The Port-aux-Moines dolmen was saved from a parking lot

The Men-Maria dolmen, also called the dolmen of Port-aux-Moines, is located in Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys in the French department of Morbihan. It was classified as a historical monument in 1969, but its existence was put at risk in 1972 when plans for a parking lot on the port threatened to destroy it completely. The dolmen was saved in 1978 through a salvage excavation of the site.

The dolmen is a corridor-type megalith oriented southwest-northeast. The corridor is very short and slightly shifted towards the southwest. The chamber is slightly trapezoidal. The floor of the chamber is divided into two parts by a threshold: the northeast part features a floor of paving stones in very good condition, while in the southeast part, only a few traces remain near the threshold. Part of the dolmen was damaged by the construction of the road.

During the 1978 excavation, a rich collection of archaeological finds was recovered. The collection included a set of shoulder-shaped vases, typically Armorican but with a Chasséen facies, as well as globular vases. The find also included lithic tools, such as a retouched blade, a diamond-shaped arrow frame, and numerous flakes, along with bone tools consisting of two barbs made from pastenague ray spines.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons