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onjour!
this month we will tell you about an unusual landscape in a magnificent area of western France.
If you are ever lucky enough to discover Brittany, you will no doubt fall under the spell of its beautiful
scenery, the brightness of its small fishing ports, the charm of the countryside, and the mystery of the
forest, a source of so many legends. At a bend in the road, another discovery awaits: The strange sight
of lined up stones, running for miles and miles, like so many vestiges of a distant time. These are the
Carnac rows which still defy any plausible explanation.
But before continuing, please remember that you can access and read all the newsletters already
published at http://www.francemonthly.com/
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A Forest of Menhirs
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France is rich with surprising man-made structures. Indeed, you can marvel endlessly
at the architecture of our cathedrals, the elegance of our castles, the robustness
of our medieval fortresses, while other monuments just leave you perplexed. You can’t
help but wonder as you take a stroll in the Côtes d’Armor, in Ile-et-Vilaine or in
the Morbihan, about what these standing stones, scattered about the Breton countryside,
meant to the peoples of ancient times.
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The alignments in Carnac
(Click photo to enlarge)
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It is absolutely astonishing to discover at the edge of Carnac the bizarre sight of these blocks
pointed towards the sky. They stand upright over several miles, as far as the eye can see entire
rows of menhirs lined up as so many imperturbable guards, watching for who knows who or what,
ever since the dawn of time. You will find the largest concentration of megaliths in France, no
less than 2,787 standing stones, between Petit Menec, Kerlescan and Kermario. Archaeologists have
counted them one by one! They estimate that there were originally 10,000 of these man-carved
monuments. Specialists have logged their numbers, calculated their dimensions (heights range
from 3 to 13 ft), analyzed their arrangement (long parallel alignments of standing stones
often in circular, oval or quadrilateral enclosures), and determined their east-to-west
orientation. But they have yet to decipher the mystery of their purpose.
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A New Man
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A very long time ago, in the 5500-2000 BC period, men from Mesopotamia crossed Central Europe,
arrived in France, and eventually settled in Brittany. Mesopotamia was a region located
between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, which today is Iraq (for the most part).
An ice age had just ended, leaving behind a milder climate that allowed settlement. These
prehistoric men broke away from their predecessors with a marked change in lifestyle that
caused quite a shift in the evolution pattern. While their ancestors were merely gatherers-hunters,
they became breeders-farmers. They also knew how to spin, weave, and work with ceramic. They
were adept at agriculture, arts and crafts, and building. They introduced cereal growing to
France, and also mastered polishing techniques which enabled them to make tools. They invented
construction methods that allowed them to build, over several generations, this multitude of
standing stones reaching for the sky that remains to this day a real architectural enigma. These
Neolithic men no doubt paved the way for accelerated progress in many areas.
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Recipe for Oct 2007
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Beef with carrots
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The Work of Titans
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In those days, Brittany was nothing more than a dense and deep forest. In order to find land to
cultivate, these men undertook the colossal task of deforestation, and in-so doing, were provided
with necessary building materials right there on site. Indeed, once the soil had eroded, a huge
massif of granite was exposed.
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The Broken Menhir in Locmariaquer
(Click photo to enlarge)
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They perfected techniques to quarry big beautiful pieces from it. On warm sunny days,
they would slide four pieces of wood under the stone, one at each corner, which they
would then water. The wood would swell and crack the stone, completing the task. In
winter, they got the same results by causing a thermal shock: They would slide straw
under the pieces of wood, light it on fire, and then throw ice-cold water onto the
inferno. Once again, the stone would crack and all that was left to do was to pull
it out and lift it up. Of course, this was no easy task, since the stones weighed
several tons, the heaviest ones sometimes reaching 385 tons. A tried and tested
method of lifting would be used in these specific cases: Two pieces of wood and
some hemp rigging shaped like an upside down “A” formed a perfect system to lift
these enormous rocks. They slid the rope under the stone and progressively raised.
Little by little, the stone would stand up and was made to fit in a wedging pit that
was only 2 ft deep.
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The Soul of the Stones
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For several generations, over 700 years, Neolithic men worked at erecting these stones so
carefully aligned in parallel and rectilinear aisles. But most of them had fallen over by
the 19th century.
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Sylvie close to a Menhir
(Click photo to enlarge)
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Through time and with erosion, the depth of the wedging pits had considerably diminished,
making it impossible for them to stand any longer. Other stones had simply vanished.
Indeed, some were on private property and their owners hadn’t hesitated to sell them
at a time when very little importance was given to historical or patrimonial significance.
Gustave Flaubert (the famous French writer) described the alignments as “big soulless stones”.
Nonetheless, they had been raising questions for some time. It was argued that these stones
must have been the result of climatic catastrophes, whether downpours, earthquakes or floods.
Many romantic engravings showed them next to Lilliputians, making them seem even more mysterious
and impressive. Speculations ran wild as to their origins, with half religious, half fantastical
explanations, all the stuff of legends! The only agreement was that these alignments of menhirs
were not funerary monuments.
