An illustrated introduction to Archaeological Tours' Megaliths and Monuments study tour for May 2016. The tour visits four Paleolithic occupation sites, two dozen Neolithic megalith sites and several historical monuments including Mont-Saint-Michel. Lodgings are taken in Paris, Carnac, Quimper, Morlaix, Saint-Malo, Salisbury and London Heathrow.

1. An Archaeological Study Tour
Megaliths & Monuments
Stonehenge
Introducing ‘Megaliths’ 2016
Roy Larick, PhD, Lecturer
May 4-18, 2016
15 Days
with a sampling of tour sites and topics
Brittany, France & Wiltshire, England
212-986-3054
886-740-5130
info@archaeologicaltrs.com
archaeologicaltrs.com

2. Morbihan
Finistère
Ille-et-Vilaine
Wiltshire
Brittany
Megaliths & Monuments 2016
The Neolithic of Brittany & Wiltshire
Brittany sets the stage for the story
of megalithism in both areas…
Introducing ‘Megaliths’

3. Côtes d’Armor, Finistère
That which characterizes megalithic Brittany
can also be found in the nature and culture
of the current place. Brittany is/was:
Granit-built

4. Plougrescant , Finistère
Isolated / Insular

5. Phare de la Jument, Finistère
Raw

6. Festival de Cornouaille
Unique

7. Alignment de Carnac, Morbihan
Megalith-rich

8. Likewise, elements of the megalithic past can be
found in current Wiltshire. But they are very
different from Brittany. Wiltshire is/was:
Chalk ecology

9. Rare in hard rock
(raw material for megaliths)
Lockeridge sarsen boulder stream

10. Dense but
dispersed
places
Lockeridge
Bratton

11. Place-marked
Alton-Barns white horse

12. Megalith-rare
(but oh, what megaliths)
Stonehenge

13. Deux têtes de Bretonnes, Finistère
How to tell the human story of megalithism?

14. 150 Ma 60 Ma 20 Ma
150 Ma (million years ago,
Iberia was an island mini-
continent lying between
Africa and Eurasia.
Africa was pushing
northeast. Iberia was
forced to collide with
Europe. The Biscay rift
became a major feature.
Unique Neolithic settings
arose on either side of
the rift. We explore
megalithic development
on the north limb’s
Brittany and Wiltshire.
Biscay rift
We begin with the …
igc.catigc.cat

15. At the north limb sites …
… we feel the presence of the
Iberian limb, where Neolithic
northerners got exotic
resources.

16. The positions of major tectonic fault
signal lines of flow from east to west.
Human pathways led to the
peninsulas, but not between them.

17. In Wiltshire, megalithism developed
on young chalk (green and yellow).
In Brittany, megalithism
grew on the hardest old
granite (bright red).

18. Glacial cold confined Eurasia’s first permanent
hominin, Homo heidelbergensis, to southern areas.
The first archaeological sites of Brittany and Cheshire
(just east of Wiltshire), date to about 500 ka.
H. heidelbergensis moved northward with
game animals. Proboscidians are good
indicators of hominin movements.

19. On the Finistère coast, Ménez Drégan
is a spectacular H. heidelbergensis
site in a wave cut rock shelter.
Occupation levels date to 465 ka.Centre d'interprétation de Menez-Dregan

20. Later, Neanderthals and Cro-
Magnons found Brittany and
Wiltshire to be nearly
inhospitable.
Brittany’s rare deep caves
have only post-glacial (c. 11
ka) forager archaeology.
Roc’h Toul, Finistère

21. With climate change, Neolithic farmers found peninsular Europe
Analyses of current and
prehistoric DNA give
amazing insights into
human movements.
Strong hypotheses can now
be made for the arrival of the
original farmers and, later, for
Indo-European speakers.
Brittany and Wiltshire lie at the
far end of Neolithic dispersals. As
the farming tide arrived in these
cul-de-sacs, unique innovations
arose. Each place thus has
singular megalithic expressions.
Evan Galloway
Nature 17 February 2015

