Plussulia dolerite quarry

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Plussulia dolerite quarry
Detail of a dolerite rock in the quarry

The dolerite quarry of Plussulien or Sélédun-Quelfennec is an archaeological site that was discovered in 1964 by Charles-Tanguy Le Roux in Plussulien , about 40 kilometers southwest of Saint-Brieuc in the south of the Côtes-d'Armor department , and excavated until 1976.

The dolerite quarry was founded in the Neolithic from 3500 to 1800 BC. Used extensively for the extraction of metadolerite type A for the production of sharpened axes . The quarry near the hamlet of Quélfenec (also spelled Quelfennec ) south of Plussulien extends over almost 310 meters.

Production is estimated at 5000 axes per year, which means that 2 to 3 million axes and other tools were produced. The axes were found in western France (from Normandy to Languedoc ), but also in north-western Europe, the British Isles and Belgium . The stone axes were used to carry out the large clearings that allowed the agricultural land to be expanded. It is the particular hardness of the dolerite in this quarry that ensured processing without excessive brittleness and explains the interest in this material for the manufacture of stone axes. Ax production seems to have been gradually abandoned from the Bronze Age due to the use of metal tools .

literature

  • Charles-Tanguy Le Roux: L 'outillage de pierre polie en métadolérite de type A. Les ateliers de Plussulien (Côtes-d'Armor) (= Université de Rennes 1. Travaux du Laboratoire d'Anthropologie. ISSN  0768-3685 ). Université de Rennes 1, Rennes 1999.

Web links

Commons : Quelfennec  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 15 '22.9 "  N , 3 ° 3' 10.3"  W.