Le Doigt de César
DatedEst. 2800–1800 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
What the sources say
Le doigt de César est un menhir situé à Soucelles, dans le département français de Maine-et-Loire.
Article in FrenchRead 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.
The full article
Le Doigt de César: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Le Doigt de César is a standing stone at Soucelles in the French département of Maine-et-Loire. It was erected during the Neolithic, between 2800 BCE and 1800 BCE according to a typological estimate. The site is also known as Doigt de César (Soucelles).
The menhir consists of a slab of locally sourced Eocene sandstone called “grès à sabals”. It is 2,40 m high and 0,80 m wide on average. The buried part forms an L. The structure was exposed when the stone was re-erected by the Génie d'Angers.
The standing stone was raised in the Neolithic. Its later re-erection revealed the form of its buried section. Le Doigt de César was classified as a monument historique in 1975.
Menhirs are large upright stones placed by people. They are especially numerous in Western Europe, with about 1,200 in north-western France. The stones in the Carnac area were made from local granite by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany, and more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones there form extensive groups and alignments.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Le Doigt de César is a menhir (standing stone) in Soucelles, France. Wikidata describes it as: menhir in Soucelles, France. A typological estimate: 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Doigt de César (Soucelles)", shown in the original language.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Le menhir est constitué d'une dalle de grès éocène dit «grès à sabals» d'origine locale de 2,40 m de haut et de 0,80 m de large en moyenne. La partie enterrée forme un L.
HistoireSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Ce mégalithe a été érigé au néolithique.
Il a été redressé par le Génie d'Angers, ce qui a permet la mise en évidence de sa structure.
ProtectionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
L'édifice est classé au titre des monuments historiques en 1975.
AnnexesSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Bibliographie
: document utilisé comme source pour la rédaction de cet article.
Michel Gruet, Mégalithes en Anjou, Le Coudray-Macouard, Cheminements, 2005 (1re éd. 1967, actualisation de Charles-Tanguy Le Roux), 417 p. (ISBN 2-84478-397-X, lire en ligne), p. 245
Articles connexes
Sites mégalithiques de Maine-et-Loire
Liste des monuments historiques de Maine-et-Loire
How this page was madeSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Doigt de César (Soucelles)CC BY-SA 4.0
The summary at the top of this page was written by MiniMax-M3 (2026-11-08) from the cited Wikipedia article “Doigt de César (Soucelles)”, translated from French. The numbers in it were checked automatically against the source text. The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.
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
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. 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°35′43″ N, 0°24′45″ WFor a GPS or map app: 47.59528, -0.41250
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 Cesée4000–3000 BCE- DolmenDolmen du Bois de la Pidoucière4000–3000 BCE
La Pierre au Loup4000–3000 BCE
dolmen des Mollières4000–3000 BCE
Dolmen de la Maison des Fées4000–3000 BCE- Dolmenpierre du Crapeau4000–3000 BCE
- Megalithensemble mégalithique du Lion-d'Angers4500–3300 BCE
L’Étiau dolmen4000–3000 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q3033782wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "Doigt de César (Soucelles)" (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