Le Vau-Janot
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
Overview
Le Vau-Janot, also called the menhir de la Peillonaie, is a menhir (standing stone) at Gomené in the département of Côtes-d'Armor, France. A typological estimate places it between 2800 and 1800 BCE.
The stone is made of granite and stands 5,70 m high.
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
Le Vau-Janot
The granite menhir measures 5,70 m in height, 2,55 m in width and 2,45 m in thickness at ground level.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Le Vau-JanotCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Le Vau-JanotCC BY-SA 4.0
The granite menhir measures 5,70 m in height, 2,55 m in width and 2,45 m in thickness at ground level. Clandestine digging has shown that the stone is buried to a depth of 2,10 m, so that a substantial part of its length lies below the present surface.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Le Vau-JanotCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Le Vau-JanotCC BY-SA 4.0
No excavated evidence is given for the date of the stone. The range of 2800 to 1800 BCE is a typological estimate, based on the form of the monument rather than on any scientific dating of the site.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Le Vau-JanotCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Le Vau-JanotCC BY-SA 4.0
Monuments of this kind are usually described in general terms as follows. 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, which once stood nearly 20.6 metres high and now lies fractured in four pieces. 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.
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
- 2004
Loïc Langouët, Les mégalithes de l'arrondissement de Dinan, Institut Culturel de Bretagne, 2004, 62 p.
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. 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
- 48°10′14″ N, 2°28′31″ WFor a GPS or map app: 48.17053, -2.47532
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.
- Gallery grave (allée couverte)allée couverte de Ville-Menot4500–3300 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir von Camblot2800–1800 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhirs du Perfaux2800–1800 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)menhir de la Coudre2800–1800 BCE
allée couverte de La Roche aux Fées de la Brousse4500–3300 BCE
Allée couverte des Meurtiaux4000–3000 BCE
dolmen du Carouge4000–3000 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)menhir de la Pierre Longue2800–1800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q30740211wikidata.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
- allée couverte de Ville-Menot2.0 km SW
- Menhir von Camblot3.0 km S
- Menhirs du Perfaux11 km N
- menhir de la Coudre13 km N
- allée couverte de La Roche aux Fées de la Brousse18 km N
- Allée couverte des Meurtiaux18 km N
- dolmen du Carouge20 km N
- menhir de la Pierre Longue20 km N
- Menhirs de Saint-Mirel20 km N
- Dolmen des Pierres-Gouffier21 km SE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Le Vau-Janot" (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): Le Vau-JanotCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q30740211CC0