Ilôt d'Er-Yoh (Le Mulon) , près de l'île d'Houat
MonumentHidden Treasure
Ilôt d'Er-Yoh (Le Mulon) , près de l'île d'Houat, located in Île-d'Houat (Département 56), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Île-d'Houat, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.3890, -2.9376
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091296
Off the coast of Houat, the islet of Er-Yoh hides an exceptional Neolithic site under its short grass: burial mounds, funerary objects and the remains of an Atlantic settlement dating back five millennia.
History
Lying like a forgotten fragment of granite on the surface of the Atlantic, the islet of Er-Yoh - sometimes known as Le Mulon - stands just a stone's throw from the island of Houat in Morbihan. This small island, battered by the winds and surrounded by the currents, is home to one of the most unique archaeological sites on Brittany's coastline: a prehistoric site listed as a Historic Monument since 1927, the discovery of which has revolutionised our knowledge of Neolithic coastal societies. What distinguishes Er-Yoh from so many other Breton megalithic sites is above all its radical insularity. At the time of its occupation, the sea level was significantly different, and the islet could form a peninsula or an accessible coastal hill. This particular geographical configuration made it a place of choice for communities that mastered navigation and inscribed their dead in liminal spaces, between land and sea, between the world of the living and that of the ancestors. Excavations carried out in the first half of the 20th century have brought to light collective funerary structures, pottery characteristic of the Armorican Neolithic, and human bone remains testifying to repeated use of the site over several generations. The relationship between the burial space and the maritime environment is particularly striking here: Er-Yoh embodies the Atlantic tradition of making promontories and islands places of collective memory. Today, the islet has not been developed for tourist visits in the conventional sense of the term. Its interest lies in the contemplation of an unchanged landscape, in the evocative power of a place where the silence of prehistory mingles with the constant sound of the ocean. Archaeology enthusiasts, curious sailors and photographers of wild landscapes will find this a rare and intense experience, far from the beaten track. Er-Yoh is a protected historic monument with legal status that guarantees the preservation of its archaeological integrity. Against a backdrop of accelerating coastal erosion and rising sea levels, this classification takes on a new and urgent dimension: it is a question of preserving for future generations the memory of the men and women who, more than five thousand years ago, made this Atlantic islet the place of their eternity.
Architecture
Er-Yoh is not an architectural monument in the classical sense of the term, but an archaeological site whose structures reveal the constructional genius of Neolithic coastal societies. The remains unearthed correspond to a funerary complex probably comprising a tumulus with a chamber or a megalithic chest, typical of the sepulchral architecture developed in Brittany between the 5th and 3rd millennia BC. These constructions were built exclusively from locally available materials: granite, gneiss and quartzite, rocks that are abundant in the Morbihan archipelago. The construction technique was based on the assembly of slabs and orthostats - stones standing vertically - forming a burial chamber covered by a bedside slab. The whole was then covered by a dry stone cairn or an earth and stone tumulus, the characteristic curve of which still sometimes marks the island landscape. Compared with the major monuments on the mainland, the size of these monuments is modest, as the island's insularity imposes major logistical constraints on the transport of materials. The layout of the site on the islet suggests a deliberate orientation of the structures in relation to astronomical or maritime landmarks, in line with well-documented practices in other Breton Neolithic monuments. The sea horizon, visible from all points on the islet, was a fundamental symbolic element in the funerary cosmology of these populations, for whom the sea represented a means of communication, a source of sustenance and a metaphysical frontier with the beyond.
Related Figures
Zacharie Le Rouzic — archéologue carnacéen qui contribua à l'inventaire des mégalithes insulaires morbihannais au début du XXe siècleJames Miln — antiquaire écossais dont les fouilles à Carnac dans les années 1870 ouvrirent la voie à l'archéologie systématique de la régionPaul du Chatellier — archéologue finistérien qui prospecta de nombreux sites côtiers bretons à la fin du XIXe siècleCharles-Tanguy Le Roux — préhistorien breton contemporain spécialiste des monuments mégalithiques armoricainsGlyn Daniel — archéologue britannique dont les travaux sur les tombes mégalithiques atlantiques contribuèrent à contextualiser des sites comme Er-Yoh à l'échelle européenne
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Ilôt d'Er-Yoh (Le Mulon) , près de l'île d'Houat located?
Ilôt d'Er-Yoh (Le Mulon) , près de l'île d'Houat is located in Île-d'Houat, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Ilôt d'Er-Yoh (Le Mulon) , près de l'île d'Houat open to visitors?
Ilôt d'Er-Yoh (Le Mulon) , près de l'île d'Houat is currently closed to visitors.