pierre Longue
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Harrieta171 · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Pierre Longue, also known as the Pierre longue or the menhir de Saint-Michel, is a menhir at Batz-sur-Mer in the département of Loire-Atlantique, France. The catalogue gives a typological estimate of 2800 to 1800 BCE for its date.
The stone measures 2,40 m in height, 1,80 m in width and 0,40 m in thickness. It was brought down by a storm in 1895 and had still not been raised in June 1900.
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
pierre Longue
This assertion seems rather improbable, since the stone is hardly visible from the open sea.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre Longue (Batz-sur-Mer)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre Longue (Batz-sur-Mer)CC BY-SA 4.0
The menhir is a broad, thin slab, 2,40 m high, 1,80 m wide and 0,40 m thick. It stands on a rock called the Tombeau du Diable, which itself covers the Trou du Diable.
Several authors state that the stone once served as a sea-mark for coastal navigation. This assertion seems rather improbable, since the stone is hardly visible from the open sea.
FolkloreSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre Longue (Batz-sur-Mer)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre Longue (Batz-sur-Mer)CC BY-SA 4.0
Local tradition holds that the rock beneath the menhir is the one on which Saint-Michel confronted and defeated the Devil.
According to legend, a treasure was buried at the foot of the stone by a child or a salt-worker (paludier), who had stolen it from the cave of the Korrigans on the wild coast of Le Pouliguen.
Until late in the nineteenth century, the young women of the town came to consult the menhir around 15 August. By dancing in rings and singing around the Pierre Longue they asked for their plans to be fulfilled, marriage above all. If one of the dancers unluckily touched the stone, she would not marry within the year.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre Longue (Batz-sur-Mer)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Pierre Longue (Batz-sur-Mer)CC 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"; 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.
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
- 1895
Abattu par une tempête en 1895, il n'était toujours pas relevé en juin 1900. Bien que plusieurs auteurs mentionnent qu'il servait jadis d'amer pour la navigation côtière, cette assertion semble assez improbable car de fait il est peu visible du large.
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
8 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°16′22″ N, 2°28′51″ WFor a GPS or map app: 47.27280, -2.48080
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.
Pierre Longue menhir2800–1800 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)tumulus de Penchâteau5000–3000 BCE
- Gallery grave (allée couverte)allée couverte de Pradel4500–3300 BCE
pierre de Saillé2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)menhir de Kerignon2800–1800 BCE
- Megalithpierre à bassins de Careil4500–3300 BCE
- Dolmendolmen de Careil4000–3000 BCE
Bissin menhir2800–1800 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q21253499wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Batz-sur-Mer Pierre longue 2.JPGHarrieta171CC BY-SA 4.0
- W5905 BatzSurMer PierreLongue 93435EOS.jpgLlann Wé²CC BY-SA 4.0
- W5906 BatzSurMer PierreLongue 93444EOS.jpgLlann Wé²CC BY-SA 4.0
- Batz pierre-longue 01.jpgLiberligerCC BY-SA 4.0
- Batz pierre-longue 02.jpgLiberligerCC BY-SA 4.0
- 2009 07 23 Batz-sur-Mer Menhir.JPGHarrieta171CC BY-SA 3.0
- Batz-sur-Mer Menhir.JPGÉclusetteCC BY-SA 3.0
- Batz-sur-Mer Pierre longue 1.jpgHarrieta171CC BY-SA 4.0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Lore, kept apart
Legends and claims
These are stories and claims reported by the sources. They are not evidence, and they never stand in for the dating above.
- Tradition
Le menhir se dresse sur un rocher appelé le Tombeau du Diable, qui lui-même recouvre le Trou du Diable.
Le menhir se dresse sur un rocher appelé le Tombeau du Diable, qui lui-même recouvre le Trou du Diable. Le rocher serait celui où Saint-Michel affronta et vainquit le Diable. Selon la légende, un trésor a été enterré à son pied par un enfant ou un paludier après l'avoir dérobé dans la grotte des Korrigans, sur la côte sauvage du Pouliguen. Jusque dans les années 1870-80, la tradition voulait que les jeunes filles du bourg viennent consulter ce menhir aux environs au 15 août. Par des rondes et des chants autour de la pierre Longue, elles demandaient la réalisation de leurs projets, notamment le mariage. Si par malheur une des danseuses touchait la pierre, elle ne se marierait pas dans l'année.
Source
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Pierre Longue (Batz-sur-Mer)" (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