The stone steles and grave monuments in the Breton Carnac are among the most famous buildings in the Stone Age Megalith culture. Now new finds and their age dates confirm: These monuments are among the oldest megalith systems across Europe. According to this, the first Menhire in Carnac was built 6,600 to 6,300 years ago, one of the graves even around 6,700 years ago. Between the stone steles, the archaeologists also found indications of fireplaces that could once have been part of the staging of these stone landmarks.
There are tens of thousands of prehistoric stone monuments in Europe. These gigantic buildings left the people of the Megalith culture, which spread around 6,500 years ago as seafarers along the coasts of Western Europe and built similar sanctuaries and landmarks everywhere. These famous Megalith buildings include the Stonekreis of Stonehenge in England as well as the more than 3,000 menhire in Carnac in Brittany. These meter -sized Hinkelsteine are arranged individually near the coast on the Gulf of Morbihan, in circles and in several rows of up to three kilometers long; There are also several large stone graves. How old these systems are is not so easy to determine, since radiocarbond dating is only possible for organic remains.
Confirm new finds: “Oldest megalithine region in Europe”
On detour, a research team around Audrey Blanchard from the University of Gothenburg has now found out how old the megalith systems in Carnac are. For this purpose, the archaeologists have examined prints in the soil of tonal stones that belong to a previously unknown part of the Carnac constellation and were only recently discovered. These Menhire once stood in Le Plask near the city of Plouhaharnel, but were removed a long time ago. However, their foundation pits remained. Blanchard and her colleagues have now dug out and took dozens of soil samples from the area. With the help of radiocarbatings, they then determined how old the surrounding soil and wooden carbon residues are found in it. With modeling techniques, they concluded when the Menhire were placed there.
The result: “Diameter and depth of the pits at Le Plasker and the arrangement of the wedge stones suggest that the upright stones could have been over three meters high,” said the team. These menhire were built in three construction phases between 4600 and 4300 BC, as the dates showed. The stones in the neighboring region of Carnac are likely to be similar. The excavation site also revealed a pre-Megalithic monumental grave. It consisted of a circular earth wall of around 3.30 meters in diameter, which surrounded a central stone box grave. “Traces of 46 stone monoliths can be found within the radius of 20 meters around the southern part of this grave facility,” report Blanchard and her colleagues. According to previous studies, such graves are considered the beginnings of the megalith culture.
According to the new dates, this grave was built around 4700 BC. Accordingly, the beginning of the megalith culture in Brittany goes back to the time ago more than 6,700 years ago. “The stone facilities in the Carnac region are apparently among the oldest megalithic monuments in Europe,” says Koautor Bettina Schulz Paulsson from the University of Gothenburg. “This also confirms that Morbihan’s Bay is the oldest megalithine region in Europe.” The up to 6,600 year old Menhire in Carnac and the even older grave facilities are around 1,700 years older than Stonehenge. In La Torre-La Janera in southern Spain, however, there are also monumental systems that are as old as the Menhire and the grave of Carnac.
Fire to light the stone landmarks?
The excavations also provide new indications of which the Stone Age builders built the Menhire. Because in addition to the foundations of these stones, there were always one or more fireplaces, as the team stated. With a diameter of 1.50 meters, these were similar to the stone foundations with 1.80 meters and date from the same time. “Some fireplaces are even on a line with the men, which suggests that they were an integral architectural component of the complex,” write Blanchard and her colleagues.
This suggests that these fire were part of the megalith monument-possibly as part of ritual productions. Stones and fire would have been visible from the nearby sea, as the team explains. This fits earlier finds that such columns-like large stones in the megalith era were placed in striking areas of the landscape. However, it is unclear whether this fire was really inflamed to light the stone landmarks. Alternatively, they could also have been used for cooking-for example as part of celebrations in the construction of the individual Stone Age monuments. Which theory is right should now clarify further analyzes of the sediments and stone fragments.
Source: University of Gothenburg; Specialist articles: antiquity, DOI: 10.15184/AQY.2025.10123
