Menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs, megaliths, here is the quiz you’re looking for…
Posted by LN, Thursday 25 September 2008 at 14:09 - FAQ Brittany - Tags
1 –The biggest menhir in Brittany weights 30 metric tons ?
It weights much more. Menhir is a breton word : men means stone and hir means long. If you know the French Obélix, it is the stone he is carrying around. The biggest in Brittany lies in Locmariaquer (Morbihan) it used to be 21 meters (more than 65 ft) long but it is broken and lays down on the floor. It weights more than 300 metric tons.
2 – A dolmen is a circle of different stones ?
You’re wrong. A dolmen is a « stonetable » in breton language, that means upright stones that are carrying a roofstone. Dolmen are really often without roof and have misceallanous architectures : the passageway is short to long, it has one to many chambers that are round, rectangular… La Roche aux Fées (Essé, Ille et Vilaine) is a nice one. During the neolitic time, it was probably covered by earth and stones forming a barrow.
3- And what is a cromlech or a cairn ?
A cromlech is a circle of standing stones.
A cairn is a dolmen,( the stonetable I was talking about earlier), but covered by a barrow. It is hidden by an earthen mound and it looks like a small mountain. Barnenez and Gavrinis are two famous breton exemples. Here you can see the tumulus (barrow) of Dissignac close to Saint Nazaire, (Loire Atlantique).
All these buildings have been erected at several periods, some of the stones were carved with symbols. They probably have had different goals, but we don’t know for what. Some were graves, may be some others were temples but we can only guess, the stones could have religious functions, astronomical functions,... We also don’t know why our megalith builders destroyed them (menhir brisé de Locmariaquer). When Christianity begins to appear in Brittany, the stones are already used for pagan rituals, and the Church doesn’t like it. They try to christanize it and carved christian cross or others christian symbols on it.
4 – Were the Egyptian pyramides already built when our ancestors were carrying their menhirs.
Well, some of the breton buildings are much older. We know it surely since the 50’s when carbon 14 was found. And we finally discover that they are really old. The neolithic men built the megalitic buildings between – 5000 and – 2000 BC. Our Egyptian friends began their pyramids around - 3000 when our Bretons are megalith specialists. The megalith time lasted 3000 years. And the buildings done are quite different : short corridors, long corridors, square, circular chambers…
5 - Menhirs , dolmens and other megalithic buildings were built by
- a Celts
- b Druids
a – During the XVIIIth century when the “scientists” began to look at those strange constructions, they thought that the Celts built them. We know now thanks to Carbon 14 that they are much older as Celts arrived in Brittany around 500 BC.
b – Caesar wrote about the druids in their stonetemples but they just used it and did not built it.
6 – In Brittany we say that Pantagruel, and his friends let menhirs everywhere ?
May be you don’t know who is Pantagruel. he is a hero of a book from Rabelais, a French writer from the XVI th century. He is part of the French folklore. Pantagruel, a jovial fellow, is a giant with an enormous appetite, and he is good-humoured.
He is the one who left a tooth in Saint Suliac (menhir de Saint Suliac, Ille et Vilaine). He took a gravelout of his shoe and let it fall in Fort Lalatte,another one in Cap Frehel ...
7 – Others say that the fairies did it !!!
They actually did the dolmen called la Roche aux Fées, that explains its name fairyrock. Look at the work they’ve done with the stones !!!
We don’t have any written signs for this civilization and archeologists guess every time they discover something new. They think now that the settled agricultural communities, that erected the buildings, were quite organized. They probably had a leader and asked the other communities around to help them to built the monument. So the monument was a common work : it needed the help of geologists (stones were not choosen at random and were often extracted far from the place where they wanted to build the monument), engineers for the architecture, astronomists to position the building…they did not need mason as the building are done without mortar.
Some experiences have been done to try to carry the stones : in 1979 at Stonehenge, about hundred men succeded in towing a 32 metric tons stone, supported by logs and using vegetal ropes.
To extract the stones, they probably were introducing small pieces of wood in the crevices of the blocks, and swollen with water, it did fissure the block. What a job!!!
8 – The megalithic architecture was born in Brittany ?
No, it was not but the alignments of Carnac are a famous place because of his high number of stones ( about 3000 and specialists guess that they were much more, may be 10 000). You can see megaliths in many other places in the world, close to us in Corsica, in Sardinia, Malta, Majorca… but also in Asia or South America.
9 – There are just 5 to 10% menhirs left in Brittany ?
Yes, that’s right. During the XIXth century, the “learned society” wanted to study the past and were carrying out excavations. These excavations were destructives because they were just dismantling the sites and razed it after. And also for many centuries, people used the stones to build their houses, later to do the roads. They did not care of culture and inheritage at that time.
10 – Why don’t we find bones under breton stones ?
Well, because the dogs came first !!! Some of them were burial chambers and you find no bones because the soil in Brittany is acid and « eat » the bones. Flints, pottery, pearls,arrows…were found in the megalithic constructions.
11 – What were those stones used for ?
We can only guess, they must have had a religious purpose. Standing stones may be calendars, markers of territory … Dolmens or cairns were burials sites…
Read it in French : Menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs et autres cairns en Bretagne : testez vos connaissances,
It weights much more. Menhir is a breton word : men means stone and hir means long. If you know the French Obélix, it is the stone he is carrying around. The biggest in Brittany lies in Locmariaquer (Morbihan) it used to be 21 meters (more than 65 ft) long but it is broken and lays down on the floor. It weights more than 300 metric tons.
2 – A dolmen is a circle of different stones ?
