Unraveling the Mystery of the Carnac Stones: An Ancient Puzzle of Epic Proportions

[rangerrebew]

The Carnac Stones, Brittany, France. Source: guitou60 / Adobe Stock
UPDATED 25 FEBRUARY, 2023 - 21:52 JOANNA GILLAN
Unraveling the Mystery of the Carnac Stones: An Ancient Puzzle of Epic Proportions
 
The Carnac stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites around the French village of Carnac, in Brittany, consisting of more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany. These megalithic wonders are the largest such collection on the planet, however their purpose has never been discovered.

 

A Patterned Landscape
The Carnac Stones consist of both single standing stones (menhirs) and multi-stone clusters (dolmens) arranged in rows and patterns across the landscape. The main group of stone alignments involves 12 converging rows of standing stones stretching more than a kilometer with the remains of a stone circle at either end. The largest stones, around 4m high, are at the western end and they become smaller along the length of the alignment reaching around 0.6m in height.

It is thought that the stones were erected during the Neolithic period which lasted from 4500 BC until 2000 BC. In reality, archaeologists have had great difficulty in establishing accurate dates as little material was found beneath them that could be used for radiocarbon dating.

https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/mystery-carnac-stones-00827

[rangerrebew]

It's also possible these stone were moved and put into place prior to the discovery of the wheel.

[roamer_1]

There were giants on the earth in those days...

(Gen 6)

[Smokin Joe]

"Mon cher,  Je pense que ce serait mieux là-bas"

Explains the arrangement.

[roamer_1]

"Mon cher,  Je pense que ce serait mieux là-bas"

Explains the arrangement.

LOL! 

[Hoodat]

[Kamaji]

[sneakypete]

I wonder if this is where Johnny Carson got "Carnac,the magician" from?

[PeteS in CA]

Calling Eric Von Daniken, calling Eric Von Daniken.

[Free Vulcan]

I am a believer that humans have been far more sophisticated for far longer than current archaeology will admit. There may be lost technologies at play, ancient knowledge by people who didn't have hydrocarbons and electronics to get things done.

The worst part is the current state of archaeology won't consider anything but progressivist worldviews that everything we have is as advanced as it ever was. Anything that doesn't fit that is dustbinned and ignored. Frankly it has has retarded advancement in the discipline, and I'm not sure it's sophisticated enough anyway to recognize what's right in front of it's face.

[Smokin Joe]

I am a believer that humans have been far more sophisticated for far longer than current archaeology will admit. There may be lost technologies at play, ancient knowledge by people who didn't have hydrocarbons and electronics to get things done.

The worst part is the current state of archaeology won't consider anything but progressivist worldviews that everything we have is as advanced as it ever was. Anything that doesn't fit that is dustbinned and ignored. Frankly it has has retarded advancement in the discipline, and I'm not sure it's sophisticated enough anyway to recognize what's right in front of it's face.

FWIW, I have long held the position that the Darwinistic approach to archaeology (the latest form is the most advanced, ever) is a trap. What would be left of a cell phone after 10,000 years? or the tower? Would any of it be recognized or recognizable after that time? I mused over this since before I saw Planet of the Apes, wondering what technology would survive the setback of global nuclear war, and how long it would take for any survivors to catch back up to the present day.  As manual tools and the skills to run them fade into the technological magic of CDC machining, would the survivors be able to reclaim the internal combustion engine, oil refining, electrical power in a decade, a generation, or would we have to reinvent the wheel?

Move that back a level or two, and there is bias built in. It's bronze, therefore Bronze Age. It's Iron, therefore Iron Age, even though the isolated appearance of those technologies may have far antedated general use. Some groups move faster than others, and only conquest or trade disseminate that tech, if then. And there are still skill levels and technologies that defy modern abilities to duplicate them. IIRC, true Damascus Steel, similar to Wootz and crucible steels has not been recreated, despite the labeling of folded and otherwise multipart billets as "Damascus". Has anyone figured out the Astrolabe yet?

[Free Vulcan]

FWIW, I have long held the position that the Darwinistic approach to archaeology (the latest form is the most advanced, ever) is a trap. What would be left of a cell phone after 10,000 years? or the tower? Would any of it be recognized or recognizable after that time? I mused over this since before I saw Planet of the Apes, wondering what technology would survive the setback of global nuclear war, and how long it would take for any survivors to catch back up to the present day.  As manual tools and the skills to run them fade into the technological magic of CDC machining, would the survivors be able to reclaim the internal combustion engine, oil refining, electrical power in a decade, a generation, or would we have to reinvent the wheel?

