Ancient site · Tomb
Cairn of Barnenez
The Cairn of Barnenez in northern Brittany is a long stone mound containing a row of passage-grave chambers; a second phase added six more. Radiocarbon dates put its first phase between about 4850 and 4250 BCE and its second between 4450 and 4000 BCE, making it one of the oldest megalithic monuments in Europe.
Some stones are carved with symbols. Pottery shows people reused it in the Bronze Age. In the 1950s part of it was being quarried for paving stone before it was saved and restored.
- Dates
- built c. 4850–4000 BCE; reused in the 3rd millennium BCE
- Still standing
- Yes
- Location
- 48.67° N, 3.86° W
How we know
No writing existed; radiocarbon dating shows the two building phases.
Nearby sites
- Carnac stones c. 4500–3300 BCE
- Stonehenge c. 3100–1600 BCE (sarsen circle c. 2600–2400 BCE)
- Newgrange built c. 3100 BCE; out of use by the Bronze Age
- Star Carr c. 9300–8500 BCE
- Hadrian's Wall begun 122 CE; Roman rule ended c. 410 CE
- Pont du Gard 1st century CE; used perhaps until the 6th century
Related
- Atlantic megalith builders archaeological culture