{"it":{"id":"EUR-003","kind":"site","sub":"Europe and the Mediterranean","name":"Locmariaquer megaliths","place":"France","lat":47.572,"lon":-2.95,"date":"The Broken Menhir of Er Grah  The broken menhir, erected around 4700 BC at the same…","nfacts":27,"tags":["Europe","Megaliths"],"sum":"The Broken Menhir of Er Grah was about 20.6 m long when whole (verified). It was raised around 4700 BCE at Locmariaquer in Brittany, and its mass is estimated at 280 to 330 tonnes. It is the largest single stone known to have been moved and set by Neolithic people.","why":"A Neolithic standing stone in Brittany, now broken, the largest block known to have been raised in its era.","src":[288],"nsrc":17,"yt":"Did it ever stand for long?","rel":["CAR-CAR","AFR-002"],"hook":"The Broken Menhir of Er Grah lies in four pieces at Locmariaquer. Whole, it stood 20.6 m and weighed 280 t."},"S":{"288":["Wikipedia: Locmariaquer megaliths","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locmariaquer_megaliths"]},"rec":{"id":"EUR-003","alias":[],"ms":[{"f":"Grand Menhir Brisé (Er Grah)","a":"length (when whole)","v":"20.6","u":"m","o":"REF20 REF21 REF22 The large-scale effort and organisation involved in the construction of megalithic monuments, such as the 20.6 m Grand Menhir of Er Grah, further suggests the existence of rulers or kings in the Carnac and Morbihan region.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carnac_stones&oldid=1380683240","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1380683240 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"W8 review: belongs to EUR-003; duplicate of M1373","id":"M1076"},{"f":"Grand Menhir Brisé","a":"length (when whole)","v":"20.6","u":"m","o":"Measuring 20.6 m and with a weight of 330 tons, REF1 the stone is from a rocky outcrop located several kilometres away from Locmariaquer.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Locmariaquer_megaliths&oldid=1361691089","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1361691089 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"W8 review: 330 t in same sentence","id":"M1373"},{"f":"20 6 m and with a weight of","a":"mass","v":"330","u":"tons","o":"Measuring 20.6 m and with a weight of 330 tons, REF1 the stone is from a rocky outcrop located several kilometres away from Locmariaquer.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: 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Grah: foyer c1 sous le cairn en J52","link":"under cairn: terminus post quem for cairn","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"A-8915","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5495 ± 60 BP","cal":"4459-4233 cal BC","ctx":"Er Grah: fosse e13 sous le cairn en I52","link":"under cairn: terminus post quem","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"Gif-7693","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5370 ± 70 BP","cal":"4360-4040 cal BC","ctx":"Er Grah: charbon du noyau limoneux en H53","link":"core of tumulus","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"Gif-7692","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5260 ± 70 BP","cal":"4350-3870 cal BC","ctx":"Er Grah: foyer c5 sous l'extension sud en G52","link":"under southern extension: TPQ for extension","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"Gif-7691","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5250 ± 70 BP","cal":"4340-3860 cal BC","ctx":"Er Grah: fosse e1 sous le parement en K51","link":"under facing: TPQ for facing","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"Gif-7428","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5230 ± 70 BP","cal":"4320-3850 cal BC","ctx":"Nouveau Cimetière: sole rubéfiée cg en F30","link":"nearby","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"Gif-7429","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"4770 ± 60 BP","cal":"3780-3360 cal BC","ctx":"Nouveau Cimetière: sole empierrée c1 en M38","link":"nearby","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"AA-20403","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5835 ± 65 BP","cal":"4894-4531 cal BC","ctx":"Table des Marchands/Grand Menhir: semence, paléosol VI 37 (after L'Helgouac'h comm. pers.)","link":"palaeosol","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"AA-20404","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5590 ± 65 BP","cal":"4542-4333 cal BC","ctx":"Table des Marchands/Grand Menhir: semence, paléosol VI 18","link":"palaeosol","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"A-8857","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5440 ± 60 BP","cal":"4436-4102 cal BC","ctx":"Table des Marchands/Grand