The Cairn of Barnenez (also: Barnenez Tumulus, Barnenez Mound; in
Breton ''Karn Barnenez''; in
French: ''Cairn de Barnenez'' or ''Tumulus de Barnenez'') is a
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
monument located near
Plouezoc'h
Plouezoc'h ( or ; br, Plouezoc'h ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.
Population
Inhabitants of Plouezoc'h are called in French ''Plouezoc'hois''.
See also
*Communes of the Finistère department
...
, on the Kernéléhen peninsula in northern
Finistère
Finistère (, ; br, Penn-ar-Bed ) is a department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090. ,
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
(
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
). It dates to the early
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
, about 4800 BC. Along with the
Tumulus of Bougon and
Locmariaquer megaliths
The Locmariaquer megaliths are a complex of Neolithic constructions in Locmariaquer, Brittany. They comprise the elaborate Er-Grah tumulus passage grave, a dolmen known as the ''Table des Marchand'' and "The Broken Menhir of Er Grah", the larges ...
, also located in Great West France, it is one of the earliest
megalithic monuments
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
The ...
in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
and one of the
oldest man-made structures in the world.
It is also remarkable for the presence of
megalithic art.
History
Dates
Radiocarbon
Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and c ...
dates indicate that the first phase of the monument was erected between 4850 and 4250 BC, and the second phase between 4450 and 4000 BC.
Secondary use
Pottery found in and around the monument indicates that it underwent a period of reuse in the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
, in the 3rd millennium BC.
Recognition as an ancient monument
The cairn was first mapped in 1807, in the context of the
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
ic
cadaster
A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref>
Often it is represented graphically in a cad ...
. Its first scientific recognition took place in the context of an academic congress in Morlaix in 1850, when it was classified as a
tumulus
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones bu ...
.
Quarry damage
Privately owned until the 1950s, the cairn was used as a
quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...
for paving stones. This activity, which threatened to destroy the monument, was only halted after the discovery of several of its chambers in the 1950s. The local community then took control of the site.
Restoration and excavation
The cairn was restored between 1954 and 1968. At the same time, vegetation was removed from the mound and systematic
excavation took place in and around the monument.
The monument
The mound
Today, the Barnenez cairn is 72 m long, up to 25 m wide and over 8 m high. It is built of 13,000 to 14,000 tons of stone. It contains 11 chambers entered by separate passages. The mound has steep facades and a
stepped profile. Several internal walls either represent earlier facades or served the stability of the structure. The cairn consists of relatively small blocks of stone, with only the chambers being truly megalithic in character.
The monument overlooks the Bay of
Morlaix
Morlaix (; br, Montroulez) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.
Leisure and tourism
The old quarter of the town has winding streets of cobbled stones and overha ...
, probably a fertile coastal plain at the time of its erection.
Construction phases
The monument is the result of at least two phases of building.
Cairn 1, before 4500 BC
In a first phase, a slightly trapezoidal mound of 32 m by 9 to 13 m was erected. It contained 5 chambers and was surrounded by a double kerb. The first phase favoured the use of
dolerite
Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro,
is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...
.
Cairn 2, c. 4200 – c. 3900 BC
In a second phase, an extension with six further chambers was added in the west. At the same time, Cairn 1 was enveloped in a wider and taller structure; its passages had to be extended. More
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
was used in this phase.
The chambers
The 11 chambers of the Barnenez cairn are of the type known as ''
Dolmen à couloir'' in French archaeological terminology. The term translates roughly as "
passage grave
A passage grave or passage tomb consists of one or more burial chambers covered in earth or with stone, and having a narrow access passage made of large stones. These structures usually date from the Neolithic Age, and are found largely in Wester ...
". They are built of large slabs of
slate and
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
. Originally, all the chambers were entirely enclosed by the mound. The fact that several of them are partially exposed now is the result of modern quarrying.
Each of the 11 chambers is reached from the southeast via a long narrow passage (7–12 m long). They are arranged parallel to each other. Shapes and construction techniques differ slightly.
In nine cases, narrow passages lead to
corbelled chambers. Normally, the corbel vault rests on orthostats, in one chamber it actually sits on the ground, forming a true ''
tholos''. The passages have slab-built or
dry stone wall
Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...
s and are covered with slabs. One of the chambers has a dry-stone vaulted ante-chamber.
Logistics
One cubic metre of the Barnenez cairn contains 1,500 kg of stone. It is estimated that the quarrying, fashioning, transport and construction of such an amount represents about four work days for a single worker (assuming a 10-hour day). The original monument, Cairn 1, had a volume of about 2,000 cubic metres; it is built of 1,000 tons of granite and 3,000 tons of dolerite. It would thus have required 15,000 to 20,000 working days; in other words, it would have taken 200 workers three months to erect Cairn 1 alone. In its final form, the Barnenez mound is nearly three times as big as the first phase.
Engraved symbols
Engraved symbols occur in several of the chambers and passages. They depict bows, axes, wave symbols or snakes and a repeated U-shaped sign. One of the carved slabs is in secondary use; it was originally part of a different structure, an interesting parallel to the situation in several other such monuments, including
Gavrinis.
The symbols on the engraved blocks resemble those found in other megalithic monuments in Brittany; in broader terms they belong to the cultural phenomenon described as
megalithic art. One of the recurring symbols is sometimes interpreted as an
anthropomorphic depiction (the so-called "Dolmen Goddess").
Finds
Material from the original period of use
Only Cairn 2, namely chambers A, C and D, contained
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
finds at the time of excavation. They included pottery, polished stone axes (of
dolerite
Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro,
is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...
),
flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...
blades and arrowheads.
Bronze Age pottery
Pottery shards found outside the monument indicate that it was reused in the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
(3rd millennium BC). A copper dagger and a barbed arrowhead are of
Chalcolithic
The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...
date.
Comparable monuments
Similar, possibly contemporary, monuments are known at 22 other locations in France and on
Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...
. Breton examples are Larcuste-Colpo, Le Bono, Petit Mont, Ty-Floc´h,
Gavrinis, Île Carn, Ploudalmézeau and Guennoc (I´ile Gaignoc – sometimes spelt Guénioc) off the shore at
Landéda. Those located on islands are generally better preserved. Chamber 3 B at Guennoc contains a small
standing stone near the entrance.
Exhibition
An exhibition in the modern entrance building explains the results of scientific excavation and displays some objects from the site.
See also
*
Megalithic art
*
Gavrinis
*
Bougon
Bibliography
* Briard J. & Fediaevsky N.: ''Mégalithes de Bretagne'' 1987
* Charles-Tanguy Le Roux et Yannick Lecerf, ''Le grand cairn de Barnenez - Mausolée néolithique'', Monum, Ed. du Patrimoine, coll. « Itinéraires du patrimoine », 2003
Sources of translation
References
External links
*
French site with many imagesInformation on "The Megalithic Portal"
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures completed in the 5th millennium BC
1807 archaeological discoveries
Neolithic
Archaeological sites in Brittany
Megalithic monuments in Brittany
Stone Age Europe
Prehistoric art
Buildings and structures in Finistère
Tourist attractions in Finistère
Monuments historiques of Finistère
Tumuli in France
Monuments of the Centre des monuments nationaux