The monumental stone circles and megalithic tombs of the megalithic culture were formed in Europe more than 6,400 years ago. But how and where the builders of these mighty monuments lived was unclear. Now archaeologists have uncovered a fortified settlement at Le Peu in south-west France that answers that question. The excavations revealed the remains of four buildings constructed of wooden poles, protected by a double ditch, a wooden picket fence and unique entrance structures.
In the period 6500 to 4500 years ago, people in western Europe built characteristic, monumental stone sanctuaries and tombs. A total of 35,000 such megalithic structures are known today, including the famous Stonehenge, the standing stones in Karnak in Brittany, but also many dolmens and passage tombs in Spain, Scandinavia and the Mediterranean. The west of France is considered to be one of the oldest centers of this megalithic culture.
Double ditch marks settlement of the early megalithic culture
However, although thousands of these monumental stone structures have been found, little remains of the settlements or houses where the builders of the first megalithic structures lived. Archaeologists discovered the possible remains of Stone Age settlements in western and central Europe only from around a millennium after the first stone monuments. Most of them, however, only the enclosures in the form of earthen walls or ditches have survived. It is partly disputed whether these are really housing estates. "For more than a century, archaeologists have tried unsuccessfully to find dwellings dating back to the early megalithic constructions," explain Vincent Ard of the French research organization CNRS in Toulouse and his colleagues.
But now Ard and his colleagues have made a breakthrough: They have uncovered a settlement at Le Peu in south-west France that is more than 6,400 years old, contemporaneous with some of the earliest megalithic structures. The first indications of this Stone Age settlement were already shown in 2011 in aerial photographs. Visible were two parallel dark ditches that seemed to separate the western end of a slightly elevated area bordered by a small river. Also visible at the northern end of this curved double moat was a structure resembling the crab-claw passages typical of later megalithic settlements—an opening in the fortification moats bordered by a curved moat and fence.
Three buildings and two bastions
Excavations from 2014 to 2021 have now provided more information about the structure of the 700 meter long and 275 meter wide enclosed area and the buildings that once stood in it. According to this, the inside of the double ditch was once secured with an additional wooden palisade, and the remains of the pegs can still be seen underground. At two points in this fence, Ard and his colleagues discovered a structure that was unique in the megalithic culture: the fortification curves outwards in the shape of a horseshoe and once comprised a structure about seven by five meters in size, which apparently once protected an entrance. "You could describe this as a bastion by analogy with later examples," say the archaeologists.
Inside the area, the team discovered remains of at least three rectangular buildings measuring 13 by 18 meters. The longitudinal walls and the roof were apparently once stabilized by thick oak beams, as evidenced by the remains of post holes. A central wooden beam apparently stood on the eastern end. "Inside one of the buildings, traces of smaller beams can be seen, indicating a raised platform," report Ard and his colleagues. "They might once have carried a sleeping place or a kitchen." In any case, these buildings are the oldest rectangular buildings in western France. “The discovery of Le Peu and the excavations give us a first picture of how the settlements of the megalithic builders once looked. "Apparently, wood and earth were their preferred building materials, while stone dominated the world of their dead," say the archaeologists.
Source: Antique, doi: 10.15184/aqy.2022.169