Dolmen à galerie avec les restes de son tumulus
MonumentHidden Treasure
Dolmen à galerie avec les restes de son tumulus, located in Erdeven (Département 56), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Erdeven, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.6427, -3.1738
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091183
A Neolithic remnant of rare integrity, this gallery dolmen in Erdeven preserves the remains of its original burial mound, providing striking evidence of Breton funerary architecture dating back 5,000 years.
History
In the heart of the Auray region of Morbihan, so generously endowed with megaliths, the Erdeven gallery dolmen stands out for the partial preservation of its tumulus, the mantle of earth and stones that originally enveloped the burial chamber. Where so many Breton Neolithic burials are now reduced to their bare granite skeletons, this one still offers an almost complete picture of what a monumental burial was like some five millennia ago. The Erdeven region is one of the densest megalithic areas in Europe. Just a few kilometres away are the Kerzerho alignments, one of the longest fields of menhirs in the world, and even further still, the famous Carnac alignments. The dolmen is part of this extraordinary concentration of funerary and ceremonial monuments, testifying to a social and spiritual organisation of an unsuspected sophistication for its time. A visit to this monument is an invitation to meditate on time. The gallery chamber, accessed via a paved corridor, plunges visitors into partial darkness, with only a trickle of light coming through from the side. The impression of entering a sacred space, deliberately built to welcome the dead and perhaps engage in dialogue with them, remains intact despite the passage of thousands of years. The large slabs of local granite, laid with a precision that defied the technical means of the time, command respect and awe. The natural setting further enhances the atmosphere of the place. The surrounding moors, dotted with heather and gorse, create an atmosphere of the ends of the earth, which must have been familiar to those who built these stones. The golden evening light shines down on the granite orthostats, revealing the grains of quartz and giving the whole an almost living presence. Photographers and lovers of prehistoric heritage will find it a source of lasting contemplation.
Architecture
The gallery dolmen is an architectural form specific to the Atlantic Neolithic, distinguished from the simple single-chamber dolmen by the presence of an elongated access corridor preceding the chamber itself. At Erdeven, this layout follows the classic pattern of Armorican corridor burials: the thick orthostats of local blue granite are arranged in regular spikes on both sides of the corridor, topped with horizontal roof slabs forming a low but sturdy ceiling. The final chamber, slightly wider and higher than the corridor, forms the heart of the burial system. The only material used was local granite, a stone that is ubiquitous in the Morbihan subsoil, abundant, resistant and easy to quarry using the techniques of the time. The size of the slabs is remarkable: the orthostats can be two to three metres high and thirty to fifty centimetres thick, each weighing several tonnes. The whole structure rested on lightly prepared natural soil, with no deep foundations, stability being ensured by filling in the surrounding burial mound. The most remarkable feature of the site remains this partially preserved burial mound - the cairn of dry stone and earth that enveloped the internal architecture. Its partial survival means that the original volumetric relationship between the built mass and the visible monument can still be seen, giving an idea of the monumental visual effect that the burial site produced in the Neolithic landscape. The orientation of the access corridor, as is often the case in monuments of this type, seems to take account of solar phenomena, particularly the equinoxes and solstices, underlining the cosmological dimension of megalithic funerary architecture.
Related Figures
Communautés néolithiques du pays d'Auray (4500-3000 av. J.-C.) — bâtisseurs anonymes du monumentProsper Mérimée — inspecteur général des Monuments Historiques, pionnier de la protection du patrimoine mégalithique breton au XIXe siècleJames Miln — archéologue écossais ayant mené des fouilles pionnières sur les sites mégalithiques de la région de Carnac dans les années 1870-1880Zacharie Le Rouzic — archéologue carnacéen (1864-1939), grand inventorieur et protecteur des mégalithes du MorbihanRené Galles — archéologue local du XIXe siècle ayant contribué à l'exploration et à la documentation des dolmens du pays d'Erdeven
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Dolmen à galerie avec les restes de son tumulus located?
Dolmen à galerie avec les restes de son tumulus is located in Erdeven, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Dolmen à galerie avec les restes de son tumulus open to visitors?
Dolmen à galerie avec les restes de son tumulus is currently closed to visitors.