Move that back a level or two, and there is bias built in. It's bronze, therefore Bronze Age. It's Iron, therefore Iron Age, even though the isolated appearance of those technologies may have far antedated general use. Some groups move faster than others, and only conquest or trade disseminate that tech, if then. And there are still skill levels and technologies that defy modern abilities to duplicate them. IIRC, true Damascus Steel, similar to Wootz and crucible steels has not been recreated, despite the labeling of folded and otherwise multipart billets as "Damascus". Has anyone figured out the Astrolabe yet?

Probably the most recent example of that I've seen is the use of LIDAR to see thru the jungles in Central and South America. Not only were know civilizations much bigger than thought, there were many more of them. All those pet theories out the window.

You can go on and on with examples after examples that blow up current archeology into rubble. Gobekli Tepe is my favorite - they can't deny it, so they just don't deal with it, because the ramifications of moving civilization back a few thousand years is pretty much wipe the slate clean and start over.

[Kamaji]

FWIW, I have long held the position that the Darwinistic approach to archaeology (the latest form is the most advanced, ever) is a trap. What would be left of a cell phone after 10,000 years? or the tower? Would any of it be recognized or recognizable after that time? I mused over this since before I saw Planet of the Apes, wondering what technology would survive the setback of global nuclear war, and how long it would take for any survivors to catch back up to the present day.  As manual tools and the skills to run them fade into the technological magic of CDC machining, would the survivors be able to reclaim the internal combustion engine, oil refining, electrical power in a decade, a generation, or would we have to reinvent the wheel?

Move that back a level or two, and there is bias built in. It's bronze, therefore Bronze Age. It's Iron, therefore Iron Age, even though the isolated appearance of those technologies may have far antedated general use. Some groups move faster than others, and only conquest or trade disseminate that tech, if then. And there are still skill levels and technologies that defy modern abilities to duplicate them. IIRC, true Damascus Steel, similar to Wootz and crucible steels has not been recreated, despite the labeling of folded and otherwise multipart billets as "Damascus". Has anyone figured out the Astrolabe yet?

The bigger problem is not going to be bringing the skills back - people are ingenious, and the skills will return - it will be the lack of easily accessible sources of energy.  We have, for the most part, consumed most of the easily-available high-density energy - petroleum and coal - on which industrial society ran.  Wood will be back, of course, with regrowth of the forests, that wood alone will not support a large-scale industrial society, and without an accessible source of high-density energy like the petroleum sources, it will be very, very difficult to get back to nuclear.  Alcohol may be the only reasonably high-density source of energy left.

[bigheadfred]

While I like Gobekli Tepe for its sheer age my favorite is Baalbek  and the Trilithon along with the other three left at the quarry site. They, the quackademics, claim they were the work of the Romans but I have serious doubts.

Another little nugget I like is the precision of the stone vases found at Saqqara.

I'll add that there seems to be a degradation in technology in ancient Egypt instead of  the other way around.

[libertybele]

Johnny was one of a kind and the Carnac skits were great!

[Kamaji]

Johnny was one of a kind and the Carnac skits were great!

That generation was one of a kind.

[Smokin Joe]

Probably the most recent example of that I've seen is the use of LIDAR to see thru the jungles in Central and South America. Not only were know civilizations much bigger than thought, there were many more of them. All those pet theories out the window.

You can go on and on with examples after examples that blow up current archeology into rubble. Gobekli Tepe is my favorite - they can't deny it, so they just don't deal with it, because the ramifications of moving civilization back a few thousand years is pretty much wipe the slate clean and start over.

It's like pre-Clovis in the Americas, long denied because there wasn't anything deeper, not found because there was nothing older than Clovis, so why dig more? Circular reasoning has plagued the sciences for a long time.  I was lucky enough to work on a project where we bumped the earliest fired pottery back about 500 years in Virginia, so that was fun. (Charcoal samples, in association with fired sherds and even one unfired fragment.)

[Smokin Joe]

While I like Gobekli Tepe for its sheer age my favorite is Baalbek  and the Trilithon along with the other three left at the quarry site. They, the quackademics, claim they were the work of the Romans but I have serious doubts.

Another little nugget I like is the precision of the stone vases found at Saqqara.

I'll add that there seems to be a degradation in technology in ancient Egypt instead of  the other way around.

Look at art in Russia from 1840 to 1940, and the entire flavor changed. Societies suffer from setbacks and periods of decay.