Dolmen de Kerscao
MonumentHidden Treasure
Dolmen de Kerscao, located in Riec-sur-Belon (Département 29), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Riec-sur-Belon, Département 29, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.8925, -3.7004
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00090397
A megalithic vestige nestling in the Riec-sur-Belon region, the Kerscao dolmen has been raising its granite orthostats to the Breton sky for over five thousand years, a silent testimony to the first builders of Armorique.
History
In the heart of South Finistère, in the soft soil that separates the River Belon from the Trévarez forest, the Kerscao dolmen stands out as one of the most eloquent reminders of the human presence in southern Brittany during the Neolithic period. Set in the characteristic hedged farmland of the Riec region, between slopes of pedunculate oak and damp meadows, this funerary and cult monument belongs to the large family of megalithic tombs that dot the Armorican coastline with a density unrivalled in Europe. What sets the Kerscao dolmen apart is above all the fact that it is rooted in an area with few tourist attractions, far from the crowds that flock to Carnac or Locmariaquer. Here, the visitor discovers the megalith in relative privacy, almost as archaeologists did in the 19th century when they began to make inventories of these forgotten monuments. The slabs of local granite, patinated by thousands of years of Atlantic weathering, reveal hues ranging from bluish grey to iron brown, depending on the time of day and the season. The visitor experience is that of a silent plunge into prehistory. No fences, no display cases: the granite is there, raw, at your fingertips. You instinctively appreciate the titanic effort required to hoist these blocks, sometimes weighing several tonnes, and to arrange them with a precision that still defies our certainties about the technical capacities of Neolithic societies. The partially preserved burial chamber invites us to imagine the collective burial rites that took place there. The natural setting reinforces the unique atmosphere of the site. The bocage of the Finistère region, with its dense hedgerows, sunken paths and changing light, lends the Kerscao dolmen a melancholy poetry that photographers are sure to capture at low light, when the low-angled sun accentuates the relief of the stones and casts long shadows on the grass. Nearby, the River Belon, famous for its flat oysters, is a reminder that this has always been a generous land, favourable to the settlement and development of human communities.
Architecture
The Kerscao dolmen has the characteristic morphology of the single-chamber megalithic burials common in southern Finistère. It is made up of several orthostats - vertically upright stones - of local granite forming the walls of a sub-rectangular burial chamber, topped by one or more horizontal covering slabs (tables), at least one of which is still in place or partially preserved. Armorican granite was the material of choice for Neolithic builders in the region, offering both the strength needed to ensure the monument's longevity and the relative ease with which it could be extracted from natural rock outcrops. The dimensions of the chamber are in keeping with the usual proportions of simple dolmens in Finistère: an interior length of between two and four metres and a width of around one to two metres, allowing several individuals to be buried together. The orientation of the chamber, often facing east or south-east in monuments of this tradition, probably reflected cosmological or symbolic considerations linked to the solar cycles that Neolithic societies observed with remarkable acuity. No engraved ornamentation - spirals, cupules, hand axes - has been documented on the walls of Kerscao, but the absence of recent exhaustive surveys means that the existence of discrete motifs cannot be ruled out, as is sometimes the case in other little-studied dolmens in Finistère. The patina of the stones, covered in golden and grey lichens, gives the monument a visual texture of great chromatic richness, particularly enhanced on the changeable days typical of Brittany's oceanic climate.
Related Figures
Les bâtisseurs néolithiques anonymes du Ve-IIIe millénaire av. J.-C., communautés paysannes du Finistère SudPaul du Châtellier (1833-1911), archéologue et inventorieur des mégalithes finistériensZacharie Le Rouzic (1864-1939), préhistorien breton ayant cartographié de nombreux dolmens armoricainsJacques Briard (1933-2002), archéologue spécialiste du mégalithisme breton et des âges des métaux en Armorique
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Dolmen de Kerscao located?
Dolmen de Kerscao is located in Riec-sur-Belon, Département 29 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Dolmen de Kerscao open to visitors?
Dolmen de Kerscao is currently closed to visitors.