Tumulus d'Er Grah - Locmariaquer, Morbihan, FRA
N 47° 34.339 W 002° 57.043
30T E 503706 N 5268767
The Er grah Tumulus is a megalith dating from the Neolithic period, located in the town of Locmariaquer, in the Gulf of Morbihan.
Waymark Code: WM13E9T
Location: Bretagne, France
Date Posted: 11/22/2020
Views: 2
It is located on the same site as the large broken menhir of Er Grah and the Merchant table. This monument of exceptional size, and relatively poorly preserved, remained almost unknown until 1991.
The Tumulus has been classified as a historical monument since January 16, 1935.
It belongs to the category of closed cellar burials. Due to its size and the funerary material found inside, it must have been tombs housing important figures, tribal leaders or representatives of the cult.
The tumulus was built over several eras:
around 4500 BC. AD, very small cairns surmounting a few pits, including several where the skeletons of two cattle were discovered, which were perhaps the object of ritual sacrifices.
around 4200 BC. AD, the small burial chamber surrounded by a circular cairn. The whole is included in a mass of trapezoidal dry stones.
around 4000 BC. AD, two extensions to the north and south, made up of stone walls supporting a mass of gray silt covered with stones which bring the total length of the monument to 140 meters.
The dimension of the tumulus represents a mass of materials which could be the re-use of the access ramp to the pits: stones covered with moistened silt, bovids for the traction aid.
In the 19th century, we only knew of Er Grah the room, which had already been looted. The northern end, exploited as a quarry (hence the name Er Vinglé, the quarry in Breton), has now disappeared. Despite a one-off excavation by Zacharie Le Rouzic in 1908, the monument, partly collapsed, covered with vegetation, had fallen into oblivion, to such an extent that in the 1960s, a parking area was installed partly above the site. When excavations began to clear the surroundings of the vault in 1991, archaeologists found the dry stone facings, which they gradually uncovered. The monument as we can see it today results from the last restoration carried out in 1992.
Source: (
visit link)