12/22/16

Petit Mont Chambered Tomb, Bretagne, France

author of photo:Fab5669


Petit Mont is neolithic site 6,600 years old.The entire cairn measures 50 meters east-west and 53 meters north-south, with an estimated volume of stones of 10,000 cubic meters. Petit Mont chambered tomb we see today is the result of at least three different stages of construction.

author of photo:Fab5669

author of photo:Farz brujunet

The first cairn was constructed on a low mound thought to be about 6,600 years old. This early cairn, 6,500 years old, was a simple trapezoidal mound of small rocks that measured about 30 by 20 metres. The cairn was extended between 6,000 and 5,500 years ago with a simple passage and single chamber. Six of the eight megaliths making up the chamber and three of those making up the passage are decorated. Sometime between 4,700 and 4,500 years ago the cairn was expanded, which destroyed the earlier chamber. Two new single chambered passages were created; the later chambers have more engravings in them than the earlier one.

author of photo:Farz brujunet

author of photo:Farz brujunet

The entrance to the first passage is on the right, the ‘hole’ in the middle of the cairn is one of the entrance to one of the later passages destroyed by the construction of the bunker.

author of photo:Farz brujunet

author of photo:Fab5669

author of photo:Fab5669

author of photo:Fab5669

During the second World War, in 1943 to be precise, a bunker or blockhouse was built into the cairn. The bunker was part of the extensive system of fortifications that formed the Atlantic Wall, running from Scandinavia in the north and along the north-western coast of continental Europe. Construction of the bunker destroyed the two older chambers, but facilitated the excavation of the earlier passage and its chamber.

author of photo:Fab5669

author of photo:Fab5669


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