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Corcelles-près-Concise (VD)

The village of Corcelles-près-Concise, situated on Neuchâtel Lake side, Between Yverdon-les-Bains and Neuchâtel, has on its territory several menhirs at two different places.

Documentation

Bibliography

  • Bourgeois Victor, Au pied du Jura (see Bibliography), pp. 218-222
  • Burri-Wyser Elena (dir.), Destins des mégalithes vaudois (see Bibliography)
  • Burri-Wyser Elena (dir.), « Stèles ornées, menhirs sculptés et pierres à cupules ; un regard sur les mégalithes vaudois », Archéologie vaudoise, Chroniques 2015, 2016, pp. 44-57
  • Cardinaux Stéphane, Géométries sacrées, Editions Trajectoire, 2004, pp. 128-129
  • D'un mégalithe à l'autre (see Bibliography), pp. 44-49
  • Guide des hauts lieux vibratoires de Suisse romande (see Bibliography), pp. 114-117
  • Le livre à remonter le temps (see Bibliography), p. 54

Links

Others visible sites in the area

The four menhirs

Between a path and a field, fours menhirs are visible at the north of the village. Three of these menhirs are prehistoric, and the fourth one, at the north-west, was cut and set up in 1843 to replace a menhir removed during the 18th century.

These menhirs have been always visible, but it was only in 1994 that an excavation is done to understand the organisation of the megalithic monument. A medieval pit, near the southern menhirs contained a megalith cut in two parts, proves that there was at least 4 menhirs. The excavations allowed also to date the monument from the Neolithic Age.

Among the three prehistorical menhirs, there is the north-west one who has a leveled top and several cupules.

The site wasn't isolated as the human occupation has been attested near the neighbouring village of Onnens and also on the lakeside where another menhir (see below) and a lakeside village have been studied.

Swiss topographic coordinates: 543'829, 189'042

OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/686847259

The menhir of La Vernette

On the south of the village, near the railway, a menhir seams to be lost in the country side. This menhir, unlike the others described above, is not on its original palce. Discovered in 1997 during the railwayworks, it was set up there in 2005, some 700 metres far from the discover place.

The menhir is made of gneiss, the top is cut into a point and the base has a rectangular shape. A line, engraved on the southern side of the menhir, can be interpreted as a belt, and the monument would be a statue-menhir. No object allows to date when it was set up or laid on its side, but the presence of statues-menhirs is attested since the Final Neolithic Age.

Swiss topographic coordinates: 544'343, 188'273

OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2451483830

Archeoplus / Archaeology / Archaeological sites / Corcelles-près-Concise (VD)