The Melus Passage Grave, Brittany

Farming fields in the village Loguivy

Throughout the Brittany landscape are numerous sites of Prehistoric monuments . The majority tend to be situated in the Carnac district along the west coast. I am currently spending some of my summer in the Cote d'Armor region in the north of Brittany. Although there are not as many stone circles as you are likely to find in Carnac, there is still some evidence of prehistoric rituals in the northern Brittany landscape. In a small village nearby Saint Brieuc lies a tomb dating from the late neolithic period, built and used some time between 3000-2500 BC. A  footpath in the village Loguivy near Paimpol leads into the farming fields which overlook the sea.

The Melus Passage Grave

It is not far along this path that you stumble upon the site of the ancient tomb which now lies eerily in between the two farming fields. This is an example of a Melus Passage Grave. The graves are characterized by the long, narrow form. These types of burial chambers are an example of a small group of funerary monuments distributed across northern Brittany eastwards towards Mayenne. The structural stones would originally have been covered by a mound. The stones used, are not of local origin which means that the inhabitants that built this structure transported large rocks from elsewhere by means of sophisticated engineering. 

The diagram below may give you a better idea of how the stones were used in the construction of the grave's structure.

Unlike other neolithic graves, the entrance of this burial chamber is situated on the lateral side as illustrated in the diagram above. This is a distinctive feature of these types of graves in Northern Brittany. In other areas in the region, the entrance point tends to be situated on the axis. 

Lateral entrance to the grave, a unique feature of burial chambers in this region

This burial chamber was discovered in 1933 by G. Fournier. All traces of humans bones have dissapeared, possibly due to the high levels of acid in the soil. However large blades of flint, axes, and fragments of ceramic vessels were found inside the grave at the time of its excavation. Any other evidence which would shed further light remains undiscovered in the small village that now occupies the site. I hope to uncover many more similar lost histories during my trips to the Brittany region and will continue to share these discoveries on Missing Storeys.

Local residences in 2014.