Glossary

Alignment/Stone row

(from Latin stela)

A set of standing stones in one or more lines. They may form arrangements with various degrees of complexity; these may be of huge proportions and incorporate other features such as enclosures, mounds, tumuli, and outcrops. The term “alignment” is now considered inadequate to describe the diverse nature of the arrangements it covers, and the term “stone row” is preferred by archaeologists.

Cairn

(from the Gaelic carn meaning ‘pile of stones’)

Monuments built from thick walls made of dry stones bonded without mortar, protecting one or more graves. These monuments have often been partially or totally destroyed, uncovering the inner structures (the sides and capstone): the latter are known as dolmens.

Ciste

A fully closed grave, without an opening, built for one or more individuals buried at the same time.

Cromlech

(An English word taken from Old Welsh: crom = bowed, arched, and lech = flat stone)

Cromlech (sometimes written cromlec’h in French) is a term used in ordinary language to refer to standing stone circles.

Dolmen/Passage grave

(From the Breton toal = table, an doal = a table and men (or maen) = stone)

The world dolmin(e) or tolmin(e) (‘stone table’) is attested in Breton place names, in particular in the Vannes area, e.g. at the Table des Marchands at Locmariaquer in 1792. Now used worldwide, it designates a burial structure comprising one or more stone tables resting on vertical pillars (orthostat slabs). Originally covered by a tumulus, a dolmen forms the remains of a more substantial structure which is no longer present

Megalithic enclosure

Enclosures are arrangements of stones forming a rough arch of various shapes and sizes: mainly circles and semi-circles, or more rarely, quadrilaterals or horseshoes. This type of structure is often found in connection with the stone rows in our region.

Menhir

(From the Breton men (or maen) = stone and hir = long)

In Breton the term men-hir refers to any long stone without necessarily implying a standing stone or human intervention; it is also used to mean natural rocky forms. Tradition has led to the word being used in this field, although archaeologists prefer ‘stele’ or ‘standing stone’ as being more appropriate for monoliths erected in a vertical position.

Mound

If a tumulus is composed mainly of earth, the term ‘mound’ is more appropriate. Except for a few gallery graves surrounded by a low, thin layer of earth, the word ‘mound’ is the preferred term for certain low, round, or elongated monuments, sometimes bounded by a ditch or stone circle. They are often less visible and more fragile than the enormous cairns and their succession of walls, and do not contain passage graves; rather, they cover ditches or small cist structures – and in some cases, standing stones.

Tumulus

(A Latin word from tumere = to swell; rise, hill; plural: tumuli)

A tumulus is a heap generally covering one or more graves. The word is used by default when there are no known details about the architecture, shape, or sediment composition of the monument.

If the structures are made of earth, they are known as mounds; if they are made from stones, the term cairn is to be preferred.

Carnac tumulus

A particularly imposing monument. The structures of this type are located in the Carnac area. The best-known example is the Mont Saint-Michel tumulus, measuring 125 metres by 60 metres, and standing 10 metres high. These imposing masses consist of a central core of stones covered with a layer of clay and with more stone piled on top. They covered closed graves (cists) in which deposits of polished axe-heads and jewellery items were found.

Standing stone/Stele

“A stele is a monument in the form of a column, obelisk, a cippus (boundary stone), erect slab, i.e. placed in a vertical position, sometimes sculpted or painted, and sometimes with commemorative or legislative texts inscribed on it. The term covers most of the terms used by archaeologists (proto-menhir, menhir, statue-menhir, menhir-statue, etc.) […]”

(Cassen 2009).

Timeline

1. - 800,000 BCE

   Lower Paleolithic

   Homo erectus and early hunter-gatherer societies.

   • - 500,000-450,000 BCE : first evidence of domestic fire making
2. - 300,000 BCE

   Middle Paleolithic

   Neanderthal man.

   • - 100,000 BCE : first burials
3. - 35,000 BCE

   Upper Paleolithic

   • - 35,000 BCE : Modern man (Homo sapiens) in Europe
   • - 30,000-25,000 BCE : Chauvet Cave
   • - 15,000 BCE : Lascaux Cave
4. - 10,000 BCE

   Mesolithic

   • - 9,000 BCE : use of bows
   • - 6,000-5,500 BCE : Téviec and Höedic necropolises (Morbihan)
5. - 5,000 BCE

   Neolithic

   First mixed farming societies; first monumental burial structures and megalithic standing stones.

   • - 4,700-3,200 BCE : Megalithic monuments in Morbihan (Saint-Michel tumulus at Carnac, Tumiac tumulus, Locmariaquer giant menhirs, Table des Marchands cairn, Gavrinis cairn, Carnac stone rows, etc.).
   • - 2,500 BCE : Stonehenge monoliths (UK)
   • - 2,600-2,400 BCE : Egyptian pyramids
6. - 2,000 BCE

   Bronze Age

   • - 2,000 BCE : Armorican Bronze Age tumuli
   • - 1327 BCE : Tomb of Tutankhamun (Egypt)
7. - 800 BCE

   Iron Age

   Celtic civilisations in Gaul

   • - 480 BCE : Vix grave (Côte d'Or)
   • - 300-200 BCE : Lighthouse of Alexandria (Egypt)
   • - 52 BCE : Alesia (Vercingetorix and Julius Caesar)
8. SINCE THE FIRST CENTURY AD
   • - 800 BCE-1700 AD : Moai, statues on Easter Island
   • - 1700 AD : Dolmens in Madagascar