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14:08:03
For many years I have planned a trip out here and finally I have made it. This is one fantastic site. The carved figurine which was the Guard stone for the passage is long gone but there is a cast in the museum and its image forms the head of 'Neo' the mascot who guides children through the artifacts.
The passage here is relatively short, if all the area past the, almost 90degree, bend is counted as the chamber. This part of the passage-grave is a long passage too which widens slightly at the end and is terminated by a large slab. Burl says some of the stones are carved but the moss and weather have made these carvings invisible to my eye.
It is hard to imagine what this place would have been like when it was complete. The long stoop down the pitch-dark tunnel to the wider area must have been frightening. No natural light would have penetrated so deep and the guarding goddess must have seemed imposing.
Who knows why these were so planned but les Pierres Plats and the Tumulus at le Bono are similar in plan so they were popular in this area.
Someone seems to have built some kind of 'den' between the entrance stones, which is curious and makes me think of the village idiot at Crucuno, is it just kids or does some modern idiot retire here for his rest?
Sitting in these woods by these ancient and deserted stones has a profound resonance with me now. The years of antiquarians, archaeologists, enthusiast and tourists seem to almost haunt the trees. One can almost see them standing around in the clothes of centuries, almost imagine some weary travelers stopping here for rest, although it is not really on the way anywhere.
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The Dolmen de Kerlutu sits at the edge of a track near Belz, just to the northwest of Erdeven. The dolmen appears to have had some kind of restoration at sometime, as there is some fairly 'new' looking drystone walling inside.
There is no evidence of a passage remaining here. The chamber though is set in a low mound, which reaches the tops of the uprights but does not encroach on the outsize capstone.
And what a capstone, almost inappropriately large for the chamber it covers; it is supported by drystone walling and three of the four megalithic orthostats.
One can imagine that these five stones were at one time all that remained at Kerlutu. And a splendid denuded dolmen it would have been. The restoration, that I am guessing replaced the walls and mound, created a rather odd dolmen/tumulus hybrid, which is nonetheless still impressive.
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18:06:03
At the side of the road, in the hamlet of Kerguérhen near Belz sits the Dolmen de Er Roc'h. This is more like the Carnac dolmens I'm used too. It is a mid-period passage grave with some differentiation between the passage and the chamber. A smallish and understated dolmen it is today half covered by ivy, and even the floor inside is carpeted with the voracious climber.
These are the unpretentious, unimposing dolmens that one finds all over this area. These are not such monsters as the Grand Tumuli, which would draw pilgrims from miles around, but the small family tombs serving the outlying communities of the Carnac area. Almost like the domestic shrines found in the homes of Hindus.
But still I must visit for that is my mission, and in order to get the whole picture one must see all the pixels…
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18/06/03ce
These two dolmens at the summit of a natural hill over looking some of the islands that lie in the Riviere d'Etel, the Ile de Niheu, Ile de Reic'h, Ile des Moines and the Ile du Petit Niheu.
Of the two the northern most is more complete, having, it seems, all it's uprights and two capstones, including a rippling weetabix that covers the chamber. The second as faired less well and only the low stones of the chamber and a few uprights of the passage remain. It seems unlikely that this second dolmen ever had capstones, it being more likely to have had a corbelled chamber instead, the uprights are two low, I feel, to directly support a capstone. This dolmen is also surrounded by the remains of a low mound.
From this evidence and also from looking at the way the chambers are differentiated from the passages I would guess that the hatless dolmen is the earlier of the two as it's chamber is somewhat more clearly defined as being separate from the passage.
The location of two dolmens from different time periods atop this same hill does then point to its importance as a sacred area. The river valley would not have been so flooded as it is now so maybe those islands were similar hills which were addressed by the dolmens here.
I'm now going to try and find a dolmen which my guidebook describes as being 'completely invaded by vegetation', I have not high hopes for finding it.
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18:06:03
I have managed to find the Dolmen de Sept Saints. Almost as hard to find as Kerluir, this again involved some bramble trampling, gorse avoiding action.
The book I'm using now says this is in a sad state, and since the photo therein was taken it's got worse. The dolmen is completely overgrown, one can just see the stones of the passage and the capstone peering through the vegetation but the situation will only get worse here.
A fairly long passage, that is now uncovered, leads to a very low chamber covered by a capstone. It could be that the chamber was originally deep but has been filled in through time.
I'm going to go now because something large and alive is in these woods and scaring me!
Later:
As I fought my way out of the woods I was walking along what I believed to be an overgrown path, however it seems that it may well have been the capstones of the chambers of a second dolmen, totally overwhelmed by the foliage.
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If you stand on the remains of the mound and face toward the ruined chamber there's a tiny sleeping goddess hill away away on the far horizon. We almost missed this but it went on to inspire the spaceship choir-a-thon 'Distant Ma She Dig Maen Pebyll'.
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Woah... she does smack you in the head. Possibly the only road protesting hill in Britain. This momma has had a massive landslide creeping slowly down its side for centuries if not millenia, giving it the nickname the shivering mountain. The result of this is the road they tried to build accross it contantly kept collapsing for about 70 years until they eventually gave up a few years back.. Right On.
Anyway, capped by the remains of an Iron Age fort this natural proto temple struck me the first moment I saw it, knowing nothing about its ancient associations, I knew something was going on.
Check it out, especially in the driving wind and rain.
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Previous 20 | Showing 21-27 of 27 fieldnotes. Most recent first |
http://www.myspace.com/spaceshipmark
Name: Spaceship Mark Williamson
Born: 1976CE
Lives: Europe
Specialist Subject: Carnac and its environs
Favorite UK site: Castlerigg
Favourite European site: Tumulus de Kercado, Carnac
I've been visiting megalithic sites since about 1990 when I went to Castlerigg and inbetwen getting mashed and falling over I realised what a fantastic place it was. I've spent four summers working in Carnac and hope to return there in the summer of 2004 to finish the fieldwork for the epic 'Fields of Stone: an Exploration of Megalithic Carnac'.
Looking forward to The Megalithic European so this site can be expanded into Europe and I can climb the contributor post chart.
"Knowledge is an inexpensive commodity but its possession is priceless"
Dennis Thompson, the MC5
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