Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Pierre-Levée du champ de la Fa is a 4.50 m high sandstone menhir erected in the Neolithic on a slope fracture overlooking the Grison valley. He presents a trident engraving and a sommital cross added during his Christianization. Lithic tools (haches, arrows) and Chalcolithic tensions were discovered nearby during its recovery in 1958.

Ranked a historic monument on 13 July 1911, this menhir was already cited in 1911 by Joseph Déchelette as one of the most beautiful in France. It gradually sloped before falling in 1942 and was straightened in 1958. Its location, near a similar sandstone deposit, suggests a local origin for the block.

According to a local legend, the stone was thrown by Jesus on a bet with Satan, while a popular tradition made it a place of pilgrimage for his healing virtues. These accounts illustrate the symbolic re-appropriation of the megalith by medieval and modern Christian communities.

The site delivered artifacts attesting to human occupation during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, including arrow frames and flint scrapers. These discoveries reinforce the hypothesis of a ritualized or funerary space, typical of the megaliths of this period in Burgundy.

The menhir is located 250 m from an identical sandstone deposit, suggesting a limited transport of the block. Its dominant position on the surrounding landscape, visible from the valley, could indicate a territorial marker or astronomical marker function, a common hypothesis for neolithic alignments.

External links