Brittany spreads over the large peninsula situated in Western France and known as Massif Armoricain or Péninsule d’Armorique, a mountainous mass that was formed during the Paleozoic Age.
Archaeological finds show that Brittany was already inhabited around 700,000BC, but we know very little about the Neolithic tribes (5500-2000BC) who built the many megalithic sites that have become one of the iconic images of the region.
The region and in particular Southern Brittany is renowned for the alignments of granite megaliths, tumuli, dolmens and single menhirs (standing stones) erected between 6000BC-2000BC by pre-Celtic people whose origins and fate have been lost in the dust of time.
The purpose of the standing stones has also remained an enigma.
The traditional belief until recent years was that they were funeral monuments and that each stone represented a leader.
The new school of researchers, however, believes that the alignments were not linked to the cult of the Dead but could have been part of a huge system of astronomical instruments (observatories), record-keeping and prediction structure as the orientation of the alignments target the sunsets at both solstices.
We might never discover the meaning of the alignments but they are one of the iconic images of Brittany, a region which is considered the centre of megalith constructions during the Neolithic era and is known as the “core area” of the megalith culture.
Countless legends were made up through the centuries to explain the megaliths' presence.
One of the legends relate the appearance of the standing stone of Champ Dolent, one of the largest menhirs of Brittany, near the town of Dol de Bretagne (in the north of Brittany).
Read the legend of the Menhir of Champ Dolent...
Archaeological finds show that Brittany was already inhabited around 700,000BC, but we know very little about the Neolithic tribes (5500-2000BC) who built the many megalithic sites that have become one of the iconic images of the region.
The region and in particular Southern Brittany is renowned for the alignments of granite megaliths, tumuli, dolmens and single menhirs (standing stones) erected between 6000BC-2000BC by pre-Celtic people whose origins and fate have been lost in the dust of time.
The purpose of the standing stones has also remained an enigma.
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| Menhir of Champ-Dolent near Dol-de-Bretagne |
The new school of researchers, however, believes that the alignments were not linked to the cult of the Dead but could have been part of a huge system of astronomical instruments (observatories), record-keeping and prediction structure as the orientation of the alignments target the sunsets at both solstices.
We might never discover the meaning of the alignments but they are one of the iconic images of Brittany, a region which is considered the centre of megalith constructions during the Neolithic era and is known as the “core area” of the megalith culture.
Countless legends were made up through the centuries to explain the megaliths' presence.
One of the legends relate the appearance of the standing stone of Champ Dolent, one of the largest menhirs of Brittany, near the town of Dol de Bretagne (in the north of Brittany).
Read the legend of the Menhir of Champ Dolent...