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<< Our Photo Pages >> Le Dehus - Burial Chamber or Dolmen in Channel Islands and Isle of Man in Guernsey

Submitted by JJ on Thursday, 05 September 2019  Page Views: 31946

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Le Dehus Alternative Name: Le Déhus
Country: Channel Islands and Isle of Man Island: Guernsey Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen
Nearest Town: St Peter Port  Nearest Village: Vale
Latitude: 49.497120N  Longitude: 2.50643W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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ziusudra visited on 19th Jul 2020 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4

ShamrockStone tom_bullock have visited here

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by Tom_Bullock : Photo used by kind permission of Tom Bullock. More details of this location are to be found on his Stone Circles and Rows CD-ROM (Vote or comment on this photo)
Chambered Tomb in Guernsey. The most interesting of the sites to explore I think, this one has four side chambers similar in the style, if not size to West Kennett Long Barrow. You have to almost lie down to see the unique carving of a stylised face - 'the Guardian of the tomb', thought to be prehistoric in origin, possibly a reused carved menhir on the roof of the tomb.

I think the goatee beard seen in some photos was added in charcoal by trendy music fans. The recently installed spotlights help a lot to make it visible. If you only go to one site this should be it.

NEW: Contrast enhanced version of the head carving. It's 'certainly an original feature of the tomb' (Ian Kinnes - Les Fouaillages booklet). I have better photos of this, and a video but no way to scan them at the moment. There's a remarkable similarity to the carved head Terence Meaden has discovered at Stonenhenge (BBC News Report)

Look at the strong forehead or eyebrows. I think this strengthens Aubrey Burl's argument that visitore or settlers from Brittany (NW France) had a hand in the construction of Stonehenge It also strengthens Meaden's head theory. What do you think?

Access: Perry's guide map square 7H4

Note: Various new papers linked about Gurnsey's amazing rock art and statue menhirs, details in the comments on our page
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Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by Stone_de_croze : This is a full length colour photo of 'Le Gardien'. Consiting of none wide angle shots put together, the viewer can clearly see the bow, fingers and some kind of - dare I say it? - crown-type headgear? The rock was split when discovered in 1932 and kind of 'repaired' when re-erected. (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by johnel : Dehus Interior 3 (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by Tom_Bullock : Photo used by kind permission of Tom Bullock. More details of this location are to be found on his Stone Circles and Rows CD-ROM (Vote or comment on this photo)

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by karolus : Le Gardien du Tombeau (2 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by karolus : Le Dehus interior with entrances to transceptual chambers alongside the passageway

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by ShamrockStone : Inside Le Dehus

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by johnel : Dehus interior 2

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by johnel : Picture of "Guardian" taken 2002

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by Stone_de_croze : The visitor to Le Dehus has the advantage of well-placed lighting in order to see Le Gardien. This is what the capstone looks like without the benefit of it. (1 comment)

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by karolus : Outline of a rubbing taken from Le Dehus capstone controversially illustrating the figure as a female as opposed to the commonly accepted male figure by Barbara Bender, 1986

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by karolus : Le Dehus "Le Gardien du Tombeau", possibly a reused carved menhir now roofing the main chamber

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by karolus : Le Dehus interior. The central "male" pillar was erected by the restorers

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by karolus : Le Dehus- menhir by the entrance, showing carved grooves

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by karolus : Le Dehus-view down passageway to inner chamber, with entrances to transceptual chambers on either side

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by karolus : Le Dehus- encroached by hedges and road on all sides

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by mozgren : There's some speculation as to whether this stone is a recent addition. It has what looks like a ref number - not there or not observed earlier? Taken 9th Aug 2014 (1 comment)

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by durhamnature : Interior during excavation, from "Journal of British Archaeology" via archive.org

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by durhamnature : Plans, from "Journal of British Archaeology" via archive.org

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by johnel : Dehus Exterior 1

Le Dehus
Le Dehus submitted by Tom_Bullock : Photo used by kind permission of Tom Bullock. More details of this location are to be found on his Stone Circles and Rows CD-ROM

