Megalithic sites in Brittany

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Distribution of dolmens in France (green); Clusters of plants other than stars (or yellow, purple, brown (Corsica))

Most of the megalithic structures in Brittany were grouped under the umbrella term dolmen , the rest are allées couvertes , rows of stones , cromlechs stone circles and tumuli (barrows). In France, the term dolmen is the generic term for megalithic structures of all types and not just for a stone table resting on columns. In addition to the simple form, more complex structures have also been built since the beginning (around 4500 BC). The plants are located in the departments of Côtes-d'Armor , Finistère , Ille-et-Vilaine , geographically also Mayenne and in the department of Morbihan .

The ideal “dolmen with corridor” ( French dolmen à couloir ) in the Cairn
Mané er Hroek

Types (follow)

Christine Boujot and Serge Cassen came up with a classification for Brittany in 1992, with the hills with borders (Mané-Pochat-en-Uieu, Mané Ty-Ec, Le Manio and Kerlescan ) and the stone boxes in round tumuli with chambers made of large blocks are built ( Mané-er-Hroëk , Tertre du Castellic, Saint-Michel in Carnac ) are at the beginning (around 4500 BC) The chambers were then according to this classification around 4000 BC. Developed to Ganggdolmen with round and later rectangular chambers, which around 3500 BC. Systems with long corridors and angled dolmen ( Dolmen von Goërem , Les Pierres-Plates ) followed. At the end are the Allées couvertes from 3000 BC. Chr.

Examples of diametrically opposed to the dolmen idea include B. the early Cairns of Barnenez and Kerléven and the facilities on the Île Guennoc . Oblong trapezoidal or round mounds cover stone chambers with rich interior installations and petroglyphs. These so-called Carnacean systems include the St. Michel tumulus and the Mané-er-Hroek in Locmariaquer .

Large plate-like menhirs , sometimes decorated with motifs, were set up next to round ones early on and after a while overturned or smashed. Their fragments were used as ceiling panels in megalithic systems (e.g. Gavrinis , Mané Rutual or Table des Marchand ).

Brittany's early dolmens had a simple layout. The narrow, long corridor led to a large round, polygonal or angular chamber, the ceiling of which formed a tholos . Around 3000 BC This arrangement was supplemented. The rooms were given side chambers , such as the dolmen in the tumulus of Mousseaux or the dolmen de la Joselière in the canton of Pornic (Loire-Atlantique). In structures such as the megalithic structures in Liscuis , the space was trapezoidal and excessively elongated. There are systems with an angled (dolmen á coudé), such as the Les Pierres-Plates in Locmariaquer , or with a right-angled (dolmen en equerre) floor plan ( dolmen of Goërem ).

At the same time, types emerged for which Central European influence (discovery of a collar bottle ) is assumed. The galleries of Commana or La Maison des Feins near Tressé have stones of the same height for the antechamber, chamber and passage, while in the “Dolmen à couloir” the chamber is higher than the passage. Systems with lateral access (Sepultres à entree lateral - type passage grave ) constitute a special form of Allée couverte (Le Courtil des Fees , Four Sarrazin , Tréal , Grand Village ) and were as Crec'h Quillé in Saint-Quay-Perros , of mighty Covered hills. In some monuments, mother goddesses were depicted in relief (pairs of breasts), while they were only engraved on the walls of the first dolmens. The largest monuments such as La Roche-aux-Fées ( Département Ille-et-Vilaine ) were built from huge stone slabs, modeled on the Dolmen of Bagneux in Anjou . The counterpart are systems with a high proportion of dry masonry such as the Dolmen de Bilgroix .

French nomenclature

Knickdolmen (Dolmen coudé) from Aire des Trois-Seigneurs (not in Brittany)
Dolmen de Gallardet - Type: Pierre sèche = dry masonry (not in Brittany)
Distribution of the angevin type dolmens - dark green = center
    • Dolmen simple: simple dolmen, a chamber made of bearing stones, covered by one or two cap stones
    • Dolmen à couloir: chamber and passage of lower height ( Dolmen of Kerroc'h )
    • Dolmen à coudé: obtuse or right-angled corridors ( Coguel Runaour , Kernourz , Luffang )
    • Dolmen transepté or dolmen à cabinets latéraux: Dolmen with side rooms on both sides of the corridor.
    • Dolmen en V: Dolmen with a narrow passage that widens symmetrically in the chamber area.
  • Enceinte: arrangement of menhirs in a circle (cercle) or square shape (quadrilatere).
  • Hémicycle: semicircle made of menhirs.
  • Menhir: single upright stone , uncut, smoothed, also with engravings.
  • Orthostat: standing stone, which supports the ceiling plate of the monument or borders hills
  • Pierre sèche: drywall construction .
  • Placître: place of worship in front of a megalith.
  • Sépulture à entrée latérale: Special form of the allée couverte with access at right angles to the chamber.
  • Sépultures sous dalle de type Malesherbes monolith tomb
  • Tertre tumulaire: long hill made of stone or earth to cover a chamber.
  • Tholos: Cantilever vault construction made of small stones, which is counted among the megalithic complexes.
  • Tombelle: simple burial place surrounded by a pile of stones.
  • Tumulus: burial mound made of earth or a combination of earth and stone

Ceramics

With the first around 4500 BC The ( Carn-ceramics ), which was built in BC, appeared , which is sometimes finely worked and carefully smoothed. The vessels, which look like leather, are sometimes decorated with small bulges and have a curved base. In the same phase, fluting and dotting adorn the ceramics in the eastern and southern armorica, the Celtic name for the coastal region between the Seine and the Loire . The motifs reveal a relationship with the ceramics of the Danubian cultures, which in the form of line ceramics from around 5000 BC. BC to the Paris Basin , Normandy and the Anglo-Norman islands. In Poitou and the Département Vendée you can find a variant of Carn ceramics, the so-called cous ceramics, represented by carefully crafted vessels that are also decorated with small, round bulges, but often have a narrowing on the neck. All these vessels have in common the outwardly curved base, obviously they should / could not be placed on flat surfaces.

See also

literature

  • Jacques Briard : Mégalithes de Bretagne. Ouest France, Rennes 1987, ISBN 2-7373-0119-X .
  • Christine Boujot, Serge Cassen: Néolithisation et Monumentalité funéraire: Explorations du Tertre de Lannec er Gadouer à Erdeven (Morbihan, France). In: Anton Abel Rodriguez Casal: O neolítico atlántico e as orixes do megalitismo. 1997, pp. 211-212.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the Morbihan and Finistère departments there are twelve rows of stones and 14 or 17  stone enclosures

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