Dolmen
MonumentHidden Treasure
Dolmen, located in Concarneau (Département 29), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Concarneau, Département 29, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.9026, -3.9344
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089891
This Neolithic dolmen in Concarneau is a listed Historic Monument and embodies five millennia of Breton history. Built from local granite, it bears witness to the funeral rites of the first Armorican farmers.
History
In the heart of southern Finistère, just a stone's throw from the famous walled town of Concarneau, stands a silent witness to the most remote ages of mankind: a Neolithic dolmen classified as a Historic Monument in 1967. Set in a landscape where Brittany blends Atlantic windswept moorland with verdant bocage, this megalithic edifice belongs to the constellation of monuments that make the Armorican peninsula one of Europe's richest areas in terms of prehistoric heritage. What makes this dolmen so special is not so much its gigantic size - it can't compete with the monuments at Carnac or Locmariaquer - as its deep roots in a coastal region where Neolithic populations have left discreet but precious traces. Probably built between 3500 and 2500 BC, it belongs to the tradition of collective burials characteristic of the Armorican culture of the Middle and Late Neolithic. Its granite slabs, quarried from local outcrops, have withstood fifty centuries of weathering, ploughing and changes to the landscape. To visit this dolmen is to accept a form of humility in the face of time. The experience is not spectacular in the tourist sense of the word: no sound and light, no digital reconstruction. Just the raw stone, the often-changing Breton sky, and the unsettling impression of putting your hands where other hands, thousands of years ago, hoisted up masses of granite weighing several tonnes to honour their dead. For the photographer, the low-angled light at the end of the day sublimates the texture of the rock and the golden lichens that colonise it. The immediate setting, typical of southern Finistère, adds to the magic of the place. Between the mouths of estuaries, deciduous forests and fields enclosed by embankments, the monument is part of an authentic landscape, preserved from tourist standardisation. It's an ideal stop-off point for anyone exploring the megalithic heritage of Brittany's Cornouaille region, between Quimper and the Pointe de Trévignon.
Architecture
The Concarneau dolmen has the characteristic morphology of Armorican megalithic burial sites from the Neolithic period. It consists of a series of orthostatic slabs - vertically upright stones - which support one or more horizontal covering tables, forming a burial chamber. Granite, the dominant rock in the Finistère subsoil, is the exclusive building material: its robustness and local ubiquity made it the natural choice of the region's Neolithic builders. The central chamber, roughly rectangular or trapezoidal in plan according to Cornish tradition, may have been preceded by an access corridor - which would technically make it a covered alley or a dolmen with a corridor - and was probably originally covered by a mound of earth and stones, which has largely disappeared over the centuries as a result of erosion and human activity. This disappearance of the cairn is a phenomenon common to the vast majority of Breton megaliths. The slabs, which can weigh up to several tonnes each, were extracted by a collective effort combining the use of wooden levers, earthen ramps and dragging systems on pebbles. The surface of the stones, now colonised by grey-green and golden lichens characteristic of the Atlantic microclimate, sometimes retains traces of polishing or cupules that testify to prolonged ritual use. The monument, though sober in its dimensions, offers a preserved architectural legibility that allows us to understand the ingenuity and determination of the people who erected it.
Related Figures
Les bâtisseurs néolithiques de Cornouaille (vers 3500-2500 av. J.-C.) — communautés agropastorales anonymes à l'origine du monumentLes antiquaires bretons du XVIIIe siècle — premiers érudits à recenser et documenter les mégalithes du FinistèrePaul du Châtellier (1833-1911) — archéologue finistérien qui consacra une grande partie de sa vie à l'inventaire des monuments préhistoriques de BretagneLes agents des Monuments Historiques — responsables du classement et de la protection du dolmen par décret du 29 septembre 1967
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Dolmen located?
Dolmen is located in Concarneau, Département 29 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Dolmen open to visitors?
Dolmen is currently closed to visitors.