Timeline

Heritage classified

Origin and history

The Dolmen de Bleigny-le-Carreau is an enigmatic monument located in the municipality of the same name, in the department of Yonne, Burgundy-Franche-Comté. Although classified as dolmen, it is actually a spherical stone in ferrous sandstone, located on the edge of a rural road, near an ancient Roman road of type "Agrippa". This mineral block, atypical for a traditional dolmen, was classified as historical monuments as early as 1889 by ministerial decree, highlighting its heritage interest despite its disputed identification.

The stone is located on the side of the rural road of Saint-Denis, on a cadastral plot identified as A 166. Owned by the municipality of Bleigny-le-Carreau, it is mentioned in the Merimée base and associated with approximate GPS coordinates. Its classification in 1889 is part of a period when the megalithic monuments and ancient remains aroused a growing interest in the preservation of the prehistoric and Gallo-Roman heritage in France. Despite its name of "dolmen", no typical architectural element (such as orthostats or a cover table) is mentioned, which reinforces the hypothesis of an erroneous classification.

The historical context of Neolithic in Burgundy is marked by the emergence of sedentary societies, agriculture, and breeding, as well as by the construction of funeral or symbolic monuments. The Roman ways, like the one close to the site, were later designed to connect the ancient cities, illustrating the superposition of the epochs on this territory. Today, the dolmen of Bleigny-le-Carreau remains an ambiguous testimony of this period, between prehistoric heritage and modern reinterpretation.

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