menhir du Lacam des Lavagnes
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Marion Halft · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Menhir du Lacam des Lavagnes (also Conolha de la Fada or Quenouille de la Fée, “the fairy's distaff”) is a limestone standing stone in Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert near Lodève, in the département of Hérault, France. At 4.5 m it is the second tallest menhir in the Hérault.
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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 du Lacam des Lavagnes
The stone stands about 200 metres from the D122, opposite the Mas d'Aubert, near a pass almost free of vegetation, so that it is clearly visible from a distance.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir du Lacam des LavagnesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir du Lacam des LavagnesCC BY-SA 4.0
The stone stands about 200 metres from the D122, opposite the Mas d'Aubert, near a pass almost free of vegetation, so that it is clearly visible from a distance. It is very thin, about 1.0 m wide.
The menhir was broken into three pieces by the local clergy. The two lower parts were not rejoined, and a metal rod connects the remaining blocks. The line of the break is clearly visible. The phallic aspect of the stone (or anthropomorphic, depending on the viewpoint) therefore does not correspond to its original state.
It is claimed that the upper part was moved to form the small menhir of the Lavagnes, which is 1.4 m high and was Christianised with an iron cross. The original height of the Lacam des Lavagnes menhir would then have been 5.9 m.
FolkloreSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir du Lacam des LavagnesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir du Lacam des LavagnesCC BY-SA 4.0
The epithet Quenouille de la Fée derives from a legend. According to it, a fairy was spinning on her distaff and used a stone. She was frightened and dropped the distaff, which stuck in the ground and was endowed with fertility.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir du Lacam des LavagnesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir du Lacam des LavagnesCC BY-SA 4.0
The dolmen of Rigoule and the menhirs Mare-des-Lavagnes and Men Lav lie nearby.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir du Lacam des LavagnesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir du Lacam des LavagnesCC 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”. The catalogue record gives a typological estimate of 2800 to 1800 BCE for this stone.
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
2 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
- 43°46′43″ N, 3°32′34″ EFor a GPS or map app: 43.77860, 3.54280
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.
- Dolmendolmen de Rigoule4000–3000 BCE
menhir de la Mare des Lavagnes2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)menhir du Mouton2800–1800 BCE
Dolmens de Ferrussac4000–3000 BCE
Ferrussac-Esquirol dolmen4000–3000 BCE
Dolmens de Costa-Caouda4000–3000 BCE
Mégalithes de la Croix de l'Yeuse4000–3000 BCE
La Prunarède dolmen4000–3000 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q51076049wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Menhir Plaine de Lacan.jpgMarion HalftCC BY-SA 3.0
- Le menhir de Lacam.jpgPicPatrimoineSLHCC BY 4.0
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
- dolmen de Rigoule0.8 km W
- menhir de la Mare des Lavagnes0.9 km SW
- menhir du Mouton1.2 km SW
- Dolmens de Ferrussac4.9 km W
- Ferrussac-Esquirol dolmen4.9 km W
- Dolmens de Costa-Caouda8.1 km NW
- Mégalithes de la Croix de l'Yeuse8.4 km SW
- La Prunarède dolmen11 km N
- dolmen de la Carrière de l'Espinasse11 km SE
- Boscorre Dolmen11 km SE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Menhir du Lacam des Lavagnes" (German), 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