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Origin and history

Croas ar Peulven's stele, also known as Quillidien's Milestone, is an iron age cylindrical stone, re-used in Roman times as an assumed roadblock. Located in Plouigneau (Finistère), it is 2.91 m high and weighs nearly 3 tons. Cut in Ponthou granite, it has a rectangular incision on its northwest flank, but no legible inscription has been identified, despite erroneous mentions in some epigraphic collections such as the CIL.

The stele was discovered in the 1950s by archaeologists Pierre Merlat and Louis Pape, during a census of Roman routes on the territory of the Osisms. Long lying in a ditch near the hamlet of Croas ar Peulven, it was straightened in 1981 and sealed on a base, after its inscription in the Historical Monuments in 1956. Its exact location, between the so-called Quillidien and Keranfors sites, sparked debate due to the re-building and construction of a fast track nearby.

Dated from the Second Iron Age (Vth–I century BC), the stele is associated with protohistoric funeral practices, although its initial use remains uncertain. Its re-use as a Roman Mile Terminal is a hypothesis related to its proximity to ancient routes, including the one linking Morlaix to Corseul (via Yffiniac) or a secondary road to Carhaix–Plestin-les-Grèves. Fragments of tegulae (Roman bricks) found in Prat Allan and Langonaval support this theory, although the Gaule Archaeological Map only partially validates these journeys.

Another hypothesis suggests that the stone, laid down, could have served as a base for a Christianized cross, although this theory is little documented. Today, the stele is protected as communal property and classified as Historical Monuments. His study is based on the work of Merlat, Pope, and archaeologists such as Michelle Le Brozec and Marie-Yvane Daire, who attached him to the iron age steles of the Finistrian Trégor.

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