Around 40 standing stones thought to have been erected by prehistoric humans 7,000 years ago have been destroyed near a famed archaeological site in northwest France to make way for a DIY store, an angry local historian has revealed.
But local archaeologist Obeltz believes local authorities failed to properly investigate.
“There weren’t archaeological excavations in order to know if the stones were menhirs or not,” he said.
“We’re witnessing a series of failings. The state no longer protects our fellow citizens or our heritage. Appalling,” far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Twitter.
When contacted, the Mr. Bricolage group said it “sincerely regretted the situation” but pointed to authorisations for its store granted last year.
france24.com/en/live-news/20230608-anger-as-pre-historic-stones-destroyed-for-french-diy-store
I read that as well, it is unbelievable, a series of failings must be the under statement of the year. ffs!
It's astonishingly poor in such an important area for prehistory.
To be fair, we get this with so many upland cairns that no one (that anybody listens to, anyway) ever bothers to report.... whereas a new badger's set near Stonehenge sets armies of myopic protesters on the march. I was reading - with incredulity - a well-meaning blog upon Beinn na Caillach which, in essence, was saying/implying that since there is (apparently) a tradition in Scotland that one takes a bit of rock with you to deposit at the top.... ergo... cairns are formed. Even those such as Tinto... or Beinn na Caillach, which only a fool would believe. Can only assume the overwhelming majority of folk reckon this is actually what causes them, so who cares if they are vandalised, right?
Gross ignorance is no defence. However in this case.... 40 standing stones? - probably scratching stones, right. Wink, wink, briefcase of euros? So, so sad it takes a nutter like Le Pen to show outrage, which obviously doesn't help.
That tradition still exists, nothing to do with prehistory tho. As for France, yup, the lure of the very filled brown envelope. However, if you remove a stone from a prehistoric cairn it is supposed to bring bad luck. Clava Cairns has this example : Seventeen years ago, a Belgian tourist took a stone from one of the cairns as a souvenir before returning it after complaining it had cursed his family.
Surprised staff at Inverness Tourist Centre received a parcel containing the stone and a letter which urged them to return it to its rightful place at Clava Cairns.
The man said that since taking the stone his daughter had broken her leg, his wife had become very ill, and he had lost his job and broken his arm.
A tourist official returned the "cursed stone" to Clava Cairns.
Curious, innit? Surely those traditions must be some 'echo' of community pilgrimages to ceremonies at summit cairns? Or else why do people do it?
My point though is, given the usual size of rocks incorporated within prehistoric cairns, it's easy enough to see which are walkers and which are the real deal.
Totally agree, I think the starting of cairns theme came from various Clans, when men would each take a stone from their home, place it at their meeting place, then go fight against other clans, Vikings or visiting teams mainly from down south, if they survived they'd come back and take their stone home. I think a lot of destruction of stones / cairns or plonking things on top started during Edwardian / Victorian times.
I am devastated by this, I love my trips to Carnac, I read about it a few days ago and assumed, at first, it was a joke, they are not even going to put them back