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 1.1km SW 232° La Roque qui Sonne* Passage Grave
 1.8km WNW 286° Martello 7* Stone Circle
 1.9km WNW 285° La Mare es Mauves* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 2.2km WNW 285° La Varde* Passage Grave (WV337836)
 2.2km W 273° La Platte Mare* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 2.3km W 271° Les Fouaillages* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 2.4km SSW 211° Delancey* Burial Chamber or Dolmen (WV346810)
 2.5km W 259° St Michel Du Valle* Not Known (by us)
 2.6km SW 217° La Pointue Rocque* Standing Stone (Menhir)
 2.7km SW 227° Route St Clair* Standing Stone (Menhir) (WV339812)
 2.9km WSW 251° L'Islet* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 3.0km WSW 254° Sandy Lane* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 3.5km W 273° Rousse Cists* Cist
 3.6km SW 220° Le Chateau Du Marais* Artificial Mound
 4.3km ESE 120° Petit Monceau* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 4.4km ESE 117° The Common (Herm)* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 4.5km ESE 120° Robert's Cross* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 4.6km ESE 118° Grand Monceau* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 4.9km SSW 212° La Petite L'Hyvreuse Passage Grave
 5.0km W 260° Port Soif Dolmen* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 5.1km SSW 211° La Pierre de L'Hyvreuse Standing Stone (Menhir)
 5.1km SSW 197° Guernsey Maritime Museum Museum
 5.2km SE 142° Jethou Stone Standing Stone (Menhir)
 5.3km SW 217° Courtil D'Ydol de St Jacques Standing Stone (Menhir)
 5.5km SW 220° La Grande Pouquelaye Passage Grave
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"Le Dehus" | Login/Create an Account | 11 News and Comments
  
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New AMS dates and stable isotopes at Le Déhus - Rick Schulting by Andy B on Thursday, 05 September 2019
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On the road to Paradis: new insights from AMS dates and stable isotopes at Le Déhus, Guernsey, and the Channel Islands Middle Neolithic - Rick Schulting

We here report the results of a programme of AMS dating and stable isotope analysis on human remains from the chambered tomb of Le Déhus, Guernsey. An early use-phase in the range 4100–3900 BC is indicated, confirming the monument's attribution to the Middle Neolithic II as defined in western France. Late Neolithic burial activity is also identified. Stable carbon isotope measurements provide little or no evidence for the consumption of marine foods, although stable nitrogen isotope values are unusually high. These results are situated in the wider context of Neolithic mortuary monuments of the Channel Islands and Normandy.

More Info: Schulting, R.J., Sebire, H., and Robb, J. 2010. On the road to Paradis: new insights from AMS dates and stable isotopes at Le Déhus, Guernsey, and the Channel Islands Middle Neolithic Oxford Journal of Archaeology 29: 149-173.
https://www.academia.edu/543797/
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Stepping stones: art and community on prehistoric Guernsey, Sheila Kohring by Andy B on Wednesday, 04 September 2019
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Stepping stones: art and community on prehistoric Guernsey, Channel Islands - Sheila Kohring
in World Art 3(2): 297-318, 2013

This paper explores the dynamics of Guernsey’s prehistoric community by discussing how the community materialized the human body as artand how this materialization shaped the local community’s vision of society over time. I explore how art technologies specifically material,technical acts of making stone representations and social networks effected how human bodies were represented by the prehistoric community. The visual and practical engagement with these images and media over time affected how the prehistoric Guernsey community saw their local and continental identities and relationship networks.

https://www.academia.edu/10350272/Stepping_stones_art_and_community_on_prehistoric_Guernsey_Channel_Islands

(PDF download with free registration required)
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New over old: an image-based reassessment of 'Le Gardien du Tombeau' by Andy B on Tuesday, 13 August 2019
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New over old: an image-based reassessment of Le Déhus passage grave's 'Le Gardien du Tombeau', Guernsey - George Nash, Kevin Jelly

