Ancient stones older than Stonehenge knocked down to make way for DIY shop
Some ancient neolithic stones that are older than Stonehenge are being knocked down so that a DIY store can be built.
The decision has caused outrage at the site in Carnac, in France’s Brittany region, which is well known for its extensive fields of Neolithic-era stones, known as ‘menhir’.
The stones are pretty big, measuring around 3ft (1m) high and have been carbon dated and were built from 5,480 to 5,320 BC – making them older than Stonehenge.
Mayor Olivier Lepick claimed excavations carried out last June determined the site had a ‘low archaeological value’ and didn’t merit protection, CNN reports.
But the removal of the stones at the site, 3km away from a protected tourist attraction, drew criticism from a local amateur archaeologist, Christian Obeltz.
His blog post accusing local authorities of ‘denaturing this globally recognised site’, and denouncing ‘several sudden developments in the vicinity of the Carnac menhir alignments, distorting this world-famous site’, received international attention.
The site is part of an application for UNESCO World Heritage Status which was set to be submitted to the French Ministry of Culture at the end of last September, Mr Obeltz claimed.
‘Whether it’s little or not, [the site] has an archaeological value,’ he told BFMTV.
Despite the outcry over the removal of the stones, the work went ahead, with the new branch of ‘Mr. Bricolage’ DIY shops already open in Carnac.
Meanwhile Mr Lepick claimed coverage of the controversy ‘does not reflect the reality’ of the situation on the ground.
Speaking to French news channel CNews he said: ‘There were never 39 menhirs in this place. The preventative excavations we carried out in 2015 clearly show this.
‘It’s really not the kind of images described in certain media articles. I feel like I have destroyed the Mona Lisa when I read certain articles.
‘There were not archaeological remains of sufficient value to reject planning permission.’
He said the destroyed stones were located in a commercial area, opposite a service station and close to a supermarket and recycling centre.
This article was originally published on June 29, 2024.
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