Dolmen de la Pierre Couvretière
The Dolmen de la Pierre Couvretière (also called Pierre Couvertière or Pierre au Diable ) is a dolmen in the Loire-Atlantique department in France . It is located on the south-eastern outskirts of Ancenis , near the course of the Loire River . In France, dolmen is the generic term for Neolithic megalithic structures of all kinds (see: French nomenclature ). Excavations made it possible to date the Pierre Couvretière to the late Neolithic .
The first description was made in 1829, by Eusèbe Girault de Saint-Fargeau (1799–1855). The dolmen, which has sunk and tilted into the ground, has a large, flat capstone about 4.2 m long, 4.0 m wide and 0.64 m thick. It rests on a slab of rock that forms the bed of the Loire 200 m away . Before the dykes were raised, the dolmen was in a floodplain .
Its architecture means that it was classified as Gangdolmen ( French Dolmen à Couloir ). It consists of two orthostats made of pebble sandstone , a capstone made of conglomerate and a small stone made of gneiss that does not occur locally, which means that it can be transported over several kilometers.
- Dolmen de la Pierre Couvretière
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The capstone is the only visible part of the dolmen. It has been displaced and is inclined by about 45 ° and lies half submerged in the water that has accumulated in the depression surrounding it.
The eastern orthostat sank 0.6 meters into a crevice in the slate below . It is about 2.5 meters high and 2.0 meters wide. Its thickness varies between 0.2 and 0.5 meters. The western orthostat has a height of 1.5 meters, a maximum width of 2.0 meters and a thickness of 0.5 meters. He has an artificial bowl ( French cupules ).
During the first excavation, another overturned bearing stone was discovered in the west. This indicates that the dolmen was longer and the bearing stone carried a second cover plate. The southern half of the dolmen disappeared when the memorial was used as a quarry, as evidenced by traces.
Web links
- Dolmen dit de la Pierre Couvretière in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- Description and pictures (French)
Coordinates: 47 ° 22 ′ 7 " N , 1 ° 10 ′ 22" W