22. Paleolithic people lived by foraging wild animals
and plants. Groups were small and mobile.
12 ka, foragers numbered 6 million
11 ka, population grew with farming
2 ka, farmers numbered 250 million
By 1800 AD, foraging was almost extinct
As farming moved into Europe, groups
became larger and sedentary.
Farming’s effect on society
Ian Morris: To each age its inequality.
New York Times, July 9, 2015
Farming produced complicated divisions
of labor. In current terms, economic
inequality surged. Powerful families
showed status through burial.
Farmers flourished at the expense of foragers.
Téviec Quiberon Peninsula, Morbihan
Mesolithic midden and cemetery

23. Exotic materials / valued items
Farmers brought new ways for making
and ornamenting material culture.
Valued items signified wealth and
distinction for the owner. Some were
hoarded to be used in relations between
the elites or with supernatural powers.
Valued items often featured exotic raw
materials, some traveling hundreds of
kilometers from quarry to workshop.
Likewise, finished pieces, including
necklaces, daggers, axes, bracelets,
could circulate for long distances and
times.
Iberian sources for exotic stones in Morbihan
Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies
Querré (2009)

24. Megalithic tombs were often
decorated. The sculptural component,
resistant to weathering, is well known.
There are but traces of painting.
Sculptural motifs were abstract
representations of more concrete
beings, items or ideas.
Megalithic art
Laniscar mother-goddess menhir
The Gavrinis passage grave has 23 sculpted uprights,
these two with serpentine designs.

25. Kermario
Le Menec Carnac alignment, Morbhian
4 km
Kerlescan
Hotel Le Diana: our home for three nights.
Early Neolithic peoples erected massive standing stones and
alignments. They built large cairns with impressive passage graves.

26. On the northern flank of the Monts d’Aree, Morgau-Bihan fronts a vast wilderness.
Several uprights have engraved dagger motifs.
Another has pairs of bas-relief hemispheres –breasts of the funereal goddess?
By the Late Neolithic, the alignments
gave way to isolated gallery graves
surmounted by small earthen mounds.

27. ‘Megaliths’ has special access
to Stonehenge, outside normal
operating hours.
Near Avebury, Lockeridge, was the
source for the massive sarsens of
Avebruy and Stonehenge.
In Wiltshire, megalithism
arrived from the far north,
not from earlier Brittany.
In all southern Britain,
there are just two complex
megalithic ritual
landscapes:
Stonehenge
Avebury
Stonehenge
Durrington Walls
Woodhenge
Winterbourne Stoke
The Henge
Silbury Hill
W Kennet Long Barrow
Sanctuary
deep pits
discovered
in 2014

28. Guimiliau parish close
With the close of the Neolithic, our human story
jumps to the Saxon invasion of Britain during the 2nd
century AD. The Celtic population of Cornwall
suffered greatly. As many fled across the Channel,
Brittany’s Celtic ways were revitalized. Finistère’s
unique parish closes of the 15th century derive from
this movement.

29. Mont-Saint-Michel tidal island
The Mont-Saint-Michel monastery is a rather late affair, rising after 708. We deign to
visit nevertheless.
‘Tomb Hill’ (the pre-Christian name) was in use well before the monks arrived. During
the Neolithic, the place was a granite stronghold on a much larger coastal plain.
With sea level rise, Tomb Hill became a tidal island. With the car causeway now
removed, the hill is once again a tidal island.

30. Salisbury Cathedral
And, in our own crossing of the Channel,
Wiltshire delivers a wonderful world of its own.

31. For the lecturer, Pors Carn is a favorite Brittany place. The
museum has a spectacular setting and a wonderful collection.
Pointe de la Torche

32. An Archaeological Study Tour
Megaliths & Monuments
Stonehenge
Roy Larick, Lecturer
May 4-18, 2016
15 Days
Brittany, France & Wiltshire, England
Join me on ‘Megaliths’ 2016
212-986-3054
886-740-5130
info@archaeologicaltrs.com
archaeologicaltrs.com

33. Roy Larick
Walk back in time
Look to the Future
Euclid bluestone outcrop
Doan Brook, Cleveland OH
Bluestone Heights
© 2015 Bluestone HeightsR. Larick
bluestoneheights.org
roylarick@gmail.com