> The Kercado and Mané-Kerioned Passage Graves



The Kercado dolmen
The dolmen is located in a private property but is open to the public. It stands on high ground overlooking Carnac, as the water tower situated nearby shows.

The monument was excavated in 1863 by R. Galles. Later, in 1925, it was studied again and restored by Z. Le Rouzic who remodelled its cairn and rather artificially raised the imposing menhir that today sits on top of it. The cairn is 40m in diameter and seems to be delimited by a wall-face.		 An early print showing the Kercado cairn.

 



 

Overall plan of the Kercado group : the passage grave in its cairn circled with menhirs.

It is surrounded by a wide enclosure consisting of 27 small menhirs, well preserved to the south.


Inside, the passage tomb is a single, quadrangular chamber (2.2 x 3.2m). The walling consists of 17 contiguous slabs; the passage is covered by five capstones and the chamber by a single one.


Two pillar stones of the passage, as well as the one marking the southern entrance of the chamber, bear a reticulated motif similar to that of Mané-Kerioned or Petit-Mont d'Arzon.
The northern jamb of the passage opening into the chamber no longer bears any sign of decoration but does take on the shape of an anthropomorphic figure which was probably roughly hewn in the stone. The ceiling of the chamber is adorned with a large "axe-plough" sign similar to that of the Locmariaquer steles. The outline of the capstone is unknown, but the unusual positioning of the sign suggests that the stone was probably re-used at some point in time.
The radiocarbon date given by charcoal collected at one of the excavations led by Z. Le Rouzic might correspond to an earlier period. Unfortunately, the dating (5200 to 4360 B.C.) is too imprecise to be of any real value.
The Kercado dolmen revealed a wealth of different artefacts, showing a succession of occupants; indeed, ancient items (notably 147 variscite beads) were found lying next to ceramics dating from the late Neolithic and the Bell Beaker period.

 



 

The Mané-Kerioned group

A local road now encroaches on the so-called "butte aux lutins" (Goblin Hill). The hill is capped by a large, irregularly shaped cairn some forty meters in diameter. Three passage graves emerge from the cairn. It is marked by four menhirs, three on its western limit and one on its northern limit.

The group was studied on several occasions between 1866 and 1901 and was restored in 1921. It revealed a number of disparate artefacts, but none of any major interest.

The central dolmen opens to the East. Two features point to an earlier date than the other monuments: firstly, its entrance is blocked by the neighbouring monument to the east of it, secondly, its quadrangular chamber is clearly delimited by monolithic slabs.		 The western (in the background) and central (on the left) dolmens of Mané-Kerioned. The northern menhir is in the foreground.

 



 

Inner elevation of the chamber of the western Mané-Kerioned dolmen (the eastern wall showing two of the main decorated pillars). The two other dolmens are parallel, with their entrance lying on the south side. They both have a trapezoidal chamber that gradually widens out from the passage.

The western dolmen clearly stands out from the cairn and therefore seems more spectacular, whereas the eastern dolmen is the most interesting in terms of size (more than 11m in length) and decoration (6 out of 27 pillar stones are decorated).
The group comprises a "lozenge-shaped" slab which recalls the decorated capstone of la Table-des-Marchands, as well as "zigzag lines and grids" similar to those at Kercado.