This paper discusses in depth a recent discovery, among other observations, made by the authors in 2015 at the Le Déhus passage grave in eastern Guernsey, Channel Islands. The discovery involves the probable medieval or post-medieval pigment enhancement of a Neolithic carving of a figure, arguably a warrior, known as the Le Gardien du Tombeau. We regard this enhancement as an act of Christianisation. The Christianisation of later prehistoric sites has long been known but inadequately discussed in archaeological circles. As part of our overall research strategy we also comment on the various engraved sections of the Le Gardien du Tombeau, detailing the attributes of this figure. We ask the question, why paint a Christian image within an already well-known and established prehistoric monument?
Time and Mind, 9:3, 245-265

Download from
https://www.academia.edu/29978740/
(free registration required)
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Constructing Social Knowledge through Bodily Representation: A View from Prehistoric by Andy B on Sunday, 24 February 2019
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Materiality, Technology, and Constructing Social Knowledge through Bodily Representation: A View from Prehistoric Guernsey, Channel Islands - S HEILA K OHRING, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK

The role of the human body in the creation of social knowledge—as an ontological and/or aesthetic category—has been applied across social theory. In all these approaches, the body is viewed as a locus for experience and knowledge. If the body is a source of subjective knowledge, then it can also become an important means of creating ontological categories of self and society. The materiality of human representations within art traditions, then, can be interpreted as providing a means for contextualizing and aestheticizing the body in order to produce a symbolic and structural knowledge category. This paper explores the effect of material choices and techniques of production when representing the human
body on how societies order and categorize the world.

The three bodily images discussed in the text. From left to right: the statue-menhir at Câtel Church, the Déhus chambered tomb and gardien, and the statue-menhir at St. Martin’s Church.

European Journal of Archaeology17 (2) 2014, 248–263
PDF Download
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77408276.pdf
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Re: Le Dehus by karolus on Thursday, 16 November 2017
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Mozgren's picture of the dated support is in La Varde Dolmen, not Le Dehus.
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The Recording and Representation of Neolithic Engravings in the Déhus Passage G by Andy B on Thursday, 11 June 2015
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The Recording and Representation of Neolithic Engravings in the Déhus Passage Grave (Vale, Guernsey). Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, doi:10.1017/ppr.2015.364.
Serge Cassen, Valentin Grimaud, Philip De Jersey and Laurent Lescop

In the course of making a digital record of a bow engraved on the lower face of a capstone in the Déhus passage grave, on Guernsey, several new motifs were observed, necessitating a reinterpretation of the composition as a whole.

While the presence of a bow and two arrows is confirmed by photogrammetry and images obtained under directional lighting, the anthropomorphic figure can now be better defined, and compared to figures recently recognised in the Paris Basin. The presence of ‘hands’, however, cannot be confirmed, and these engravings may instead represent two horned animals in contact with two further motifs, one of which is certainly a throwing stick.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9623392

Extract at
http://www.megalithe.be/actu/guernesey_gravure_neolithique

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Re: Le Dehus by ShamrockStone on Saturday, 05 April 2014
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Exact co-ordinates are: 49.497120N, 2.506430W; accuracy: 5
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Re: Le Dehus by rogeralbin on Tuesday, 16 November 2010
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A suggestion that parties interested in background information given that a lane about 300m away toward Bordeaux is named Rue de Cocange [Coke AN yah], Cocainge being the French medieval term for the Terrestrial Paradise, here geese lay golden eggs and the fountain of youth is at the end of the street, further reading might be informative.
Suggestions I would make would be the Irish 'Aine of Cnocaine'. The early French 'Huon de Bordeaux' and its sequel 'Chanson d'Esclarmonde' where Esclarmonde is bathed in the fountain of youth by Morgan to make her immortal and turned into a Fairey by Jesus to safegaurd her son Huon's [modern Welsh Huan: Sun] right to the throne of Faerie over Arthur.
The Breton story of Ker Y's . [Ker Y's French spelling, Caer Y's Breton] also the Irish Cear Ibormieth. The Breton one includes Dahut and Mabon [Angus Og] and a referance to Dahud becoming a Marree [sea] Morgan, Aine sometimes known as Aine Marine. The term 'Morgaine's Well' demonstrates Aine as a part of the same name indicating in my view a belief system more widely spread than todays National boundaries.
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Re: Le Dehus by Stone_de_Croze on Monday, 08 May 2006
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Easily the most impressive passage grave in the island, as it features the world famous ‘Le Gardien’ carving on the underside of one of the capstones. The tomb, covered by a grassy mound and edged by a circle of standing stones (some original), can be accessed from the road through a small gate.