You’re wrong. A dolmen is a « stonetable » in breton language, that means upright stones that are carrying a roofstone. Dolmen are really often without roof and have misceallanous architectures : the passageway is short to long, it has one to many chambers that are round, rectangular… La Roche aux Fées (Essé, Ille et Vilaine) is a nice one. During the neolitic time, it was probably covered by earth and stones forming a barrow.
3- And what is a cromlech or a cairn ?
A cromlech is a circle of standing stones.
A cairn is a dolmen,( the stonetable I was talking about earlier), but covered by a barrow. It is hidden by an earthen mound and it looks like a small mountain. Barnenez and Gavrinis are two famous breton exemples. Here you can see the tumulus (barrow) of Dissignac close to Saint Nazaire, (Loire Atlantique).
All these buildings have been erected at several periods, some of the stones were carved with symbols. They probably have had different goals, but we don’t know for what. Some were graves, may be some others were temples but we can only guess, the stones could have religious functions, astronomical functions,... We also don’t know why our megalith builders destroyed them (menhir brisé de Locmariaquer). When Christianity begins to appear in Brittany, the stones are already used for pagan rituals, and the Church doesn’t like it. They try to christanize it and carved christian cross or others christian symbols on it.
4 – Were the Egyptian pyramides already built when our ancestors were carrying their menhirs.
Well, some of the breton buildings are much older. We know it surely since the 50’s when carbon 14 was found. And we finally discover that they are really old. The neolithic men built the megalitic buildings between – 5000 and – 2000 BC. Our Egyptian friends began their pyramids around - 3000 when our Bretons are megalith specialists. The megalith time lasted 3000 years. And the buildings done are quite different : short corridors, long corridors, square, circular chambers…
5 - Menhirs , dolmens and other megalithic buildings were built by
- a Celts
- b Druids
a – During the XVIIIth century when the “scientists” began to look at those strange constructions, they thought that the Celts built them. We know now thanks to Carbon 14 that they are much older as Celts arrived in Brittany around 500 BC.
b – Caesar wrote about the druids in their stonetemples but they just used it and did not built it.
6 – In Brittany we say that Pantagruel, and his friends let menhirs everywhere ?
May be you don’t know who is Pantagruel. he is a hero of a book from Rabelais, a French writer from the XVI th century. He is part of the French folklore. Pantagruel, a jovial fellow, is a giant with an enormous appetite, and he is good-humoured.
He is the one who left a tooth in Saint Suliac (menhir de Saint Suliac, Ille et Vilaine). He took a gravelout of his shoe and let it fall in Fort Lalatte,another one in Cap Frehel ...
7 – Others say that the fairies did it !!!
They actually did the dolmen called la Roche aux Fées, that explains its name fairyrock. Look at the work they’ve done with the stones !!!
We don’t have any written signs for this civilization and archeologists guess every time they discover something new. They think now that the settled agricultural communities, that erected the buildings, were quite organized. They probably had a leader and asked the other communities around to help them to built the monument. So the monument was a common work : it needed the help of geologists (stones were not choosen at random and were often extracted far from the place where they wanted to build the monument), engineers for the architecture, astronomists to position the building…they did not need mason as the building are done without mortar.
Some experiences have been done to try to carry the stones : in 1979 at Stonehenge, about hundred men succeded in towing a 32 metric tons stone, supported by logs and using vegetal ropes.
To extract the stones, they probably were introducing small pieces of wood in the crevices of the blocks, and swollen with water, it did fissure the block. What a job!!!
8 – The megalithic architecture was born in Brittany ?
No, it was not but the alignments of Carnac are a famous place because of his high number of stones ( about 3000 and specialists guess that they were much more, may be 10 000). You can see megaliths in many other places in the world, close to us in Corsica, in Sardinia, Malta, Majorca… but also in Asia or South America.
9 – There are just 5 to 10% menhirs left in Brittany ?
Yes, that’s right. During the XIXth century, the “learned society” wanted to study the past and were carrying out excavations. These excavations were destructives because they were just dismantling the sites and razed it after. And also for many centuries, people used the stones to build their houses, later to do the roads. They did not care of culture and inheritage at that time.
10 – Why don’t we find bones under breton stones ?
Well, because the dogs came first !!! Some of them were burial chambers and you find no bones because the soil in Brittany is acid and « eat » the bones. Flints, pottery, pearls,arrows…were found in the megalithic constructions.
11 – What were those stones used for ?
We can only guess, they must have had a religious purpose. Standing stones may be calendars, markers of territory … Dolmens or cairns were burials sites…
Read it in French : Menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs et autres cairns en Bretagne : testez vos connaissances,
Acid soils and menhirs, Are the bretons the founders of the menhirs, Are the celts the builders of the menhirs, Are the druids the builders of the dolmens, Cairns and barrows or tumulus in Brittany France, Compare breton menhirs and egyptian pyramid, Did the fairies build the dolmen, Disappearance of megalithic buildings in france, Fairies and megaliths in brittany France, Fairies and menhirs, Menhirs a breton speciality, Menhirs in europe, Obelix and his menhirs, The largest known single stone erected by Neolithic man in france, Translation of cromlech, Translation of dolmen, Translation of menhir, Understanding megalith in brittany france, Visit dolmen and brittany in france, Visit the biggest menhir in brittany in France, What does cromlech mean, What does dolmen mean, What does menhir mean, What means cromlech, What were druids doing with our menhirs, Why did the neolitic builders destroyed the menhirs in france, Why don’t we find any human remains under menhirs in France, Why were the menhir toppled
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