Menhir: foyer F5","link":"hearth","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"A-8855","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5395 ± 75 BP","cal":"4359-4003 cal 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from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"A-8854","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5175 ± 100 BP","cal":"4235-3768 cal BC","ctx":"Table des Marchands/Grand Menhir: carrière TU/SE 15","link":"\"carrière\" context","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"Gif-7554","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5170 ± 70 BP","cal":"4135-3785 cal BC","ctx":"Table des Marchands/Grand Menhir: paléosol, poteau P4","link":"post-hole","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"Gif-7555","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5040 ± 70 BP","cal":"3950-3660 cal BC","ctx":"Table des Marchands/Grand Menhir: paléosol, foyer F3","link":"hearth","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"LGQ-555","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"4990 ± 70 BP","cal":"4230-3400 cal BC","ctx":"Table des Marchands/Grand Menhir: carrière ZU 19","link":"\"carrière\" context","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"LGQ-554","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"4910 ± 150 BP","cal":"4010-3390 cal BC","ctx":"Table des Marchands/Grand Menhir: carrière ZE 14","link":"\"carrière\" context","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"LGQ-556","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"4580 ± 140 BP","cal":"3670-2910 cal BC","ctx":"Table des Marchands/Grand Menhir: carrière ZU 18","link":"\"carrière\" context","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Lab date","lab":"Gif-8702","m":"14C","mat":"not stated per row (charcoal/organic)","v":"5300 ± 60 BP","cal":"4320-3980 cal BC","ctx":"Locmariaquer foyer du Rouick, structure isolée près du Mane er Hroeg","link":"isolated hearth near Mane er Hroeg","weak":"charcoal/organic context not tied to stone setting; dates hearths, pits or palaeosols near the monument","b":"S","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","n":"Le Roux 2006 Gallia Préhistoire suppl. 38, Annexe III (Persée p.266); read by eye from table image; A = Arizona, AA = Arizona AMS, Gif = Gif-sur-Yvette, LGQ = Marseille"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"Grand Menhir and giant Locmariaquer blocks","m":"geological identification (documentary)","v":"orthogneiss; nearest orthogneiss outcrops (Auray, le Bono, Arradon, Sarzeau) >=10 km away -> transported >=10 km; surface hammer-dressed","by":"French Ministry of Culture (Mégalithes)","b":"S","url":"https://archeologie.culture.gouv.fr/megalithes/en/grand-menhir-and-others"}],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[],"dat":[{"v":"Grand Menhir raised c. 4500 BC","lab":"radiocarbon of associated socket/alignment contexts (not retrieved)","chain":"context with 18 other blocks and Er Grah tumulus","weak":"association of dated context with erection","alt":"local alternatives: date of fall/breaking debated (earthquake vs deliberate)","b":"S","url":"https://www.locmariaquer.bzh/decouvrir-la-ville/presentation/patrimoine-historique/patrimoine-megalithique/"}],"aa":[{"id":"AA017","a":"280 t moved and raised","who":"see anomaly_claims","main":"Neolithic erection; 280 t is one estimate (Bougis 1994)","ms":"","st":"unresolved","n":"mass is an estimate, not measured","nl":33}],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"sub":[],"site":{"age":"The Broken Menhir of Er Grah  The broken menhir, erected around 4700 BC at the same time as another 18 blocks nearby, is thought to have been broken around 4000 BC.","dm":"[see dating_excerpt; method not extracted]","lab":"YES: 21 lab_results rows (organic samples; none date stone working directly)","weak":"no direct lab result on the structure in our records; date from stylistic, contextual or textual inference","unesco":"","dens":"CENSUS"},"co":{"lat":"47.57194444","lon":"-2.95","src":"Wikidata P625 only + curated wave0 value agrees","agree":"agree (wave7 hand-review: OSM feature 'Grand Menhir Brisé')","b":"V","note":"hand-reviewed: Wikidata vs OSM natural/stone delta 0.0006 deg (~0.07 km)","osm":"https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/19515438"},"src":[{"id":"S0277","t":"no inline ref in article","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carnac_stones&oldid=1380683240"},{"id":"S0327","t":"no inline ref in article","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Locmariaquer_megaliths&oldid=1361691089"},{"id":null,"t":"Locmariaquer commune