Quelfénnec is an archaeological site in the French commune of

Plussulien Plussulien (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France. It is home to the archeological site of Quelfénnec. Population Inhabitants of Plussulien are called ''plussulianais'' in French. See also * ...

, in the

Côtes-d'Armor The Côtes-d'Armor (, ; ; br, Aodoù-an-Arvor, ), formerly known as Côtes-du-Nord ( br, Aodoù-an-Hanternoz, link=no, ), are a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France. In 2019, it had a population of 600,582.

department of

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

. Discovered in 1964 by retired French Historian Charles-Tanguy Le Roux, excavation of the site started upon discovery and continued until 1976.

Archeology

The site is a

dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grained ...

quarry which was exploited in the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

period, from 3500BC to 1800BC, for the production of polished stone tools. This production is estimated at 5,000 axes per year, various other tools besides axes were produced and widely exported beyond the limits of

Armorica Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; br, Arvorig, ) is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic Coast ...

. Quelfennec's axes have been found throughout western France (from Normandy to Languedoc), but also in North-West Europe, the British Isles, and Belgium, These polished stone axes were used to carry out deforestation to allow for the expansion of agriculture. It is the particular hardness of dolerite, without excessive brittleness, which explains its particular interest in making axes and adzes (hatchets with curved edges like the muzzle of an ermine) but also strikers. By around 2000BC the site gradually went out of use with the introduction of metal tools, which ultimately replaced their stone predecessors.

References

Archaeological sites in France {{Portal, France