Dolmen
MonumentHidden Treasure
Dolmen, located in Yvias (Département 22), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Yvias, Département 22, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.7159, -3.0244
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00089752
Vestige mégalithique néolithique classé Monument Historique, ce dolmen d'Yvias dresse ses orthostates de granite breton dans un paysage rural des Côtes-d'Armor, témoignage silencieux d'une civilisation agricole vieille de plus de 5 000 ans.
History
In the heart of the Côtes-d'Armor inland region, at Yvias, a dolmen has stood guard for thousands of years over an area chosen by the first Neolithic farmers to honour their dead. Both a funerary and ritual monument, it is one of a constellation of megaliths that make Brittany one of Europe's richest regions for prehistoric architecture, alongside Carnac, the Crozon peninsula and the Blavet valley. This dolmen has the classic configuration of the chamber tombs of inland Brittany: large vertical granite supports, the orthostates, hold in balance one or more massive cover tables - the bedside slabs - forming a sepulchral chamber with deliberately narrow access. The sobriety of the whole should not be misleading: erecting such blocks, which can weigh several tonnes, required elaborate social organisation, precise technical know-how and a long-term collective project. The experience of visiting the site is one of coming face to face with stone and time. Here, there is no museographic display between the visitor and the monument: you walk around the blocks, feeling the roughness, the grey and golden hues of the granite in the light, and the mosses and lichens that have colonised its sides for centuries. This sensory immediacy is rare and precious. The green setting adds to the atmosphere. Set in the typical Trégor-Goëlo bocage, the dolmen are often surrounded by embankments covered in ferns and gorse, and sunken paths lined with twisted oaks. In spring, flowering broom punctuates the deep green of the meadows with bright yellow. In autumn, the low-angled light at the end of the afternoon brings out the relief of the megaliths with particular intensity. Classified as a Historic Monument in 1959, the Yvias dolmen enjoys the protection of the State, guaranteeing the continuity of a heritage that Neolithic communities have bequeathed to the whole of humanity. Its discretion in no way detracts from its value: it's often at these less-frequented sites that archaeological emotion is at its purest.
Architecture
The Yvias dolmen is typical of the megalithic funerary monuments of inland Brittany. It is made up of orthostats - large standing stones arranged vertically in an arch or rectangle - on which rest one or two horizontal cover slabs forming a stone ceiling. The whole structure delimits a sub-rectangular sepulchral chamber, accessible via a short entrance corridor or a simple frontal opening. The blocks are made of local granite, the dominant rock in the Armorican subsoil, characterised by its bluish-grey colour with light veining and its exceptional resistance to erosion. The dimensions, in line with standards for this type of simple dolmen, can be estimated at a chamber around 2 to 3 metres long and 1.5 metres wide, with a slab height of one to two metres. The roof slab, the centrepiece of the building, can weigh several tonnes: transporting it and putting it in place required the use of lifting techniques using earth ramps and leverage, as documented by experimental archaeology. The joints between the orthostats, imperfect but calculated, originally left little room for weathering, and the chamber was protected by a mound of earth and dry stone, now largely eroded. No binders or sophisticated cutting were used in the construction: the blocks were shaped by percussion, using quartz pebbles or other hard granites. It is the balance of the masses and the interlocking of the pieces that ensure the stability of the whole - a stability that has withstood more than five millennia, proof of the remarkable technical mastery of the Neolithic builders.
Related Figures
Les communautés paysannes néolithiques du Trégor-Goëlo (4500-3000 av. J.-C.) — bâtisseurs et utilisateurs du monumentProsper Mérimée — inspecteur général des Monuments Historiques, initiateur du recensement et de la protection des mégalithes bretons au XIXe siècleThéophile Malo Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne — érudit breton du XVIIIe siècle, pionnier de l'étude des monuments celtiques en ArmoriquePaul du Châtellier — archéologue finistérien du XIXe siècle dont les travaux sur les mégalithes armoricains ont contribué à valoriser l'ensemble du patrimoine préhistorique bretonZacharie Le Rouzic — archéologue carnaçois dont les fouilles et classifications du début du XXe siècle ont posé les bases typologiques des dolmens bretons
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Dolmen located?
Dolmen is located in Yvias, Département 22 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Dolmen open to visitors?
Dolmen is currently closed to visitors.
