Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The broken Great Menhir of Er Grah, located in Locmariaquer in Morbihan, is a megalithic monument dating from the middle of the fifth millennium BC (between 4600 and 4300 BC). With its 21 metres in length and an estimated weight between 300 and 330 tons, it is considered the largest menhir in Europe. Today broken into four fragments, it was originally composed of a block of orthogneiss extracted 8–10 km from the site, probably transported by raft through estuaries with strong currents. Its surface was hammered to obtain regular faces, and its base was set in a pit consolidated by sea walls and sediments.

The first known representation of the menhir, already broken into four pieces, appears in Robien's work (1753–55). Prosper Mérimée, in 1837, noted that the inhabitants claimed never to have seen him standing, attributing his fall to lightning in the eighteenth century. Locally, it was called Men ar hr hr hr hr ("Peter of the Fairy" or "Pierre of the Old Woman") before archaeologists gave it its current name at the end of the 19th century. In 1889, it was classified as a historical monument, and excavations carried out from 1987 revealed its association with an alignment of 18 other steles.

The menhir presents a decor sculpted in relief, partially eroded, interpreted as a buttock and a "hash-harvest", or more recently as a cetacean (cachalot) by Serge Cassen. The latter sees it as a symbolic opposition between marine and terrestrial environments, reflecting a period of transition for neolithic societies. The excavations also revealed aligned caling pits, suggesting a decreasing arrangement in height and nature of stone (orthogneiss, migmatite, granite). Archaeological furniture associated with its construction is the responsibility of Castellic culture.

The reasons for his fall remain hypothetical: lightning, voluntary reversal (Neolithic or Roman era), or earthquake. An attempt to restore was envisaged around 1853–54, and Paul Reveilère even proposed to transport him to Paris for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. Local folklore reports that young girls slipped onto its fragments on the night of May 1, a practice probably after its fall. Today, the site, including the Table des Marchand and the tumulus of Er Grah, offers a major testimony to the technical and symbolic skills of Breton Neolithic societies.

External links