heritage page (20.60 m); Ministère de la Culture 'Mégalithes' (20 m)","u":"https://www.locmariaquer.bzh/decouvrir-la-ville/presentation/patrimoine-historique/patrimoine-megalithique/ ; https://archeologie.culture.gouv.fr/megalithes/en/grand-menhir-and-others"},{"id":"S0017","t":"Ministry Materials page","u":"https://archeologie.culture.gouv.fr/megalithes/en/materials-0"},{"id":"S0662","t":"Musée du Patrimoine","u":"https://museedupatrimoine.fr/big-broken-menhir-from-er-grah-to-locmariaquer-morbihan/1459.html"},{"id":"S0933","t":"site-megalithique-locmariaquer.fr (CMN)","u":"https://www.site-megalithique-locmariaquer.fr/en/discover/history-of-the-megaliths-site"},{"id":"S0767","t":"commune page","u":"https://www.locmariaquer.bzh/decouvrir-la-ville/presentation/patrimoine-historique/patrimoine-megalithique/"},{"id":null,"t":"commune page; CMN site page","u":"https://www.locmariaquer.bzh/decouvrir-la-ville/presentation/patrimoine-historique/patrimoine-megalithique/ ; https://www.site-megalithique-locmariaquer.fr/en/discover/history-of-the-megaliths-site"},{"id":null,"t":"commune page; Musée du Patrimoine","u":"https://www.locmariaquer.bzh/decouvrir-la-ville/presentation/patrimoine-historique/patrimoine-megalithique/ ; https://museedupatrimoine.fr/big-broken-menhir-from-er-grah-to-locmariaquer-morbihan/1459.html"},{"id":null,"t":"French Ministry of Culture (Mégalithes)","u":"https://archeologie.culture.gouv.fr/megalithes/en/megalithic-recycling"},{"id":null,"t":"lieux-insolites.fr","u":"https://www.lieux-insolites.fr/morbihan/table%20des%20marchands/table.htm"},{"id":null,"t":"derived (this database)","u":"density: typical orthogneiss 2.6-2.7 (assumed)"},{"id":null,"t":"Le Roux","u":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2693"},{"id":null,"t":"Commune ; Le Roux 2006","u":"https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-10432005000200002 ; https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2693"},{"id":null,"t":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266","u":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/galip_0072-0100_2006_sup_38_1_2717?pageId=T1_266"},{"id":"S0014","t":"French Ministry of Culture (Mégalithes)","u":"https://archeologie.culture.gouv.fr/megalithes/en/grand-menhir-and-others"},{"id":"S0522","t":"Wikipedia: Locmariaquer megaliths","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locmariaquer_megaliths"},{"id":null,"t":"French Ministry of Culture, Mégalithes du Morbihan, “The large stele at the Table-des-Marchands and at Gavrinis”","u":"https://archeologie.culture.gouv.fr/megalithes/en/large-stele-table-des-marchands-and-gavrinis"},{"id":null,"t":"A. Thom and A. S. Thom, “The Astronomical Significance of the Large Carnac Menhirs”, Journal for the History of Astronomy 2 (1971), 147-160, scan via NASA ADS (pages 147-148 read)","u":"https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/link_gateway/1971JHA.....2..147T/ADS_PDF"},{"id":null,"t":"French Ministry of Culture, Mégalithes du Morbihan, “Er-Grah tumulus”","u":"https://archeologie.culture.gouv.fr/megalithes/en/er-grah-tumulus"}],"sum":"The burial chamber of Gavrinis, in the Gulf of Morbihan, is roofed with a carved slab of stone. Five kilometres away across the Auray river, at the village of Locmariaquer, another tomb called the Table-des-Marchands is roofed with a carved slab of its own. Put the two side by side and they fit, break against break, and the carved lines run straight across the join. They were once one stone. A third piece may roof the Er-Grah tomb next door. Reassembled, the fragments make a decorated standing stone about 14 metres long and weighing roughly 65 tonnes, which French researchers have called a possible \"second grand menhir.\" Someone pulled it down, cut it into pieces and shared it out among different tombs. Why anyone would do that is the first question Locmariaquer asks, and not the last.\n\nLocmariaquer sits on a peninsula at the mouth of the Gulf of Morbihan in southern Brittany, close to the famous stone rows of Carnac. Its centrepiece lies on the ground in four great pieces: the Grand Menhir Brisé, the \"great broken menhir,\" also known as Er Grah. A menhir is simply a standing stone. When whole, this one measured 20.6 metres by the commune's count, about the height of a six-storey building, and the Ministry of Culture's guide rounds it to 20. Its weight is an estimate rather than a measurement, because no one can put a broken giant on a scale. The usual figure is 280 tonnes; another page of the same guide says about 270, and other estimates run from 300 to 330. The commune calls it the largest block ever moved and raised by Neolithic people, a farming people who worked without metal tools. The guide calls it possibly \"one of Mankind's greatest technical feats.