He Grah
The dolmen and tumulus of Er Grah (also called Er Groh or Er Vinglé ) are among the most important megalithic structures in the archaeological zone of the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany . The structure, which is only partially preserved, was declared a Monument historique in 1935 .
location
The building is located within the archaeological site of Locmariaquer in the immediate vicinity of the Table des Marchand and the Grand Menhir Brisé.
Building history
Excavations in the 1980s have revealed that it was around 4500 BC. At this point there were several smaller grave and sacrificial sites in the form of pits, which were covered by small stone and earth mounds; Fireplaces were also found. Around the year 4200 BC BC or a little later, the dolmen visible today was built, the capstone of which consists of a section of a menhir that had probably been violently overturned shortly before - larger sections of the same stone are found as capstones of the buildings of the Table des Marchand and the dolmen of Gavrinis, which were built around the same time . The Dolmen of Er Grah was encased in a round stone mound ( cairn ), the former height of which is unknown. In the following centuries the entire complex was expanded to the north and south and covered by a long, but probably not very high, tumulus , which only consisted of small rubble stones in its lower parts; the actual building was made of earth (cf. Mané Lud ), but here it was probably also covered with rubble stones. In medieval times - perhaps even earlier - quarry stones were removed from the tumulus, hence the name Er Vinglé (= the quarry). Earth may also have been removed - in any case, the northern end of the tumulus is shortened; the earth between the stone walls is completely absent. In the course of the excavation and restoration work, the dolmen and tumulus were given the shape they see today.
architecture
Dolmen
The Dolmen of Er Grah is one of the few known closed individual tombs from the time of the megalithic culture. No stones were found that indicate an access set and covered by megaliths. Inside there were possibly skeletal remains and grave goods, which, however, fell victim to grave robbers of earlier times. The size of the ceiling plate is about 3.85 m × 3.15 m with a thickness of about 70 cm; the dimensions of the burial chamber are correspondingly smaller.
tumulus
Of the trapezoidal tumulus, around 140 m long and between 16 m and 26 m wide, only parts of the stepped 'foundation walls' made of rubble stones have been preserved. It is believed that the tumulus was not very high, so that the top plate of the dolmen may have remained visible.
Stones
Most of the stones used are made from local granite ; the capstone of the dolmen, on the other hand, is the so-called orthogneiss , which was mainly used by the older menhirs in the vicinity of Locmariaquer, but later mostly destroyed and reused as parts.
ornamentation
The stones of the dolmen of Er Grah are not ornamented.
meaning
The Er Grah tumulus was one of the largest in Brittany (see Mané Lud , Mané-er-Hroek , Cairn von Barnenez and St. Michel tumulus near Carnac ). The dolmen was certainly intended for a high-ranking personality, but it was significantly smaller than the neighboring Table des Marchand or the dolmen of Gavrinis.
The destruction of large menhirs and the subsequent reuse of the fragments as capstones for grave, cult or assembly buildings suggest a profound cultural and religious change in the period around 4200 BC. Close.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tumulus et Dolmen 'Er Grah', Locmariaquer in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
literature
- Damien Bonniol, Serge Cassen: Corpus descriptif des stèles ou fragments de stèle en orthogneiss. In: Serge Cassen (ed.): Autour de la Table. Explorations archéologiques et discours savants sur des architectures néolithiques à Locmariaquer, Morbihan. Laboratoire de recherches archéologiques (LARA) - University of Nantes, Nantes 2009, ISBN 978-2-86939-228-1 , pp. 702–734 , here p. 707.
- Charles-Tanguy Le Roux: Gavrinis et les îles du Morbihan. Les mégalithes du golf. (= Guides archéologiques de la France. 6). Ministère de la culture - Direction du patrimoine - Sous-direction de l'archéologie, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-11-080856-X .
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 34 ′ 2 ″ N , 2 ° 57 ′ 0 ″ W.