I've been reading Julius Caesar's "The Gallic Wars" where he talks about the Gallic Druids. Usual stuff about human sacrifices and "Wicker Man " practices etc. but this sentence caught my eye......
"On a fixed date in each year they hold a session in a consecrated spot in the country of the Carnutes, which is supposed to be the centre of Gaul".
.....this seemed to be a place for judgements and awards and people came from far and wide to attend.
[The Carnutes occupied an area SW of Paris around present day Chartres and Orleans]
As any fule kno, the Druids didn't worship in stone temples but one would love to find out where this place was, what date in the year they celebrated and if, and it's a very big if, the place was, as it were, pre-consecrated by a previous Neolithic structure.
Do any of our continental contributers have any knowledge of the sites/folklore of this place?
Jim.
you have to be careful with Caesar. History is written by the victors and all that. Piggot seemed to think that Carnutes was possibly Caesar giving the impression that the Gauls were a lot more organised than they actually were, thus making his conquest seem all the mightier.
Piggot quotes Thucydides on Caesar, "a master of rearrangement, emphasis, omission, skilfully directed to his own political aim".
As for the druids not worshipping in stone temples, there were definitely French Celtic 'cult' centres that had stone elements e.g. Roquepertuse and Entremont although I'm not sure whether these were temples of an earlier period that had been re-used.
cheers
fitz