Tumulus avec deux dolmens à galerie de Run-er-Sinzen
MonumentHidden Treasure
Tumulus avec deux dolmens à galerie de Run-er-Sinzen, located in Erdeven (Département 56), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Erdeven, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.6528, -3.1785
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091187
On the outskirts of Erdeven, Run-er-Sinzen conceals under its great mantle of earth two Neolithic gallery dolmens of rare eloquence, silent witnesses to a megalithic civilisation that shaped the Morbihan over 5,000 years ago.
History
Nestling in megalithic country par excellence - the Morbihan region alone boasts several thousand prehistoric monuments - the Run-er-Sinzen burial mound is distinguished by a precious architectural singularity: it houses not one, but two separate gallery dolmens, set beneath the same elongated mound. This so-called 'twinned' arrangement is characteristic of an elaborate burial practice, in which the Neolithic community invested the same sacred space over a long period of time to lay their dead over several generations. The tumulus itself, whose rounded profile blends into Erdeven's dune and hedgerow landscape, is of a length and height typical of the great Armorican cairns: several dozen metres of floor space for an elevation that could originally have exceeded two or three metres. The mass of earth and small shale fragments covering the chambers provided both structural protection and a territorial marker visible from afar, signalling the presence of ancestors to the living. To enter its galleries - now partly blocked off like most of the megaliths in the area - is to grasp the complexity of Atlantic funerary rituals: bone deposits, decorated ceramics, polished flint blades and variscite beads were probably deposited there during repeated ceremonies. The local stone, dark schist and sturdy granite, gives the site a mineral austerity that has been softened by time and vegetation. Erdeven's setting makes for an unforgettable visit: between the Kerzerho alignments - one of the largest megalithic complexes in the world - and the nearby Atlantic, Run-er-Sinzen is part of a sacred territory where every hill and moor conceals a stone memory. Prehistory enthusiasts, curious families and photographers in search of low-lying light will find plenty to marvel at here.
Architecture
The Run-er-Sinzen burial mound belongs to the large family of "covered walkways" and gallery dolmens in the Armorican Massif, a form of funerary architecture that flourished during the Final Neolithic (around 3500-2500 BC). Its most remarkable feature is the presence of two separate gallery chambers within a single mound, an arrangement found in a handful of monuments in the Morbihan region, such as the large Mané-er-Hroëck burial mound and certain monuments on the island of Gavrinis. Each gallery is made up of a succession of orthostats standing vertically, forming side walls on which rest large horizontal cover slabs - the dolmenic tables. The plan is elongated, with a generally east-west orientation to allow light to flood into the interior during the equinoxes, in accordance with the symbolic practices attested to on many contemporary sites. The materials used are exclusively local: bluish schist and pink granite from Armorique, which are found in almost all the megaliths in the Erdeven sector and in the neighbouring Kerzerho alignments. The mound enclosing the two galleries has a characteristic trapezoidal profile, wider to the east - on the entrance side - and tapering towards the west. Its diameter and height have been partially reduced by ploughing and age-old erosion, but its silhouette remains recognisable in the landscape. The whole structure illustrates a remarkable mastery of dry stone construction and Neolithic civil engineering, using no mortar or metal and relying solely on the balance of the masses and the precise positioning of the blocks.
Related Figures
René Galles — archéologue morbihannais du XIXe siècle, pionnier des fouilles mégalithiques dans la région d'Erdeven et de CarnacDocteur Gustave de Closmadeuc — érudit vannetais ayant inventorié et décrit de nombreux monuments mégalithiques du Morbihan au XIXe siècleJames Miln — archéologue écossais installé à Carnac, dont les travaux dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle contribuèrent à la reconnaissance internationale des mégalithes armoricainsZacharie Le Rouzic — archéologue carnacois (1864-1939), figure tutélaire de la préhistoire morbihannaise, auteur d'un inventaire exhaustif des monuments mégalithiques de la région incluant ceux d'ErdevenProsper Mérimée — inspecteur général des Monuments Historiques au XIXe siècle, dont l'action nationale prépara le cadre législatif ayant conduit aux classements du XXe siècle
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Tumulus avec deux dolmens à galerie de Run-er-Sinzen located?
Tumulus avec deux dolmens à galerie de Run-er-Sinzen is located in Erdeven, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Tumulus avec deux dolmens à galerie de Run-er-Sinzen open to visitors?
Tumulus avec deux dolmens à galerie de Run-er-Sinzen is currently closed to visitors.
