Counting Stones

The enigmatic stone rows of Carnac, on the shores of Brittany, have defied a comprehensive explanation. What could possibly be the purpose of thousands of stones, aligned in rows?

Philip Coppens

Carnac and its neighbouring villages still hold in the region of 4000 megalithic stones. Archaeologists believe that the original amount was probably close to 10,000 stones. Though the stone rows of Carnac are not unique – they are found elsewhere in France and abroad – Carnac does have the most impressive and most gigantic stone alignments in the world.
Archaeologists date the stone rows as being 5000 to 6000 years old, making them approximately 1000 years older than the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, in Egypt. It should therefore come as no surprise that locally, the stone rows are compared with a “Neolithic cathedral”.

The region of Carnac is notorious for its granite surface. The greatest miracle of the stone rows is therefore not that they exist. It is known that the largest stones weigh more than twenty tons. Modern reconstructions, using tools and techniques that were known to our Neolithic ancestors, have shown that a group of approximately twenty people were able to create a stone of such size. But, as mentioned, this is not the enigma. The enigma is that the stones are still standing. The surface of the Neolithic Age is barely twenty centimetres below the present level. The granite layer sits at forty centimetres below the present level. This meant that the stones were placed at a maximum depth of 20 centimetres. In this tiny hole, they had to create all the required and available balance to keep the stone upright. Despite the odds, they managed to succeed in this, as is evidenced by thousands of stones. And what is even more remarkable is that they still stand…

Whereas many megalithic remains have been seriously damaged and been the subject of wilful vandalism (such as in the English Avebury, where its stone row was once much longer and more majestic), the key to the survival of the Carnac megaliths might be that they were largely invisible until the 17th century. Documents do not refer to them and most likely they were hidden by intense series of shrubs and other foliage that masked them from passers-by.
In the 17th century, the call for new grounds meant a search for new fields – and the discovery of the megaliths. Because of the need for new territory, the discovery did result in the demolition of certain stone rows. For more than 200 years, they remained the centre of an enigma or a problem, for it was clear that the long and wide stone rows formed a major obstacle for anyone who was not solely interested in their historic significance. As in Avebury and elsewhere, many were moved or removed for farming purposes.

Major archaeological interest in the stone rows only happened in the latter half of the 20th century. These archaeologists originally believed that rather than a series of stone rows, there was in origin just one major stone row, covering a distance of more than eight kilometres. Soon, research revealed that this “single stone row” theory did not float; it seemed that there were five stone rows, four of which containing approximately 1000 stones.
One such concentration of stones can be found near Erdeven; the other concentration of stones stands back to back to the north of Carnac. The most western is that of Menec, where there are 1099 standing stones in 12 rows. One stone towers above all others, and is thus labelled “the giant”, measuring 3.70 metres. Most of the stones are, however, relatively small, definitely in comparison to the stone row of Kermario, to the east of the row of Menec.
Kermario counts 1029 stones, distributed in ten rows. The field measures 1120 metres, showing that the stones are roughly one metre apart. This field has the most gigantic stones, and is continued in the field of Kerlescan, where there are 594 stones, in 13 rows and over 880 metres.
All three fields are constructed on the same principle: the tallest stones are located on the western side; the western side is also situated on higher ground than its eastern counterpart. The smaller stones on the eastern side are also at smaller intervals from each other. The rows also slightly spread out.

The stone row of Menec is the end of the series of stone rows. For a distance of approximately two kilometres, no stones rise, except a few scattered dolmen. Though less impressive than the stone rows, as a technological accomplishment, they are on equal par. The dolmen at Crucuno lines against a wall of a farm; its covering stone weighs an impressive forty ton. Archaeologists have dated it as contemporary with the stone rows, i.e. 4000 BC.
Two dolmen show the direction of the stone row of Saint Barbe. It was a stone row of fifty stones, in four rows, orientated south to north. Only the tallest stones, in the north, are left standing. Once again, we find that the tallest stand are standing on the highest ground. Fourteen stones are still located underneath the sand, but the rest of the stones have succumbed to the agricultural demands.
Three kilometres north of Saint Barbe is the most northern stone row: Kerzerho. It counts 1130 stones in ten rows, measuring an impressive 2150 metres in length. Near the camping of Kerzerho, some of these stones measure no less than six metres in height. They are the highest standing stones in the entire region. The row is aligned from southeast to northwest. Once again, the tallest stones stand on the highest ground. Though Saint Barbe and Kerzerho are not linked together, as are the lines of Menec, Kermario and Kerlescan, they do appear to form one whole.
Starting from the stone row of Petit Menec, you walk through Kerlescan, Kermario and Menec. Then, no stone rows for 2 kilometres, followed by two dolmen. Then, the stone rows of Saint Barbe, then, further to the northeast, the dolmen and stone circles of Crucuno, the dolmen of Mane-Croh, and to the north a small stone row, with to one side the dolmen of Mane-Braz. To its west, is the stone row of Kerzerho. Though the lines do indeed not align, a certain “progression” can be discovered throughout the various sites.

