Menhir de Courtevrais
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Pucesurvitaminee · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Pierre de Courtevrais, catalogued as the Menhir de Courtevrais, is a standing stone at Nogent-le-Bernard, in the department of Sarthe, France. It is a classified historical monument, and the record gives a typological estimate of between 2800 and 1800 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
Menhir de Courtevrais
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre de CourtevraisCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre de CourtevraisCC BY-SA 4.0
The stone is of sandstone and stands 4 m high. Its name is also spelt Courtevraie.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre de CourtevraisCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre de CourtevraisCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument has been classified as a historical monument since 20 October 1983.
The word comes from the Breton maen and hir, 'long stone', and entered archaeology through French antiquarians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre de CourtevraisCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre de CourtevraisCC BY-SA 4.0
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. 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.
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.
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
- 48°13′16″ N, 0°28′52″ EFor a GPS or map app: 48.22100, 0.48111
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.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q14628535wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Menhir de Courtevrais - 09.JPGPucesurvitamineeCC BY-SA 3.0
- Menhir de Courtevrais - 08.JPGPucesurvitamineeCC BY-SA 3.0
- Menhir de Courtevrais - 05.JPGPucesurvitamineeCC BY-SA 3.0
- Menhir de Courtevrais - 06.JPGPucesurvitamineeCC BY-SA 3.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Pierre de Courtevrais" (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): Pierre de CourtevraisCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q14628535CC0