Barnenes

Dating

Radiocarbon dating showed that the first phase of the construction of the monument was between 4850 and 4250. BC e., and the second stage is between 4450 and 4000 BC. e.

Subsequent Use

Ceramics found inside and around the mound show that it was reused during the Bronze Age 3 thousand BC. e.

Recognition as a monument of antiquity

The cairn was first mapped in 1807 when the Napoleonic cadastre was compiled. The scientific world Barnenes became known in 1850 at the congress in Morlaix, where he was assigned to the mounds .

Damage

Barnenes was privately owned until the 1950s, and was used as a quarry - cobblestones were extracted from it for pavement. This activity, which threatened the complete destruction of the monument, was stopped only after the opening of several burial chambers in the 1950s. After that, the local community took control of the monument.

Restoration and excavation

Barnenes was restored between 1954-1968. At the same time, vegetation was removed from it, and systematic excavations began.

Mound

Currently, the length of Barnenes Cairn reaches 72 meters, a width of up to 25 meters and a height of 8 meters. The total mass of the mound stone is from 13 to 14 thousand tons. The mound contains 11 chambers into which separate corridors lead. The mound has an almost sheer facade and a stepped profile. Several internal walls either represent more ancient facades, or serve as supporting structures. The mound consists of relatively small stone blocks, only cameras are the true megaliths.

Barnenes overlooks Morlaix Bay. Apparently, during the construction of the temple, coastal lands were quite fertile.

Stage of construction

The monument was built in stages. At the first stage (until 4500 BC) cairn 1 was built, including 5 chambers and surrounded by a double row of stones. At the second stage (about 4200 - 3900 BC) a cairn 2 with 6 chambers was built, wider and higher. In the second stage, more granite was used.

Construction Method

One cubic meter of Barnenes mound contains 1,500 kg of stone. According to estimates, the extraction, processing, transportation and installation on site of such a quantity of stone required 4 working days per worker (taking into account a 10-hour working day). The original monument, Cairn 1, has a volume of about 2 thousand cubic meters; it contains 1000 tons of granite and 3000 tons of dolerite. Thus, for its construction would take from 15 to 20 thousand man-days, or 200 workers for three months. In final form, the Barnenez mound was almost three times the original size (at the 1st stage).

Megalithic Art

Symbols carved on stones were found in some corridors and chambers - images of bows, axes, waves, snakes, U-shaped signs. One of the stones with carved drawings was originally part of another structure; similar reuse of stones was observed in a number of other monuments, for example, Gavrini .

Symbols carved on stone blocks resemble symbols on other megalithic monuments of Brittany; one of the frequently repeated symbols is conventionally referred to as the “goddess of dolmens”.

Finds

Artifacts were discovered only in Cairn 2 - ceramics, polished stone axes and arrowheads of the Neolithic era. In addition, objects of a later period were discovered. The fragments of ceramics found in the vicinity of the monument show that it was reused in the Bronze Age, specifically in the 3rd millennium BC. e. This period includes a copper dagger and a serrated arrowhead of the Chalcolithic era.

• Briard J. & Fediaevsky N .: Mégalithes de Bretagne 1987
• Charles-Tanguy Le Roux et Yannick Lecerf, Le grand cairn de Barnenez - Mausolée néolithique , Monum, Ed. du Patrimoine, coll. "Itinéraires du patrimoine", 2003 ISBN 2-85822-671-7

• Official French website
• French site with many images
• Information on "The Megalithic Portal"