Menhir de Callac
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Renardeau · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The menhir de Callac is a standing stone at Saint-Gilles-Vieux-Marché in the department of Côtes-d'Armor, Brittany, France. A typological estimate places it between 2800 and 1800 BCE.
It is a monolith of local schist 3.90 m high, erected on a plateau. It was classified as a historical monument in 1974.
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Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Menhir de Callac
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de CallacCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de CallacCC BY-SA 4.0
The menhir consists of a monolith of local schist, erected on a plateau. It measures 3.90 m in height, 1.50 m in width and 0.80 m in thickness.
Menhirs are most numerous in Western Europe, with about 1,200 in north-western France alone, and Brittany stands out for both the density of monuments and the variety of types.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de CallacCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de CallacCC BY-SA 4.0
A menhir is a large upright stone placed by humans. The word comes from the Breton maen and hir, "long stone". Menhirs are most numerous in Western Europe, with about 1,200 in north-western France alone, and Brittany stands out for both the density of monuments and the variety of types.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Breton and French menhirs
A menhir is a large upright stone placed by humans. The word comes from the Breton maen and hir, "long stone", and entered archaeology through French antiquarians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; in modern Breton the word for such a stone is peulvan. Menhirs are most numerous in Western Europe, with about 1,200 in north-western France alone, and Brittany stands out for both the density of monuments and the variety of types.
The largest known menhir is the Grand Menhir Brisé at Locmariaquer. It once stood nearly 20.6 metres high, and now lies fractured in four pieces; whole, it would have weighed some 330 tonnes. Stones in the Carnac area were hewn from local granite by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany. At Carnac more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones form the largest such collection in the world, arranged in groups of alignments that stretch for four kilometres. The stones were erected at some point in the Neolithic, probably around 3300 BCE, with some perhaps as early as 4500 BCE. Elsewhere, the Cham des Bondons in the Cévennes is the second largest concentration in France, and a menhir 4.5 metres tall stands against Le Mans Cathedral, moved there in 1778 when its dolmen was destroyed.
Dating a menhir is difficult, because standing stones are usually hard to date and were put up in many different periods.
Folklore: a Christian legend held that the stones of Carnac were pagan soldiers who had pursued Pope Cornelius and were turned to stone by him. Modern beliefs link the stones with Roman and Christian occupation, even though they date from 4500 to 3300 BCE.
When visiting, look at how the stones taper towards the top and at how the alignments run across the slope.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Carnac stones, Wikipedia: Locmariaquer megaliths, Wikipedia: List of menhirs · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1974
Il a été classé au titre des monuments historiques en 1974.
Source
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 2800–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for menhirs in France; this site has not been dated itself. Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
France
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 48°14′59″ N, 2°57′54″ WFor a GPS or map app: 48.24977, -2.96494
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Menhir (standing stone)menhirs de Caurel2800–1800 BCE
Dolmen de Corn-er-Houët4000–3000 BCE
Cromlech de Lorette3300–2500 BCE
Allée couverte de Coët Correc4500–3300 BCE
sépulture mégalithique de Bod-er-Mohed4500–3300 BCE- MegalithBugul er Hoët3470–2760 BCE
Liscuis gallery graves4500–3300 BCE
Menhir de Bodquelen2800–1800 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q22925375wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- menhirs de Caurel3.4 km SW
- Dolmen de Corn-er-Houët4.1 km SW
- Cromlech de Lorette4.3 km E
- Allée couverte de Coët Correc5.0 km SW
- sépulture mégalithique de Bod-er-Mohed12 km SW
- Bugul er Hoët12 km SW
- Liscuis gallery graves13 km W
- Menhir de Bodquelen14 km NW
- Menhir de Goresto à Canihuel14 km NW
- tumulus de Kerlabour14 km W
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Menhir de Callac" (French), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (French): Menhir de CallacCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q22925375CC0