<< Our Photo Pages >> Veyre-Monton buried standing stones - Standing Stones in France in Auvergne:Puy-de-Dôme (63)
Submitted by BrunoMevel on Tuesday, 27 August 2019 Page Views: 1783
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Veyre-Monton buried standing stonesCountry: France
NOTE: This site is 5.512 km away from the location you searched for.
Département: Auvergne:Puy-de-Dôme (63) Type: Standing Stones
Nearest Village: Veyre-Mouton
Latitude: 45.651190N Longitude: 3.171100E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Thirty megaliths in an alignment at least 150 metres long have been unearthed in Veyre-Mouton, Auvergne, as well as a statue-menhir, a stone circle and a megalithic horseshoe. This exceptional discovery is a first for the centre of France and was announced on Monday by Inrap. Lots more photos and an estimate of the location, on our pages
The discovery took place in Veyre-Monton, between Clermont-Ferrand and Issoire, as part of the widening of the A75 motorway. Excavations revealed basalt monoliths "from 1 meter to 1.60 meters" whose alignment stretches "150 meters in the course of the excavation and probably beyond," reported Inrap.
These monoliths are bordered by another megalithic alignment, where five stones make up a horseshoe. Finally, six other blocks for a regularly spaced circle 15m in diameter.
"Like some other monuments, including Belz in the Morbihan, the menhirs of Veyre-Monton were knocked down to make them disappear from the landscape. Pushed into large pits, sometimes mutilated or covered with earth, these monoliths have been the subject of iconoclastic gestures, a kind of condemnation perhaps related to change of community or beliefs" speculated Inrap.
The group follows a north-south axis and evokes the great megalithic monuments of Carnac, Morbihan.
Intriguingly the largest menhirs are mainly at the top of the slope to the north, and the smaller ones, more closely spaced, are to the south.
More surprising still is the presence within the main alignment of a sculpted and "roughly anthropomorphic" menhir. This statue-menhir, the only known one to be found in Auvergne has "a round eminence, resting on summarily sided shoulders, as well having as two small breasts".
A grave containing "the remains of a tall man" was also discovered, covered with a quadrangular cairn 14 meters long by 6.50 meters wide. The latter, like the alignment of monoliths, was "deliberately erased from the landscape," according to Inrap.
Few dating clues have been left behind to establish a precise chronology, for the moment, Inrap estimates that the main occupation of the site would cover a period from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.
Source (in French): ouest-france.fr and approximate translation by Google and Andy B
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