Timeline

Heritage classified

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Origin and history

La Grosse Pierre de Verneusses, also known as Pierre Couplée, is a neolithic dolmen located in the municipality of Verneusses, in the department of Eure. This megalith is located at the edge of the ancient Roman way between Rouen and Alençon, today the Dolmen street. Its peculiarity lies in its triangular covering slab, composed of upper and lower part sandstone, measuring up to 4 meters in length. Four pudding or sandstone supports, supplemented by a fifth added in 1910, maintain this imposing structure.

The dolmen was first mentioned in 1829 by Frédéric Galeron, who was interested in his evocative name, shared with other megaliths in the region, such as those of La Ferté and Glos-la-Ferrière. Galeron hypothesizes that the term "coupled" would come from a Celtic root meaning "stone", an interpretation later repeated by Léon Coutil and Amélie Bosquet. Rather, the latter suggests that the name refers to the geographical proximity of these three dolmens, forming a symbolic triangle.

In 1832, Auguste Le Prévost and, in 1879, the Viscount of Pulligny wrongly claimed that the monument had been destroyed, an error corrected only in 1896 by Léon Coutier, president of the Société préhistorique française. Coutil then describes the degraded state of the dolmen, damaged in 1815 by the fall of an oak that moved the slab and overturned several supports. In 1910 he oversees a careful restoration campaign: the slab is straightened with crics and loggers, the supports are replaced or adjusted, and a fifth support is added to stabilize the whole. Despite the criticisms of some amateurs, this intervention saved the monument.

During the work, Coutil conducted excavations under the dolmen, discovering a soil composed of compact clay and flint, but no significant archaeological remains. These efforts led to the classification of the dolmen as historical monuments on 4 April 1911. A commemorative plaque, affixed near the megalith, recalls since this protection and restoration work. The site, owned by the commune, remains a rare testimony of the funeral and architectural practices of Neolithic in Normandy.

The Grosse Pierre de Verneusses illustrates the importance of megaliths in the Norman historical landscape. These monuments, often associated with ancient ways such as this Roman road, marked the territory and probably served as places of collective burial. Their preservation, despite the hazards of time and misinterpretation, today offers a valuable archaeological heritage to understand the prehistoric societies of the region.

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