Cromlech

Main features

These stone circles can be isolated, twinned with another stone circle or associated with an alignment of menhirs. Most known of all the cromlechs is obviously the cromlech of Stonehenge in England.

One considers that the cromlechs were initially only monuments surrounding of the Dolmen S or the Tumulus and that they could become crowned enclosures thereafter and, in certain cases, of the kinds of temples. But they are there assumptions formulated by scientists whose research on the Mégalithisme can be based only on archaeological data and not on written sources.

The cromlechs are much rarer than the other monuments megalithic (Dolmen S, Menhir S, gone covered, Cairn S). The majority appear to date, in Europe in particular, of the Bronze Age (2500 av. J. - C. with 1000 av. J. - C.). The Harrespil (as with Bilhères, in Aquitanian, in the Yrénées-Atlantiques) remained used during the Âge of iron. One finds some however, in particular in Brittany (on the small island of er Lannic, in the Golfe of Morbihan, for example), of older, than one could date thanks to the objects Neolithic S, especially of the potteries, than one found in the ground.

One finds cromlechs of small number a little everywhere, since the India until in England, in the Scandinavian countries, in Kabylie (North Africa) or America. It thus does not seem possible to charge a single symbolism to them. The Scandinavian Skibsaetninger (surmounted collective raised stone burials drawing a hull of boats and being able to contain a hundred corpses), with their shape of boats, had certainly a very different direction related to the Scandinavian Mythologie.

Etymology

The word cromlech , used in the French language since the 18th century, was borrowed (1785) from the English cromlech , which draws itself its origin from the Old man-Welsh. It is composed of crwm , “is curved” ( crom with female), and lech , “stone punt”, and means “stone punt (placed in) curve”. A cromlech is a monument megalithic makes of a succession of menhirs laid out in circles. It is composed of several tens of stones planted out of ground (or Menhir S) and laid out in circle. One knows also menhirs laid out in rectangle as in Brittany with the “quadrilateral of Crucuno” but because of their noncircular provision, they are not cromlechs strictly speaking .

Period of construction and functions

The time of construction of this type of Mégalithe is to be placed in the recent Préhistoire with dates ranging between 3.500 and 2.000 before J-C.
One cannot today precisely explain the function of this type of monument. Certain researchers advance the idea of pertaining to worship gathering place while others prefer the idea of a place of observation of the stars or the Moon.
The cromlechs are monuments megalithic definitely fewer than the tombs megalithic (Dolmen S, Caisson S, gone covered, cistuses) or the menhirs which however date from the same time.

Dimensions

Their dimensions vary from a site with another but one can visit still today in France of the cromlechs with diameters of more than 100 meters (site of the Pancake shop of Carnac in Brittany and sites of Rigalderie and of Peyrarines in the Department of Gard). The menhirs which compose the cromlechs stage between one meter and more trois meters height in France. Some cromlechs Scottish exceed on average quatre meters height.

Geographical location

Remarkable cromlechs are known in the British Isles and in particular in Scotland, in the islands the Orkneys and in Cornouailles like with the Portugal.

One of most famous the cromlechs of the world is the site of Stonehenge in England, which comprises two concentric circles.

Apart from the continent of Europe, circles of stones are known in Africa (Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Ethiopia Algérie…) but they cannot be comparable with cromlechs strictly speaking because their period of erection hardly goes back to a few centuries. However, according to the commonly allowed definition, the cromlechs are always of prehistoric construction.

In France, cromlechs are known in Brittany (Cromlech of Saint-Pierre to Saint-Pierre-Quiberon, or on the island of Gavrinis both in the Morbihan, for example, or with the extremities of the Alignements of Carnac), in Aquitaine and Languedoc (the site of the Causse of Blandas close to the Cirque of Navacelles in the Gard shelters three of the four cromlechs of the area) in particular. With the Basque Country, stone circles of small diameter (ten meters) are known but it is estimated that it is in fact only circular contours old Tumulus today completely flush. One finds also a cromlech approximately 70 meters diameter to the collar of the Small-Saint-Bernard, the Franco-Italian border between the Savoy and the Val of Aoste.

A cromlech is also located on the Plateau of Combes above the Cham of the Bungs (Lozere). Most majestic of them was called “ menhirs of the three parishes ” in reference to its geographical position, located at the borders of three parish churches under the Ancien Mode.

A cromlech is also located at Sailly-in-Ostrevent in the Pas-de-Calais

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