Kerbourg menhir
Also known asmenhir de Kerbourg
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo VT78 · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Kerbourg menhir, also called the Pierre Blanche de Kerbourg or the Pierre de Trémélu, is a standing stone of white quartz, 2.10 m high, in the commune of Saint-Lyphard, in the département of Loire-Atlantique, France. The Atlas catalogue gives a typological estimate of 2800 to 1800 BCE.
The site was excavated in October 1896 by Henri Quilgars, whose findings suggest that the stone may have been erected or re-erected in the Roman period.
Read 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.
Article
Kerbourg menhir
Until the early twentieth century a large granite slab known as the menhir Tombé-du-Loin was visible in its immediate vicinity.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de KerbourgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de KerbourgCC BY-SA 4.0
The menhir of the Pierre-Blanche is a block of white quartz 2.10 m high. Until the early twentieth century a large granite slab known as the menhir Tombé-du-Loin was visible in its immediate vicinity.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de KerbourgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de KerbourgCC BY-SA 4.0
The site was excavated in October 1896 by Henri Quilgars. The ground on which the menhir was set up is full of Gallo-Roman roof-tile debris (tegulae), and the base of the menhir itself was wedged with this kind of material, which suggests that it was erected or re-erected at that time.
On the granite slab Quilgars recognised two distinct types of cupules. The first are hemispherical, with a diameter of about 3 cm, and may have been made by abrasion with a stone. The second are conical and were evidently dug with a metal tool. Flint flakes were found beneath the slab.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de KerbourgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de KerbourgCC BY-SA 4.0
Pitre de Lisle mentions the two stones together under the name menhirs de la Pierre-Blanche. According to Quilgars, the two megaliths are independent and date from different periods: the stone called Tombé-du-Loin could have been a Neolithic monument, while the Pierre Blanche would date from the Roman period.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Breton and French menhirs
A menhir is a large upright stone placed by humans. The word comes from the Breton maen and hir, "long stone", and entered archaeology through French antiquarians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; in modern Breton the word for such a stone is peulvan. Menhirs are most numerous in Western Europe, with about 1,200 in north-western France alone, and Brittany stands out for both the density of monuments and the variety of types.
The largest known menhir is the Grand Menhir Brisé at Locmariaquer. It once stood nearly 20.6 metres high, and now lies fractured in four pieces; whole, it would have weighed some 330 tonnes. Stones in the Carnac area were hewn from local granite by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany. At Carnac more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones form the largest such collection in the world, arranged in groups of alignments that stretch for four kilometres. The stones were erected at some point in the Neolithic, probably around 3300 BCE, with some perhaps as early as 4500 BCE. Elsewhere, the Cham des Bondons in the Cévennes is the second largest concentration in France, and a menhir 4.5 metres tall stands against Le Mans Cathedral, moved there in 1778 when its dolmen was destroyed.
Dating a menhir is difficult, because standing stones are usually hard to date and were put up in many different periods.
Folklore: a Christian legend held that the stones of Carnac were pagan soldiers who had pursued Pope Cornelius and were turned to stone by him. Modern beliefs link the stones with Roman and Christian occupation, even though they date from 4500 to 3300 BCE.
When visiting, look at how the stones taper towards the top and at how the alignments run across the slope.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Carnac stones, Wikipedia: Locmariaquer megaliths, Wikipedia: List of menhirs · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1896
Le site a été fouillé en octobre 1896 par Henri Quilgars.
Source - 1898
10 (lire en ligne) Henri Quilgars, « Le menhir de la Pierre-Blanche, commune de Saint-Lyphard », Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Nantes, no 37, 1898, p.
Source - 2010
46-48 (lire en ligne) Jean-François Polo et Élizabeth Santacreu, 100 menhirs & Dolmens en Presqu'île Guérandaise & en Brière, Guérande, Presquîle Éditions, 2010 (1re éd.
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
4 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. 2800–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for menhirs in France; this site has not been dated itself. Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
France
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 47°21′50″ N, 2°22′18″ WFor a GPS or map app: 47.36380, -2.37170
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.
second Kerbourg dolmen4000–3000 BCE
Kerbourg dolmens4000–3000 BCE- first Kerbourg dolmen4000–3000 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 Q21254506wikidata.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 "Menhir de Kerbourg" (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
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de KerbourgCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q21254506CC0