Dressed standing stones in the open and dressed standing stones in burial chambers. Towards a conver-gence of the dispositives. The example of the megaliths in the department of Morbihan, France

International audienceThe architectural conception of Megalithic monuments has usually divided them into separate types. There are the close or touching stones (e.g. sepulchres) and there are the more isolated stones such as menhirs. This resulted in separate paths of research. Only recently has the complementarity between arrangements of dressed stones in the “open air”, in the sepulchral assemblies, and in the tumuli really been proposed. When the engineering of these architectural projects connected to megalithism is analysed, points of convergence are noticeable between dispositives of dressed stones in the open air, in sepulchral spaces, and in tumuli. The intentions of the builders reflect the strong connections they saw between themselves and the world they lived in, understood and exploited, the particular attention they gave to their dead, and certain connections with nature versus culture. The huge numbers of Megalithic monuments that exist in the Breton department of Morbihan has been an ideal population in which to study this phenomenon.The inter-related similarities are quite remarkable. They permit us to propose a transposition or inspiration (assemblies, forms and heights) between arrangements of dressed stones in the open air with those that have been worked into the walls of the sepulchral spaces