Purchased by Jean de Havilland for the equivalent of £4.05 from Jean Hubert, the tomb was later acquired for the island by the States of Guernsey and has been excavated at least four times, firstly by F. C. Lukis over a ten year period from 1837-1847, again by the Rev. Lee in 1898, Lieut.-Col.. de Guérin in 1915 and Miss V.C.C. Collum in 1932. This tomb has three unique or at least very rare features to it.

Firstly, there is a ‘supporting’ pillar that helped support the engraved capstone, rarely found in passage graves where the capstones seem to have been selected for their strength and size and so do not need supports. Also, the pillar does not contact with the capstone so its not too good at its job.

There are four side chambers but at least two of them have been re-constructed in error.

The passage tomb looks at first glance to be well preserved though much of this is down to rebuilding which is never a good idea. It is very well lit and offers the visitor viewing of the carving on the capstone by switching lights to one that sends a beam across the carving bring it to ‘life.’ There is also a 3D view at visitguernsey.com. So; if you only visit one site, so the saying goes, visit this one. Personally I prefer the Creuz és Fées at L’Erée but Le Déhus does have it all. During his ten year investigation by F. C. Lukis the second capstone (yes that one) was broken and resting down on the bones and vases on the floor of the chamber. The poor man missed this quite exciting find. The stone was replaced by Capt. F. de B. Lukis and the Rev. G. E. Lee in 1898 the two pieces were ‘securely bound with wire rope.’ This work must have taken place not in total darkness, or even by candlelight, but daylight and they did not notice the carvings either. The carving wasn’t spotted until Lieut. Col T. W. M. De Guérin had another good look in 1917. In the Transaction of Le Société Guernsiaise of 1917 (p.52 Vol. VIII Pt.1) De Guérin notes sculptured details that he suggests amount to four sculptured ‘lines,’ he noted that they appear on both parts of the stone suggesting carving before it was broken, if not before it was placed on the outside supports. I say ‘outside’ supports, because the internal ‘support’ does not even touch the stone and looks like it never did though I suspect it was lowered during the re-excavation in 1932 to facilitate viewing of the capstone.
The carving is always lauded as being a unique example of prehistoric tomb art but presumably due to the advent of digital photography, the internet and a spreading re-interest in this subject due in no small part to authors like Julian Cope, it is quite simple to search for the phrase ‘sculptured capstone’ and compile yourself a long list of new discoveries, many of these at sites in France. That being said, the carving is quite special and if it means that more people will pursue an interest in the early prehistory of man then all the better. The image overleaf clearly shows the face, hand, bow etc. and I photographed it in nine sections on several occasions. The resulting images have been fitted together digitally and I can assure you are accurate. This is the first large scale image readily available and I hope you will enjoy making your own interpretation of the carving. I could never see the fingers and other attributes in the early drawings but can now. You may also note that the face seems to be much heavier than the rest and has some kind of headress. This may have been carved earlier as a Mother Goddess statue menhir with the other carvings added when it was re-used as a capstone. But hey - visit it yourself if you can and make up your own theories!
In th

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Re: Le Dehus by Anonymous on Monday, 13 March 2006
The carving was not originally in the tomb. It was once a carved menhir and the was taken down and put into the tomb
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