Timeline

Heritage classified

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Origin and history

Sandun's dolmen, also known as the dolmen de la Croix de Sandun, is a neolithic covered alley located on a slight eminence in Guérande, Loire-Atlantique. Discovered in an already partially ruined state, it was originally 7.50 m long by 1.50 m wide, with seven stones erected visible before the excavations of 1896. These excavations, conducted by Henri Quilgars, revealed an eighth orthostat and confirmed that it was a covered alley whose cover tables had long disappeared. The interior floor was paved with flat stones, and a paved driveway, now destroyed, linked this monument to that of the nearby Crugo.

Inside, two fires containing ash and coal were identified in the eastern part, accompanied by two whole vases (one in black earth, one in red earth) and thousands of pieces of pottery. Nearly 80 stone tools were also discovered, including celts, impactors, arrow tips, knives, scrapers and flint saws. These artifacts suggest use of the site as an incineration tomb. Henri Quilgars interpreted the stratification of tools (an upper layer of fine tools and a lower layer of coarser tools) as evidence of two distinct periods of use in Neolithic.

Ranked a historic monument in 1935, Sandun's dolmen is now protected, although partially in ruins. In the vicinity of the site, the remains of a Neolithic village were discovered in 1987 by rescue excavations, reinforcing the archaeological importance of the site. The monument illustrates funeral practices and the spatial organization of neolithic communities in the region, dominated by landscape of moors and wetlands such as the Brière.

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