The megalithic monuments at Carnac in Google Street View, consisting of thousands of stones hewn from local rock beds. The monuments date to the early neolithic, but it is unclear whether the people themselves were neolithic or mesolithic: in other words, were they hunters or farmers? If they were farmers, well we know that farmers had a fairly sensible reason for building stone monuments. Farmers need calendars, which means they have to practice some degree of astronomy. They need to know the dates of the solstices and equinoxes so they know exactly when to plant what. Particularly they need to know when Midwinters Day is, so they can start counting from that date to when they need to plant their earliest seeds. Although people now celebrate midsummers day at Stonehenge, it was originally intended to mark midwinters day instead, a much more important date for neolithic people. However, having 3000+ stones spread over large areas is kind of overkill for a simple astronomical observatory. If the people who made Carnac were hunters, it makes things a lot more mysterious. This was during the period in which the neolithic farming revolution was sweeping Europe, undoubtedly bringing social disruption in its wake. It may have been that Carnac was a sort of one-upmanship by the hunters, having seen standing stones made by agriculturalists. It is also possible that Carnac was a sort of symbolic cemetery for important local leaders. We may never know. https://google/maps/preview/@47.595829,-3.066302,3a,75y,319.22h,79.71t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sodK8c7yL91MR5tP57_yNBw!2e0?hl=en
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 13:43:57 +0000
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