pierre qui pousse
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Néolitho · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
La Pierre qui pousse (the stone that grows) is a menhir forming part of a megalithic alignment in the commune of Eppeville, in the extreme south-east of the département of Somme, France. A typological estimate places it between 2800 and 1800 BCE.
The Eppeville alignment dates from the Neolithic and consists of five blocks aligned over a distance of 27 metres. The monument has been classified as a monument historique since 1889.
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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
pierre qui pousse
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
The alignment is composed of five blocks set in a line over a distance of 27 metres. The largest, La Pierre qui pousse, is the only one with a flattened, triangular shape. It is a menhir more than 1.8 m high and 1.9 m wide at the base.
The name La Pierre qui pousse does not reflect, contrary to popular belief, any natural process of rising.
NameSources for this section
Sources for this section
The name La Pierre qui pousse does not reflect, contrary to popular belief, any natural process of rising. Erosion at the base of the megalith gives the impression of a gradual upward push over time, a phenomenon that may be amplified by climate change, through chemical and biological modification of soils and more intensive run-off.
FolkloreSources for this section
Sources for this section
The French account records a number of popular beliefs, described as more or less fanciful and without any scientific basis. They include a magnetic field induced by a pocket of iron ore, the influence of strong tides, an upthrust of lava from great depth, the lightning attracted by the stone, and an ancient extraterrestrial landing site.
Clodomir Boulanger recorded the following legend. One day Gargantua, travelling through the region, felt discomfort in his clog and shook it out, letting fall the five sandstones that thus formed an alignment. Since then, a traveller who lingers at night on the towpath is said to hear the groans and laments of the Pierre qui pousse. According to another popular belief, the largest of the stones turns on itself on Christmas night, when midnight strikes twelve.
ConservationSources for this section
Sources for this section
La Pierre qui pousse was classified as a monument historique in 1889.
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
- 1889
La pierre qui pousse est classée « monument historique » en 1889.
Source - 1890
Ponchon, Les Mégalithes de la Somme, 1890-1891 Pierre Saint-Yves, Pierres à légendes du département de la Somme, 1936 Liste des monuments historiques de la Somme Sites mégalithiques de la Somme Pierre de Gargantua (Doingt)
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
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
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
- 49°44′42″ N, 3°02′43″ EFor a GPS or map app: 49.74510, 3.04530
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.
- Menhir (standing stone)Pierre à Bénie2800–1800 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)pierre de Gargantua2800–1800 BCE
menhir du mont Ganelon2800–1800 BCE
Pierre Laye dolmen4000–3000 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Pierre Frite2800–1800 BCE
verziau of Gargantua2800–1800 BCE
pierre levée de Clary2800–1800 BCE
Pierre d’Oblicamp2800–1800 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q22966570wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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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
Clodomir Boulanger racontait cette légende: « Un jour, Gargantua parcourant la contrée se sentit gêné dans son sabot.
Clodomir Boulanger racontait cette légende: « Un jour, Gargantua parcourant la contrée se sentit gêné dans son sabot. En le secouant, il fit tomber les cinq grès qui ont ainsi formé un alignement. Depuis ce jour, le voyageur qui s'attarde la nuit sur le chemin du halage entend les gémissements et les lamentations de la Pierre qui pousse. Une autre croyance populaire veut que la plus grande de ces pierres fasse un tour sur elle-même la nuit de Noël quand sonnent les douze coups de minuit. »
Source
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "La Pierre qui pousse (Eppeville)" (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