Locmariaquer

Locmariaquer is the next peninsula around, 10-15 miles by
road from Carnac; it has its own cluster of major, incredible
sites; above, a hundred meters or so away, is the Grand
Menhir of Brise, some twenty meters in length; it is not
known whether it ever stood, although both medieval and
18th century sources indicate it did; it is surely the largest
of menhirs, whether standing or not, and was moved to
Locmariquer from a quarry 3 miles or so distant...imagine
the size of the trees/rollers it would have taken (and felling
such trees with stone tools) to move this puppy...calculated
to be about 280 tons

The Grand Menhir from the entrance to the Table of Merchants;
the Table of Merchants is of great interest by itself; it is now
known that the "table" itself was part of a smilarly large menhir
that was taken down and broken up...one piece went to the
Merchants Table, one to the Er Grah tumulus (see below),
another to be the roof of Gavrinis (greatest of all these places),
3 miles away in the (now) Gulf of Morbihan; and a fourth piece
is missing

Inside the Table of Merchants

One of the side pillars in the Table of Merchants

The head piece in the Table, about 8 feet tall, carved
beautifully in shepherds' crooks (animal husbandry
being one of the hallmarks of the neolithic)

Same shot, different lighting

The ceiling of the Table of Merchants, that is, the table itself,

with its exquisitely carved 4 foot hafted axe; this is a piece

of the aforementioned chopped-up menhir

Hardly a stone's throw away from all this is

the now-uncovered tumulus of Er Grah,

unkown until quite recently; it is a 130 foot

long tumulus, with a single grave...

somebody important; and another piece of

the chopped-up menhir

Me, by pieces #2 and #3 of the Grand Menhir; it is fascinating

to imagine that the menhir culture actually predated the

tumulus and passage grave culture, that the latter had no use

for the former, all this five, six, seven thousand years ago