\"\n\nThe care that went into it shows on the stone. Almost the whole surface was smoothed by pecking, probably with heavy stone hammers. Halfway up, someone carved a figure read as an \"axe-plough,\" now badly worn. Only the bottom 2.5 metres or so was left rough, which is about the depth of the pit that held it. The builders knew before they raised it exactly how deep it would sit. A small pecked notch at the base, a kind of hinge, was probably used to balance the stone as it swung upright. The commune dates the raising to around 4500 BC, within a range of about 4600 to 4300 BC; other accounts place it near 4700 BC.\n\nThe rock is orthogneiss, a hard metamorphic stone. As early as 1778 the geographer Ogée asked where it had come from, and the question still has teeth. The nearest orthogneiss outcrops, near Auray, Le Bono, Arradon or Sarzeau, are at least 10 kilometres from Locmariaquer, and about a dozen other orthogneiss blocks on the peninsula made the same kind of journey. Two methods are on the table. Overland, the block could have been dragged on a wooden cradle over log rollers on tracks, or pivoted sideways around its centre of gravity. Drawing on haulage trials at Bougon, the guide estimates the job needed \"more than 4000 people\" using the simplest techniques, or about a hundred with better ones, over more than two weeks. By water, the archaeologist C.-T. Le Roux suggested slinging the stone beneath a great raft borne by dugout canoes and riding the tides, a trip that might take only a few hours, \"if the crew was able to control such a huge raft!\"\n\nFour thousand people is an enormous workforce for a Neolithic community, to be fed, organised and persuaded to pull in one direction. A hundred people with better methods means a body of engineering knowledge, held by someone, taught to someone. Whoever commanded that effort was making a statement about who could summon whom, and the statement was meant to last. The stone was not alone. Excavation found 18 stone-filled pits running more than 55 metres north from its base, the packings of a vanished row of menhirs that shrank in size away from the giant. The Grand Menhir was the head of a procession in stone, nineteen blocks in all.\n\nFor a long time some believed the menhir had never stood at all, and had snapped while it was being raised. Archaeology has since shown that it did stand. The Er-Grah tumulus beside it, a trapezoidal mound about 140 metres long built in stages in the last centuries of the fifth millennium BC, is \"strictly symmetrical\" about an axis running from the menhir to its burial chamber. The early archaeologist Z. Le Rouzic thought the menhir had been placed at the mound's end as a marker, and excavation proved him wrong, because the menhir's base is older. But the mound's builders laid out their monument on the stone, which the guide reads as a sign that it \"was still highly significant and probably still standing\" when they did.\n\nThen it came down. The layers date the break-up of the row to \"towards the end of the 5th millennium BC,\" within a few centuries of the raising. The fragments lie as if the stone had been upright and toppled. The main break is \"a perfectly clean fracture,\" while the others show large splinters. Lightning is thought unlikely. An earthquake is plausible, and in recent years some archaeologists have favoured it. People are possible, and the most popular view holds that they pulled it down on purpose. The archaeologist J. L'Helgouac'h suggested that Neolithic people broke it themselves, only a few centuries after raising it. The other menhirs of the row were certainly taken away and reused in nearby tombs, and the carved stele now split between Gavrinis and the Table-des-Marchands, with its huge horned animal and its axe-plough, signs almost 2 metres long, \"may originally have been part of the alignment,\" in the guide's words. If so, the whole row was dismantled and its stones distributed, and the Ministry's guide offers two readings: simple reuse, or \"a deliberate attempt to incorporate into all monuments involved some of the significance of this extraordinary stone.\"\n\nThat second reading is a reading about power, and it is hard to shake. Power that has been built into stone does not vanish when the stone falls. It can be broken up and divided, each piece carrying a share of the old authority into a new tomb for a new family. Earthquake or deliberate act, the outcome was the same. The giant was turned into relics.