Overview
About this site
What the sources say
La Table des Fées est une allée couverte situé sur le territoire de la commune de Fresnicourt-le-Dolmen dans le département du Pas-de-Calais.
Article in FrenchRead 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.
The full article
Table des Fées: the whole story
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
Sources for this section
Table des Fées is a dolmen in Fresnicourt-le-Dolmen, France. A typological estimate: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Table des Fées (Fresnicourt-le-Dolmen)", shown in the original language.
ProtectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
L'édifice est classé au titre des monuments historiques en 1889. L'édifice est à l'origine d'une partie du nom de la commune.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Le dolmen est composé de trois orthostates sur lesquels repose une table de couverture de 3 m de long sur 2,50 m de large et 0,60 m d'épaisseur dont le poids est estimé à environ 10 t. Elle est en partie brisée et a basculé vers le nord-est. Adrien de Mortillet, Claude Burnez et Jean Arnal considèrent qu'il s'agit d'une allée couverte alors qu'Auguste Terninck y voyait un dolmen à couloir.
D'après Terninck et Lequien, elle faisait partie d'un ensemble mégalithique important comprenant quatre dolmens formant un losange et reliés entre eux par des alignements de menhirs, ainsi qu'un double tumulus. Cet ensemble aurait été détruit au milieu du XIXe siècle par des tailleurs de pavés.
AnnexesSources for this section
Sources for this section
Articles connexes
Sites mégalithiques du Pas-de-Calais
Liste des monuments historiques du Pas-de-Calais
Bibliographie
Roger Félix, « Note sur deux monuments préhistoriques du Nord de la France », Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, vol. 66, no 7, 1969, p. 207-210 (DOI 10.3406/bspf.1969.10407, lire en ligne)
Portail du Pas-de-Calais Portail du mégalithisme Portail des monuments historiques français
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
French dolmens
France is the dolmen country of Europe: the Dolmen de Bagneux at Saumur is the largest of some 4,500 dolmens scattered across 60 French departments, and one of the largest in Europe. A dolmen is a single-chamber megalithic tomb with two or more upright stones carrying a great capstone. Most date to the Late Neolithic, about 4000 to 3000 BCE, and many were covered with earth or smaller stones to form a mound.
Some of the oldest megalithic monuments in Europe are in western France. The Cairn of Barnenez in Finistère dates to the early Neolithic, around 4000 BCE, and with the Tumulus of Bougon and the Locmariaquer megaliths it is among the earliest megalithic monuments in Europe; it also has megalithic art. La Roche-aux-Fées near Essé in Ille-et-Vilaine is a covered corridor about 20 metres long, built of some 48 blocks, the heaviest around 45 tonnes, and divided into two chambers. It is thought to date from 3000 to 2500 BCE, and its entrance is aligned on sunrise at the winter solstice.
Folklore: the name of La Roche-aux-Fées, "the fairies' rock", comes from a legend that fairies placed the stones. Such stories are traditions about the monuments, not evidence of how they were built.
Because the Atlas draws on national inventories, its French records include many small and ruined dolmens, often reduced to a capstone resting on a few supports. Dates rest on the typology of the monument and, where a dolmen has been excavated, on radiocarbon dating of material from the chamber.
When visiting, look for the capstone and its supports, for the low rise of the old mound around the stones, and for the direction in which the entrance faces.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Dolmen, Wikipedia: Dolmen de Bagneux, Wikipedia: La Roche-aux-Fées, Wikipedia: Barnenez, Wikipedia: Carnac stones · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1889
L'édifice est classé au titre des monuments historiques en 1889. L'édifice est à l'origine d'une partie du nom de la commune.
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
5 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
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Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000–3000 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for dolmens in France; this site has not been dated itself. Most dolmens date from the Late Neolithic period (4000-3000 BCE).Source for this date
Where it stands
France
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 50°25′00″ N, 2°36′25″ EFor a GPS or map app: 50.41661, 2.60691
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.
Les Pierres Jumelles2800–1800 BCE
Cromlech des Bonnettes3300–2500 BCE
Pierre du Diable2800–1800 BCE
dolmen du Bois4000–3000 BCE- dolmen du Bois4000–3000 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Le Gros Caillou (Oisy-le-Verger)2800–1800 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)menhir d'Oisy-le-Verger2800–1800 BCE
Gros Caillou2800–1800 BCEPhoto: The original uploader was Pir6mon at French Wikipedia . · CC BY-SA 3.0
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q22961832wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Fresnicourt dolmen 4.jpgVelvetCC BY-SA 3.0
- Fresnicourt-le-Dolmen la Table des Fées (1).jpgPierre André LeclercqCC BY-SA 4.0
- Fresnicourt-le-Dolmen la Table des Fées (2).jpgPierre André LeclercqCC BY-SA 4.0
- Fresnicourt dolmen 5.jpgVelvetCC BY-SA 3.0
- Dolmen fresnicourt.jpgThe original uploader was Pir6mon at French Wikipedia .CC BY-SA 3.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "Table des Fées (Fresnicourt-le-Dolmen)" (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