverte du Crugo (1.6 km east, gallery grave).
ProtectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
No heritage designation is recorded for the site.
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
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
8 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
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°21′47″ N, 2°21′43″ WFor a GPS or map app: 47.36311, -2.36183
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.
Kerbourg dolmens4000–3000 BCE
second Kerbourg dolmen4000–3000 BCE
Kerbourg menhir2800–1800 BCE- Gallery grave (allée couverte)Allée couverte du Crugo4500–3300 BCE
- Stone row (alignment)alignement de Brétineau3300–2500 BCE
menhir de Kerdanestre2800–1800 BCE- Megalithrochers du Rohain4500–3300 BCE
Sandun dolmen4000–3000 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q21334438wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Kerbourg-01b.jpgTV78Public domain
- Kerbourg, Dolmen 4.JPGCbydCC BY-SA 3.0
- Kerbourg, dolmen 1.jpgCbydCC BY-SA 3.0
- Kerbourg, pierre près des dolmens.jpgCbydCC BY-SA 3.0
- Dolmen de Kerbourg 01.jpgHarrieta171CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dolmen de Kerbourg 02.jpgHarrieta171CC BY-SA 4.0
- Kerbourg-03.JPGTV78CC BY-SA 3.0
- Kerbourg-02a.jpgTV78Public domain
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Compiled from open records (Wikidata, CC0; OpenStreetMap, ODbL) and a regional background article based on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Wikidata Q21334438CC0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0