Archaeologists have excluded the possibility that these are graves. Neither did they serve a military purpose, though the American soldiers, during the Second World War, did mistake the stone rows for a German defence line. According to the legend, a French soldier who was aware of the situation had to intervene, as otherwise the stone rows would have become the target of intensive bombing raids.
Excluding funerary and military purposes, archaeologists conclude that the only purpose could have been religious. Modern archaeologist think it is likely that the stones were used as the framework for a procession. This would specifically apply to the individual stone rows, but it seems not unlikely that the entire series of stone rows itself formed part of a larger whole.
Ritual walking was part of the Neolithic civilisation. It is comparable to the Australian Aboriginals, who walked their “song lines”, singing the sacred songs of their tribes. It is furthermore the case that the best exploration of the sites are done on foot – walking. It takes approximately three to four hours to cover the distance from the stone rows of Petit Menec to those of Kerzerho.

Many researchers agree that the megalithic civilisation worshipped nature, and possibly the sun in particular. Some argue that megalithic complexes are astronomical observatories. But whereas impressive research has been done on this aspect, the most basic aspect of this research time and again reveals a particular focus towards the sun.
Carnac is an ideal location for any solar worshipper. The sun makes an appearance almost every day, as the area is blessed with a micro-climate. Situated at the coast of Brittany, it is located at the site where the Gulf Stream hits the European continent. Carnac is furthermore shielded by a peninsula, known as the Presqu’ile de Quiberon. Carnac is therefore proud of its 2053 hours of sun per year, which from April results in 7 hours of daily sunshine. That we found a series of impressive stone rows in exactly this location, could therefore suddenly be easily explained. Further “evidence” for such a theory can be found in the fact that the micro-climate of the Bay of Quiberon ends to the north of Erdeven – which is where the stone row of Kerzerho is situated. There are no stone rows to the north of this.

Carnac formed a last outpost of megalithic building on mainland Europe – to go further west, you needed to cross the sea, to Ireland and Great Britain. Though this in itself did not form any problems for the megalithic people, it is clear that Carnac did become something of a “travellers’ trap”, if only because those willing to make sea travel would often have had to wait for the correct weather conditions – which is much more complex than the hours of sunshine per day.
Apart from massive stone rows, other impressive stone monuments can be found in the area. This includes one standing stone, which was twenty metres high, weighed in at 340 ton and was moved over a distance of six kilometres. It should come as no surprise that this stone is no longer standing. But this stone does underline the knowledge and technology of a culture that was able to perform such feats – feats that are much more impressive than Stonehenge and Avebury put together – which can hardly stand the comparison with the building intensity that was witnessed in Carnac – much of this actually much earlier than the construction of Stonehenge.
It also underlines that moving and building with large stones was a well-versed knowledge in Western Europe, a thousand years before the ancient Egyptians began to construct their stone monuments along the river Nile.
It should therefore perhaps not come as a surprise that in 1997, a stone circle was found in Egypt, in Nabta, which was dated to roughly the same period as the stones at Carnac. It introduced a megalithic dimension in Egypt. At the same time, the Nabta circle had clear astronomical components. Archaeologists working on the site felt that it was quite likely that these people contributed to the Egyptian culture, which would flourish a millennium later. The open question is whether or not the builders in Carnac ever knew about what happened in Nabta – or in that situation that would soon begin to build the largest complex of Egypt’s religious history: Karnak.

This article originally appeared in Frontier Magazine 4.6 (November-December 1998) and Les Carnets Secrets 5 (2006).