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A menhir (from
Brittonic languages
The Brittonic languages (also Brythonic or British Celtic; cy, ieithoedd Brythonaidd/Prydeinig; kw, yethow brythonek/predennek; br, yezhoù predenek) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family; the other is Goidelic ...
: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright
stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
, typically dating from the European
middle Bronze Age. They can be found individually as
monolith
A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often ma ...
s, or as part of a group of similar stones. Menhirs' size can vary considerably, but they often taper toward the top.
They are widely distributed across Europe, Africa and Asia, but are most numerous in Western Europe; particularly in Ireland, Great Britain, and
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
, where there are about 50,000 examples,
and northwestern France, where there are some 1,200 further examples. Standing stones are usually difficult to date. They were constructed during many different periods across pre-history as part of the larger
megalith
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
The ...
ic cultures in Europe and near areas.
Some menhirs stand next to buildings that have an early or current religious significance. One example is the
South Zeal
South Zeal is a village on Dartmoor, in Devon, United Kingdom.
It has a Church of England chapel and a Methodist chapel. The church is situated in the smaller South Tawton village, down the road, for which the parish is named. The differences h ...
Menhir in Devon, which formed the basis for a 12th-century
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...
built by lay monks. The monastery later became the Oxenham Arms hotel, at South Zeal, and the standing stone remains in place in the
snug bar at the hotel.
Where menhirs appear in groups, often in a circular, oval,
henge
There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ...
or horseshoe formation, they are sometimes called megalithic monuments. These are sites of ancient religious ceremonies, sometimes containing burial chambers. The exact function of menhirs has provoked more debate than practically any other issue in
European pre-history. Over the centuries, they have variously been thought to have been used by
Druids
A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...
for human sacrifice, used as territorial markers, or elements of a complex ideological system, used as
mnemonic
A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding.
Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imag ...
systems for
oral
The word oral may refer to:
Relating to the mouth
* Relating to the mouth, the first portion of the alimentary canal that primarily receives food and liquid
**Oral administration of medicines
** Oral examination (also known as an oral exam or or ...
cultures, or functioned as early calendars. Until the nineteenth century, antiquarians did not have substantial knowledge of prehistory, and their only reference points were provided by classical literature. The developments of
radiocarbon dating and
dendrochronology have significantly advanced scientific knowledge in this area.
The word ''menhir'' was adopted from French by 19th-century archaeologists. The introduction of the word into general archaeological usage has been attributed to the 18th-century French military officer
Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne
Théophile Malo Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne (23 November 174328 June 1800) was a French officer named by Napoleon as the "first grenadier of France". He was also a celtomaniac antiquarian who introduced the words "dolmen" and "menhir" into gene ...
. It is a combination of two words of the Breton language: ''maen'' and ''hir''. In
modern Welsh
The history of the Welsh language (Welsh: ''Hanes yr iaith Gymraeg'') spans over 1400 years, encompassing the stages of the language known as Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh.
Origins
Welsh evolved from British, the C ...
, they are described as ''maen hir'', or "long stone". In modern Breton, the word ''peulvan'' is used, with ''peul'' meaning "stake" or "post" and ''van'' which is a
soft mutation
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonority hierarchy, sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronic analysis, s ...
of the word ''maen'' which means "stone". In Germany and Scandinavia the word ''Bauta'' is used (e.g.
:de:Bautastein and
:no:bautastein) and this occasionally makes its way into English with the term "bauta stone".
History
Almost nothing is known of the social organization or religious beliefs of the people who erected the menhirs. Their language is also unknown. It is known, however, that they buried their dead and had the skills to grow crops, farm and make pottery, stone tools and jewelry. Identifying the purpose or use of menhirs remains speculative. Until recently, standing stones were associated with the
Beaker people, who inhabited Europe during the European late
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
and early
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
—later third millennium BC, c. 2800–1800 BC. However, recent research into the age of megaliths in Brittany strongly suggests a far older origin, perhaps back to six to seven thousand years ago.
[Aviva, Elyn; White, Gary. "Mysterious Megaliths: The Standing Stones of Carnac, Brittany, France". ''World and I'', Vol. 13, October 1998.]
Many menhirs are engraved with
megalithic art
Megalithic art refers to art either painted or carved onto megaliths in prehistoric Europe.
Elizabeth Shee Twohig has coined the term Megalithic art in her study of The Megalithic Art of Western Europe. Her original definition of Megalithic a ...
. This often turned them into
anthropomorphic stelae
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
, although images of objects such as
stone axes, ploughs, shepherds' crooks, and yokes were common. With the exception of the stone axe, none of these motifs are definitely portraying what they are named after, and the name used to describe them is largely for convenience. Some menhirs were broken up and incorporated into later
passage graves, where they had new megalithic art carved with little regard for the previous pictures. It is not known if this re-use was deliberate or if the passage grave builders just saw menhirs as a convenient source of stone (Le Roux 1992).
During the Middle Ages, standing stones were believed to have been built by the
giants
A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore.
Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to:
Mythology and religion
*Giants (Greek mythology)
*Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'gi ...
who lived before the
biblical flood
The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is the Hebrew version of the universal flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the micro ...
. Many of the
megalith
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
The ...
s were destroyed or defaced by early Christians; it is estimated that some 50,000 megaliths once stood in Northern Europe, where almost 10,000 now remain.
In 2019, four menhirs and nearly 1,000 small and big dolmens were found in India at the Pothamala hills at the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.
Geographical distribution
It is believed that the practitioners of the megalithic faith travelled via the sea, as the mass majority of menhirs are located on coasts, islands, and peninsulas.
See also
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*. Also matzeva/mazzeva/maseba/masseba/massebah.
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Notes
References
*Le Roux, C. T. 1992. "The Art of Gavrinis Presented in its Armorican Context and in Comparison with Ireland." in ''Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland'' vol. 122, pp 79–108.
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External links
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Dolmens, Menhirs & Stones – Circles in the South of France – Menhirs of the "Cham des Bondons"New Theory – Henges – Engineering in PrehistoryRows of menhirs in Russia, South UralGoogle Earth file downloads.
Skela menhirs in Ukraine
{{Authority control
Megalithic monuments
Sacred rocks
Stone monuments and memorials
Stone Age Europe