Habitation gauloise
MonumentHidden Treasure
Habitation gauloise, located in Carnac (Département 56), is a ancient remains built in Antiquity. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Antiquity
- Location
- Carnac, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.6216, -3.0679
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091107
At the heart of the Carnac peninsula, this ancient Gallic settlement reveals the remains of an exceptional protohistoric habitat, listed as a Historic Monument, bearing witness to the daily life of the Armorican Celts before the Roman conquest.
History
Nestling in the Breton landscape of the Quiberon peninsula, a stone's throw from the famous megalithic alignments, the Gallic settlement site at Carnac is a rare and precious witness to human occupation in Armorica during the Iron Age and the Gallic period. Where the eye instinctively searches for standing menhirs, the earth conceals another form of memory: that of the living, their social organisation, their crafts and their domestic rituals. What sets this site apart from so many other remains of Gallic antiquity is precisely its location in an area of exceptional archaeological density. Carnac is not only the world capital of megalithism; it is also an area that has been occupied almost uninterruptedly from the Neolithic period to Roman times. The Gallic settlement is part of this long continuity, revealing settlement structures, ditched enclosures and areas of craft activity characteristic of the *oppida* and open villages of inland Gaul. A visit to this site requires a fertile imagination: the remains, which are often flush with the ground or partially restored, require visitors to reconstruct the Gallic domestic space in their minds. Archaeologists have identified traces of buildings on wooden poles, fireplaces, grain silos and rubbish pits, all of which help to reconstruct the daily lives of the inhabitants of this Armorican people, probably related to the Vénètes of Morbihan. The surrounding area adds a poetic dimension to the visit: the Breton moors, the golden gorse and the special light of the Morbihan coast envelop the remains in a contemplative atmosphere. Here, the sensitive visitor understands that Carnac is much more than a museum of standing stones - it's a living palimpsest where each generation has left its mark on the sandy, granite soil of Atlantic Brittany.
Architecture
The Gallic settlement at Carnac is part of the architectural tradition of open Armorican Iron Age villages. The structures uncovered correspond to a relatively regular layout, organised around a network of ditches demarcating family or community enclosures. Within these enclosures, the main buildings - dwellings, barns and granaries - were built on a framework of oak or beech posts driven into the ground, the negatives of which remain in the form of dark holes in the archaeological soil. The walls of these buildings were built of wattle and daub plastered with cob - a mixture of clay, straw and dung - a technique universally used in Atlantic Gaul. The roofs, with their pronounced double pitch to evacuate the Breton rains, were probably covered with thatch or wooden shingles. The dimensions of the dwellings, estimated at between 8 and 15 metres long and 4 to 6 metres wide, match the standards of comparable Gaulish Armorican farmhouses excavated in the rest of Morbihan and Finistère. Noteworthy features include central fireplaces paved with local granite, silos dug into the ground for storing cereals, and artisanal cooking ovens. The proximity of the sea led the inhabitants to make intensive use of shellfish resources, the accumulations of which - shell heaps or *middens* - provide valuable archaeological material for reconstructing the diet and economic practices of this community.
Related Figures
Jules César — proconsul romain dont la conquête de l'Armorique (56 av. J.-C.) bouleversa profondément les agglomérations gauloises de la région de CarnacLes Vénètes — peuple gaulois armoricain dominateur du Morbihan, maîtres de ces terres avant la conquête romaineJames Miln — archéologue écossais qui mena au XIXe siècle les premières fouilles systématiques à Carnac, ouvrant la voie à la redécouverte des sites d'habitat gauloisZacharie Le Rouzic — archéologue breton et disciple de Miln, qui poursuivit les investigations sur le territoire carnacois et documenta les vestiges gauloisProsper Mérimée — inspecteur général des Monuments Historiques qui contribua à faire connaître et protéger le patrimoine archéologique breton au XIXe siècle
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Habitation gauloise located?
Habitation gauloise is located in Carnac, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Habitation gauloise built?
Habitation gauloise dates back to a period built during Antiquity.
Is Habitation gauloise open to visitors?
Habitation gauloise is currently closed to visitors.