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St Cornély
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St Cornély, who had been pope in 3rd century Rome, fled persecution by the Roman emperor
Gallus all the way to Brittany. Accompanied by two oxen carrying his luggage, he was one
day ahead of the legionaries who were chasing him when he came across some peasants busy
sowing their fields.
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Saint Cornély statue in Carnac
(Click photo to enlarge)
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Much to the surprise of these poor people, he promised them that the oats they were so
painstakingly sowing as they spoke would be ripe the very next day. Sure enough, when
the soldiers arrived the following day, the peasants were starting their harvest. The
pursuers asked them whether they had met a religious figure and they were quick to
answer that they had indeed, back when they were first sowing. The Roman soldiers
concluded that St Cornély’s lead was such that they might as well give up the chase.
Legend has it that the holy man, hidden not far from there, took advantage of this
opportunity to petrify them. The Carnac alignments would be none other than these
poor men frozen for eternity. St Cornély, who later became the patron saint of
horned animals, is celebrated every year in September. This tradition goes back
to the Middle-Ages when to turn the pagan cattle fair into a Christian festival
it was associated with the Day of Atonement, an annual procession after which poor
sinners would confess their mistakes. From then on, the farmers would parade with
their beasts after having them blessed at the St Cornély fountain on their way to
the fair where they would sell them. There was a double advantage to this since in
addition to being forgiven for past sins, they would earn more money selling an
animal that had been blessed. It was a win-win proposition.
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The Dolmens |
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The dolmens that you see today in the Breton landscape appear as strange upright stones
covered with a horizontal slab that weighs several tons. What is left is just a very
small portion of what was once a much more complex group that was unfortunately often
striped and looted over the centuries. Originally, dolmens were used to form one or
more funerary rooms that were accessed by a passageway, all under a heap of stones
called the cairn where primitive men would bury their dead. The covered paths
symbolized the progression between the world of the living and that of the dead,
considered two very similar universes at a time when there was no perceived
fundamental difference between sleep and death. Consequently, it seemed necessary
to build barriers so that neither group would encroach on the other’s territory,
and mostly so that the dead would not come haunt the world of the living. These
funerary rooms were therefore sealed off with very heavy slabs of stone that the
deceased would have no chance of being able to lift, should such an idea ever occur
to them. In any case, the bodies were placed on their stomachs, facing the earth and
darkness, while arms and feet were buried to prevent any attempt at an escape. Some
of the access paths were bent at an angle so that any intrepid escapee who might
reach them would get lost. Finally, a menhir was erected near the tomb to clearly
establish each individual’s territory. An impressive example of this is the 21 ft
tall “Giant” of Manio, located west of the Kerlescan alignments near Carnac.
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The Tumulus
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Living both in a very full daily reality and in the world of Spirits, the primitive
man had a lot of respect for the bodies of the departed. Death was not an end in and of itself, quite
the contrary it was the ultimate step towards a second life.
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The Dolmen of Crucuno
(Click photo to enlarge)
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The solemn ritual that surrounded laying a body to rest was just a way of bringing the deceased to
his new existence. Therefore, many offerings were made, whether axes, jewelry, pieces of pottery,
furniture, or the remains of a sacred bovid. Very important people were buried under tumulus,
which were essentially majestic artificial mounds. These were monuments built to the glory of
the higher powers. The largest tumulus ever discovered in France to this day is the St Michel
tumulus, with measures 410 ft long, by 197 ft wide, by 40 ft tall. It is hard to imagine that
this peaceful little hill hides a sumptuous tomb. Unfortunately, because of security concerns
you can no longer visit it. It remains nonetheless a choice panoramic area to take in the region.
This pagan site was Christianized in the 17th century when a chapel was built there. Several times
destroyed, the chapel was finally rebuilt in 1926. At this time, the sea was feared to the point
where houses were never built anywhere near it, and wives of sailors would come pray for their
husbands to find favorable winds. They would sweep the dust in the direction of the winds chosen
to protect their men.
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An Invitation to Travel... |
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Were these politico-religious monuments, gathering places for festive celebrations,
or markers of an astronomical cult that was based there? There aren’t many clues to
go by and questions remain to this day. There were no written documents, and no
archaeological relics under the menhirs to support any one hypothesis. So how
does one explain the presence of thousands of stones lined up like a giant streamer
over several miles, not to mention the countless other stones known to be submerged
that were erected at a time when the sea level was much lower than it is today. The
jagged and rugged landscape of this magnificent wild coast only emphasizes the scale
of these monuments. The gradual destruction of this site finally came to a stop in 1836,
thanks to Prosper Mérimée, General Inspector for Historic Monuments, who took interest
in the history of these uplifted stones. In 1889, the State intervened, buying back
the estates and listing the stones as “Historic Monuments”. Another enthusiast,
Zacharie le Rouzic worked on them with great zeal up until 1939. So it is thanks to
the tenacious passion of a few that these monuments were conserved, leaving us the
opportunity of some day being able to uncover the great secret of the megalithic
alignments of Carnac.
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