Bagneux dolmen

The Bagneux dolmen, one of France's largest dolmens

Bagneux Dolmen - Interior

The Dolmen of Bagneux (also La Grande Pierre couverte ) is a megalithic complex in Bagneux near Saumur on the Loire in the Maine-et-Loire department in France . Dolmen is used in France as a generic term for all kinds of facilities. The angevin type dolmen is located in the center of town at the junction of the Rue de l'Arche from the Rue du Dolmen in the garden of a small café.

description

Its size is far larger than most of the 4,500 or so dolmens in France. The dolmen is over 23 m long on the outside and almost 18 m in length and over 5 m in width (90 m² floor area and about 200 m³ volume). Its antechamber is partially destroyed. The largest of the three ceiling tiles (7.3 m long) is estimated to weigh around 90 tons. It consists of 15 other stones, which represent a total weight of over 500 tons. Its height is only surpassed by a few Iberian structures, such as the Dolmen de Menga in Spain .

Like other dolmens, La Grande Pierre Couverte of Bagneux was a spacious complex that must have contained numerous human skeletons during the Neolithic . However, the first excavation in 1775 did not reveal any findings. In the area of ​​the dolmen, three axes made of polished stone and a knife made of flint , which probably come from the dolmen, were later discovered.

In Bagneux, 400 meters away, among other monuments, there is another dolmen called La Petite Pierre couverte , although it is also of considerable size and possibly the remainder of a larger dolmen.

See also

Distribution map of dolmen in Maine-et-Loire - preserved structures are green

• Dolmen in the Maine-et-Loire department

literature

• Michel Gruet: Dolmens angevins à portique . In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique de France , Volume 53 (1956), No. 7/8, pp. 397-401. doi: 10.3406 / e.g. 1956.3355

Web links

Commons : Dolmen de Bagneux  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Allée couverte dite la Grande Pierre couverte in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
• Le Dolmen de Bagneux (French)
• Le dolmen de Bagneux ( Memento from January 16, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) Pictures and description (French)

Remarks

1. ↑ The dolmen angevin is an allée couverte of the Loire type with a (retracted) trilith portal as an entrance, like the dolmen de la Pierre Folle in Bournand.

Coordinates: 47 ° 14 ′ 35.1 ″  N , 0 ° 5 ′ 41.5 ″  W.