\n\nThere is one more idea that refuses to leave the site quietly. In 1971 the surveyors Alexander and Archibald Thom wrote of \"the huge lunar observatory centred on the greatest menhir in Europe, Er Grah or Le Grand Menhir Brisé.\" They proposed that the menhir served as a distant foresight. Observers stationed at marked stones miles away would watch the Moon rise or set beside it and so track the small wobbles in the lunar orbit that matter for predicting eclipses. Thom believed megalith builders could measure angles to \"a minute of arc or less,\" about the width of a coin seen from 80 metres. Excavation weakened the idea. The menhir headed a row rather than standing alone, and it was down before the fifth millennium ended; the guide says this \"questions the old theory.\" A fifteenth-century navigation manual for the entrance to the Gulf does not mention it standing, though it would have been an unmissable landmark.\n\nYet the Thoms were careful men, and the question they raised has not been fully closed. Around Carnac, they noted, among \"the thousands of menhirs left it is difficult to find a single stone\" known to stand where it was first set. Locmariaquer shows how much a monument could change within its own lifetime. A people who could place a 280-tonne stone so precisely that its rough base matched the depth of its pit were not short of precision. What did they know about the sky, the tides and the weight of stone that they never wrote down, and what made them decide, within a few centuries, to bring down the greatest thing they had ever raised?","qs":["It took enormous effort to raise the stone. Who would undo that work, and why?","How do you move 280 tonnes several kilometres without metal tools?","Earthquake or deliberate felling: what evidence would decide it?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Broken_menhir_edit.jpg/1280px-Broken_menhir_edit.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Broken_menhir_edit.jpg","title":"Broken menhir edit.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Broken_menhir.jpg: Bjørn som tegner derivative work: Myrabella (talk)","cap":"The Broken Menhir of Er Grah in Locmariaquer, Brittany"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/033_L%27extension_sud%2C_tr%C3%A8s_aras%C3%A9e%2C_du_cairn_d%27Er-Grah_%C3%A0_Locmariaquer.jpg/1280px-033_L%27extension_sud%2C_tr%C3%A8s_aras%C3%A9e%2C_du_cairn_d%27Er-Grah_%C3%A0_Locmariaquer.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:033_L%27extension_sud,_tr%C3%A8s_aras%C3%A9e,_du_cairn_d%27Er-Grah_%C3%A0_Locmariaquer.jpg","title":"033 L'extension sud, très arasée, du cairn d'Er-Grah à Locmariaquer.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Moreau.henri","cap":"The southern extension, very level, from the cairn of Er-Grah to Locmariaquer"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/034_Trois_des_morceaux_du_Grand_Menhir_bris%C3%A9.jpg/1280px-034_Trois_des_morceaux_du_Grand_Menhir_bris%C3%A9.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:034_Trois_des_morceaux_du_Grand_Menhir_bris%C3%A9.jpg","title":"034 Trois des morceaux du Grand Menhir brisé.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"Moreau.henri","cap":"Locmariaquer : trois des morceaux du Grand menhir brisé et, à l'arrière-plan, le cairn d'Er Grah."},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/Bretagne_Morbihan_Locmariaquer_14011.jpg/1280px-Bretagne_Morbihan_Locmariaquer_14011.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bretagne_Morbihan_Locmariaquer_14011.jpg","title":"Bretagne Morbihan Locmariaquer 14011.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"S.Möller","cap":"Locmariaquer - Table des Marchand"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Bretagne_Morbihan_Locmariaquer_14015.jpg/1280px-Bretagne_Morbihan_Locmariaquer_14015.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bretagne_Morbihan_Locmariaquer_14015.jpg","title":"Bretagne Morbihan Locmariaquer 14015.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"S.Möller","cap":"Locmariaquer - Großer Menhir"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"3300 BC","h":"The capstone shows it was completed around 3300 BC","s":[43]},{"v":"4700 BC","h":"The broken menhir of Er Grah was erected around 4700 BC","s":[43]}],"hs":{"43":["Wikipedia: Locmariaquer megaliths (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locmariaquer_megaliths"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/EUR-003.webp","w":1280,"h":802,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Broken_menhir_edit.jpg/1280px-Broken_menhir_edit.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}