.JPG/1920px-Chahaignes_-_Menhir_de_Gobianne_(ISMH).JPG 1920w)
Menhir de Gobianne
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Gregofhuest · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
Le menhir de Gobianne est un menhir situé à Chahaignes, dans le département français de la Sarthe.
Article in FrenchRead on Wikipedia3 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
Menhir de Gobianne: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
The Menhir de Gobianne is a standing stone at Chahaignes in the Sarthe department of France. It is dated by typological estimate to 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE.
The monument consists of two stones placed side by side, known as “la mère et la fille.” Both are made of poudingue à silex. The northern “mère” stands 3,60 m high, while the broader “fille” has probably been buried along most of its length and rises only about 1,80 m above the ground.
The two stones align closely along a south-east/north-west axis. Together they lean slightly toward the south-west, strengthening the appearance that the taller northern stone is watching over the lower one. The Menhir de Gobianne has been registered as a historic monument since 8 février 1984.
Standing stones of this kind are especially numerous in Western Europe, with about 1,200 in north-western France alone. The wider French name menhir comes from the Breton words maen and hir, meaning “long stone”; in modern Breton, such a stone is called a peulvan.
No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Menhir de Gobianne", shown in the original language.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
Menhir de Gobianne is a menhir (standing stone) in Chahaignes, France. Wikidata describes it as: menhir in Chahaignes, France. A typological estimate: 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Menhir de Gobianne", shown in the original language.
ProtectionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
L'édifice est inscrit au titre des monuments historiques depuis le 8 février 1984.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
Le menhir est composé de deux pierres juxtaposées, également appelées "la mère et la fille". Toutes deux sont en poudingue à silex. La "mère", située au nord, qui mesure 3,60 m de hauteur, semble veiller sur la "fille". Cette dernière est en revanche beaucoup plus large et semble avoir été enterrée sur sa plus grande longueur. Elle ne dépasse du sol que d'environ 1,80 m. L'ensemble est légèrement incliné vers le sud-ouest, ce qui augmente cette impression de protection.
Les deux pierres se juxtaposent parfaitement dans un axe sud-est/nord-ouest.
AnnexesSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
Bibliographie
Jean-Paul Henri Berthet, À la découverte des mégalithes en Sarthe, Le Mans, Berger, 1992, 72 p., p. 41
Articles connexes
Sites mégalithiques de la Sarthe
Liste des monuments historiques de la Sarthe
How this page was madeSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de GobianneCC 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 “Menhir de Gobianne”, 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
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1984
L'édifice est inscrit au titre des monuments historiques depuis le 8 février 1984.
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
3 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°44′34″ N, 0°29′23″ EFor a GPS or map app: 47.74280, 0.48972
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.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q3305866wikidata.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
Text from the Wikipedia article "Menhir de Gobianne" (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 GobianneCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q3305866CC0