Laurent Quesnel

Megalithic monumentality in Africa: from graves to stone circles at Wanar, Senegal

The World Heritage Site of Wanar in Senegal features 21 stone circles, remarkable not least because they were erected in the twelfth and thirteenth century AD, when Islam ruled the Indian Ocean and Europe was in its Middle Ages. The state of preservation has benefited the exemplary investigation currently carried out by a French-Senegalese team, which we are pleased to report here. The site began as a burial ground to which monumental stones were added, perhaps echoing the form of original funerary houses. Found in a neighbouring field were scoops left from the cutting out of the cylindrical monoliths from surface rock. While the origins of Wanar lie in a period of state formation, the monuments are shown to have had a long ritual use. The investigation not only provides a new context for one of the most important sites in West Africa but the precise determination of the sequence and techniques used at Wanar offers key pointers for the understanding of megalithic structures everywhere.

Natural and artificial colours: the megalithic monuments of Brittany

Abstract Megalithic art is a well-known feature of the Neolithic chambered tombs of Atlantic Europe. The surviving evidence consists largely of carved motifs, and, until recently, painted megalithic art was thought to be restricted to western Iberia. Recent discoveries have expanded that distribution, assisted by new methods of detection, recording and analysis. The discovery of painted motifs at Barnenez in Brittany, reported here, marks a breakthrough and raises the possibility that many megalithic tombs in north-west Europe were once coloured as well as carved. Similarities in motifs and techniques also point to the likelihood of direct connections with Iberia.

L’Art et la manière : Approche technologique des céramiques de dépôt dans le mégalithisme sénégambien – Le cas de la nécropole de Wanar (Sénégal)

Among the many characteristics of the Senegalese and Gambian megalithic phenomenon, the deposition of pottery on the eastern edge of funerary structures is a recurrent practice present throughout the excavated sites. In the western part of the megalithic area, ceramics are generally located between the standing stone-circles and one or more frontal stones erected east of monuments. With the exception of morphological and decorative aspects, no technological studies have ever been conducted on the pottery from these deposits. Such an approach has now been taken to the analysis of around forty ceramics from deposits at the site of Wanar — about as many as are available from the deposits of all other Senegambian megalithic sites. The results demonstrate the range of technical choices mobilized in the shaping process. The high degree of finish on the vessels also suggests an important added value to the material culture which participated in the monuments’ ritual function.

Le cairn de Croaz Dom Herry et ses carrières de schiste (Saint-Nicolas-du-Pelem Côtes-d’Armor)

En 2005, un diagnostic archeologique preventif prealable a l’amenagement d’un centre commercial est a l’origine de la decouverte d’un ensemble funeraire regroupant un cairn du Neolithique moyen, plusieurs tombelles en pleine terre et un tumulus de l’âge du Bronze sur une surface de sept hectares au sud de la commune de Saint-Nicolas-du-Pelem. Une fouille preventive mise en oeuvre en 2006 a l’emplacement du projet immobilier a permis d’etudier deux carrieres utilisees au Neolithique pour l’extraction de moellons de schiste et localisees a quelques metres en arriere des vestiges de cairn. Ces derniers seront ensuite etudies de facon exhaustive en fouille programmee en 2007 et 2008. Les restes du cairn mis au jour sur ce substrat de schiste etaient en position dominante sur l’extremite d’une croupe naturelle exposee a l’est, caracteristique des lieux de construction habituels de ces grands monuments du Neolithique moyen. La presence de deux fosses et de poteries datant de la fin du Moyen Âge indique l’epoque de destruction quasi systematique du monument, probablement exploite en carriere, situation aggravee par la suite par la mise en culture du terrain. Conserve au mieux sur deux ou trois assises de moellons superposes, le cairn dessine un plan quadrangulaire oriente nord sud, large de huit metres pour une longueur d’origine estimee a une vingtaine de metres. L’absence de sol vegetal scelle sous le cairn indique une preparation du terrain prealable a sa construction par enlevement exhaustif du paleosol et ecretement partiel des affleurements du substrat schisteux. Dans le cairn, le plan de quatre chambres funeraires se distingue nettement par la presence soit de dalles de granite brisees au niveau de la sole des labours dont la base est solidement ancree dans le substrat, soit de la fosse de calage des elements completement arraches. Les quatre chambres disposees cote a cote sont de meme morphologie, plan presque circulaire de trois metres de diametre s’ouvrant en facade orientale par un couloir court et etroit. Le rare materiel archeologique associe est caracteristique du Neolithique moyen. Il se reduit a quelques elements de parure en roche qui ont fait l’objet d’analyses, un vase a paroi lisse et quelques tessons. Aucun reste d’ossement n’est conserve en raison de la forte acidite du sous-sol de schiste. L’anciennete de ce type de monument a chambres circulaires et couloirs courts, connu en zone littorale, est confirmee par plusieurs datations radiocarbone a la charniere des Ve et IVe millenaires. Architecture inedite en Centre Bretagne jusqu’a cette decouverte, le cairn de Croaz Dom Herry constitue dans la peninsule un jalon intermediaire entre les cotes nord et sud.