Dolmen dit La Pierre Levée
MonumentHidden Treasure
Dolmen dit La Pierre Levée, located in Beaumont-la-Ronce (Indre-et-Loire), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Beaumont-la-Ronce, Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val de Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.5682, 0.6236
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00097579
A listed Neolithic site since 1889, the Pierre Levée de Beaumont-la-Ronce stands with its sandstone orthostats in the heart of Touraine, silent testimony to an agrarian civilisation dating back over 5,000 years.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
On the edge of the Touraine bocage region, a few leagues from the Loir valley, the Pierre Levée de Beaumont-la-Ronce stands out in the landscape with the stubborn serenity of very old things. Listed as a Monument Historique since 1889 - one of the first waves of heritage protection introduced by the law of that year - this dolmen is one of the rare megalithic remains preserved in northern Indre-et-Loire, in an area rich in prehistory that is often ignored. What distinguishes the Pierre Levée from so many other Neolithic funerary structures is its location in an area where Touraine limestone rubs shoulders with sandstone and flint outcrops: prehistoric builders must have carefully selected their slabs, transporting them over significant distances, proof of an already elaborate social and technical organisation. The cover table, placed on its vertical supports with a precision that defies millennia, evokes the remarkable mastery of these Middle Neolithic peoples, between 3,500 and 2,500 BC. The visitor experience is one of almost meditative contemplation. With no fences or barriers, the monument can be approached freely, allowing visitors to literally touch the long history of rural humanity. The grey-green lichens that colonise the sides of the orthostats seem to extend the stone into the living world, blurring the boundaries between mineral and vegetable. The surrounding countryside, with its hedgerows typical of northern Touraine and its open fields, lends the visit an atmosphere of rare authenticity. Away from the tourist circuits of the Loire Valley castles, La Pierre Levée is for those who know how to slow down and read the area in its most breathtaking depth of time.
Architecture
The Pierre Levée at Beaumont-la-Ronce belongs to the large family of single-chamber dolmens, one of the most widespread megalithic forms in western France. Its structure is based on the universal principle of monuments of this type: several vertical slabs, known as orthostats, set into the earth to form the walls of a rectangular or slightly trapezoidal chamber, on which rest one or more horizontal covering slabs. The whole originally formed the core of an earthen mound, of which all that remains is the mineral skeleton exposed by millennia of erosion and agricultural work. The materials used are characteristic of local geological resources: the slabs are cut from siliceous sandstone or hard limestone, rocks available in the outcrops of northern Touraine. Their dimensions, typical of this type of collective burial, made it possible to accommodate a chamber around two to three metres long and one to two metres wide, with a height under the table sometimes reaching one and a half metres. The covering table, the centrepiece of the structure, could weigh several tonnes, underlining the logistical feat of installing it without metal tools. The orientation of the chamber, probably determined according to astronomical or symbolic criteria specific to the culture of its builders, probably follows an east-west axis, in line with a trend widely observed in the dolmens of the Loire region. The stone, weathered by five millennia of exposure to the elements, now has a surface colonised by lichens, giving it a colour that varies from bluish grey to ochre depending on the season and the orientation of the faces.
Related Figures
Bâtisseurs néolithiques anonymes (vers 3500-2500 av. J.-C.) — communautés agropastorales de la Loire moyenneProsper Mérimée (1803-1870) — inspecteur général des Monuments historiques, initiateur des premières politiques de protection des mégalithes en FranceArcisse de Caumont (1801-1873) — archéologue normand et fondateur de la Société française d'archéologie, pionnier du recensement des dolmens de l'ouestMembres de la Société Archéologique de Touraine (fondée 1840) — premiers érudits régionaux à documenter le patrimoine mégalithique d'Indre-et-Loire
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Dolmen dit La Pierre Levée located?
Dolmen dit La Pierre Levée is located in Beaumont-la-Ronce, Indre-et-Loire department, Centre-Val de Loire region, France.
Is Dolmen dit La Pierre Levée open to visitors?
Dolmen dit La Pierre Levée is currently closed to visitors.
