Tumulus de Beg-en-Aud
MonumentHidden Treasure
Tumulus de Beg-en-Aud, located in Saint-Pierre-Quiberon (Département 56), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Saint-Pierre-Quiberon, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.5281, -3.1592
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091714
A stone sentinel standing at the tip of the Quiberon peninsula, the Beg-en-Aud tumulus has watched over the Atlantic for over five thousand years. A Breton Neolithic monument of sober majesty, listed since 1927.
History
At the end of the Quiberon peninsula, where the moor juts out into the ocean, the Beg-en-Aud tumulus rises from the sparse vegetation like a mineral reminder of prehistoric mankind. This artificial eminence, fashioned from the stones and soil of the wild Morbihan coastline, belongs to the great family of Neolithic funerary monuments that dot the Breton coastline - an architectural tradition without equal in Western Europe. What sets Beg-en-Aud apart from other anonymous mounds is first and foremost its location. Positioned at the very tip of the territory, facing the Atlantic swells, it occupies a position that, for its builders, was no accident. In Neolithic Breton thought, promontories and capes were places of passage between the world of the living and that of the dead, spaces of mediation between the earth, the sea and the sky. To visit this tumulus is to understand that the landscape itself was part of the monument. The visitor experience is resolutely contemplative. The path leading to the site runs along the wild shoreline of Quiberon's west coast, battered by winds and sea spray. The vegetation - gorse, heather, wild grasses - surrounds the mound as if to protect it. Archaeology enthusiasts will find it a typical example of the funerary architecture of the Neolithic period in Morbihan, while photographers will find striking shots of the dark mass of stone against the sea horizon. The site enjoys a rare tranquillity, far from the summer hustle and bustle that invades the Pointe de Quiberon. Even at the height of the season, it's possible to spend long, solitary moments here, letting your imagination work over these stones that human hands have assembled without metal, without wheels, without writing - armed only with a collective will and a certain idea of what the dead deserve.
Architecture
The Beg-en-Aud tumulus is an elongated or sub-circular mound, typical of Neolithic burial monuments in Morbihan. Like neighbouring burial mounds in the same region, it is made up of a pile of stones and earth stabilised by an outer shell of blocks of local granite, a rock that is ubiquitous on the Quiberon peninsula. The monument's massive, rounded silhouette is the combined result of the original construction and several millennia of natural erosion. Beneath the mantle of earth and vegetation, the internal structure could conceal a corridor burial chamber - the dominant architectural type in Neolithic Morbihan - whose access would have been obstructed during a phase of abandonment or redevelopment. This type of monument, known as a "covered alley" or "corridor dolmen" depending on its configuration, combines large granite slabs erected in orthostats and covered with horizontal tables, the whole being buried under the cairn mound. The dimensions of the mound, comparable to similar examples on the peninsula, suggest a monument of modest to medium size - a few metres high and some twenty to thirty metres long - which in no way detracts from the symbolic power of the site. The choice of granite, a local stone of great hardness, guaranteed the durability of the edifice: five thousand years after its construction, the mound remains visible and identifiable in the landscape of the wild coast.
Related Figures
Communautés néolithiques de la presqu'île de Quiberon (bâtisseurs, IVe-IIIe millénaire av. J.-C.)Félix Gaillard, commandant et archéologue amateur (XIXe siècle, inventaire des mégalithes morbihannais)James Miln, archéologue écossais (fouilles de Carnac et relevés de la région au XIXe siècle)Zacharie Le Rouzic, archéologue carnaçois (premier inventaire systématique des monuments de la presqu'île, début XXe siècle)Membres de la Société Polymathique du Morbihan (protection et étude des sites préhistoriques bretons, XIXe-XXe siècle)
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Tumulus de Beg-en-Aud located?
Tumulus de Beg-en-Aud is located in Saint-Pierre-Quiberon, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Tumulus de Beg-en-Aud open to visitors?
Tumulus de Beg-en-Aud is currently closed to visitors.
