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Prehistoric Stones At Carnac Destroyed For D.I.Y. Store

maximus otter

maximus otter

Recovering policeman
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Rennes (France) (AFP) – Around 40 standing stones thought to have been erected by prehistoric humans 7,000 years ago have been destroyed near a famed archaeological site in northwest France to make way for a DIY store, an angry local historian has revealed.

The stones in Carnac were between 50-100 centimetres (20-40 inches) high and stood close to the main highly protected areas of one of Europe's largest and most mysterious pre-historic tourist attractions.

"The site has been destroyed," local archaeologist Christian Obeltz [said].

He believes 39 standing stones -- known as menhirs -- have been lost, estimating their age to be around 7,000 years based on carbon dating conducted on stones nearby in 2010.

The land was granted a building permit from the local mayor's office in August last year and DIY chain Mr. Bricolage is currently building a new store there.

Mayor Olivier Lepick told AFP that he had "followed the law" and pointed to the "low archaeological value" of objects found during checks before the construction process began.

The land was not situated in a protected area and had been earmarked for commercial use, he added.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-ne...istoric-stones-destroyed-for-french-diy-store

maximus otter
 
Floyd1 said:

Mayor becomes 'most hated man in France' after bulldozing the 'French Stonehenge' to make way for a DIY shop.​


Following criticism, the mayor said allowing them to be knocked down was an "administrative error".

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/mayor-bulldozes-french-stonehenge-diy-hated/
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From that article:
Olivier Lepick, who is mayor of Carnac in western France, said he didn't know the significance of the 40 menhirs, which were thought to be about 7,000-years old.
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Yeah, right.
 
That's incredible that a guy like that would be empowered to permit such destruction of French heritage. I expect he will be made to resign.
 
Some extra information that may be relevant.
The stones were up to 100cm tall and were about a mile from the main Alignement de Carnac, which is a huge archaeological site that is about 1,000 years older than Stonehenge.
The formation has thousands of standing stones that range across 27 communes.
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I expect that some people in those 27 communes are less than happy with the planning restrictions, and would like to see them lifted. They would be wrong to feel like that, but people are people. I've been to Carnac twice, and would be happy to see the planning restrictions extended, rather than restricted; but it is a big site.
 
No matter if it was an 'administrative error', someone - andyone - would've questioned the destruction of a world famous archaeological site.
I think if the police were called in to investigate, there'd be plenty of evidence of bribery and corruption to find. After all, you can't blame it on poor directions.
This calls to mind the wanton destruction of sites and objects - buildings, woodland etc. - which are destroyed 'accidentally' despite being 'protected by law'. The scrotes rely on shrugging their shoulders, saying 'really sorry', then paying the fine out of the large amount of cash paid for the development.
The law tries to protect things but "accidents happen" and apart from a fine, what can they do? These are usually irreplaceable. And the criminals that do this know it ... and don't care.
 
Feech23 said:
That's incredible that a guy like that would be empowered to permit such destruction of French heritage. I expect he will be made to resign.
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Perhaps. But considering how much the French treasure their culture, language and so on, I don't think he was allowed to permit this to happen.
 
James_H said:
It happened 200 years ago in Orkney, the locals tried to burn down the landowner's house. http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/odinstone/index.html

Though I'm sure a number of standing stones have been incorporated into buildings over the years.
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Indeed, the church tower at Twyford, Hampshire, just south of Winchester, is said to have incorporated a stone circle... most standing stones in the southeast of England were broken up for reuse, with a few notable exceptions (the Medway Megaliths and the Long Stone on the Isle of Wight, for example). I suspect that some boundary stones are reused standing stones, which might be the case with the Pyrford Stone, outside Woking, which has folklore associated with it that you would normally find associated with a standing stone. You can sometimes find curious looking stones in roadside hedgerows that could once have been standing stones... and the folklore relating to the Buckland Shag is very suggestive of it originally haunting a (now lost) standing stone.
 
The fuss will die down and he will have got away with it.

There was a similar (although not identical) occurrence near me - a very very historic old inn had gone up for sale. Someone bought it and wanted to build holiday flats on the site, but permission was refused, consistently. So the building was left to lie derelict until it caught fire and became a danger, whereupon he was told to demolish the building. Permission to build the flats was again applied for and denied.

I think they've turned it into a cafe now, but it was a close run thing.
 
catseye said:
The fuss will die down and he will have got away with it.

There was a similar (although not identical) occurrence near me - a very very historic old inn had gone up for sale. Someone bought it and wanted to build holiday flats on the site, but permission was refused, consistently. So the building was left to lie derelict until it caught fire and became a danger, whereupon he was told to demolish the building. Permission to build the flats was again applied for and denied.

I think they've turned it into a cafe now, but it was a close run thing.
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A very similar set of circumstances arose in the North West. Strange how these very old properties, where planning permission has been denied, seem to catch fire and get demolished.:mad:
 
PeteS said:
A very similar set of circumstances arose in the North West. Strange how these very old properties, where planning permission has been denied, seem to catch fire and get demolished.:mad:
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The really annoying thing was that it was the building itself that was historic. Sixteenth century, I think. So the wanton destruction of it just to try for planning permission was the real crime. If they'd wanted to turn the building itself into flats, that would have been different, although still vandalism, they possibly could have kept some of the more historic elements in place. But that's expensive.
 
How often are 'protected' trees felled, without permission, and the fine is a tiny portion of the money earned by developers?
"Gee! We did bad. (opens cheque book) I'm sure this'll settle it."
In some areas, the law and punishment is not a deterrent.
 
Stormkhan said:
How often are 'protected' trees felled, without permission, and the fine is a tiny portion of the money earned by developers?
"Gee! We did bad. (opens cheque book) I'm sure this'll settle it."
In some areas, the law and punishment is not a deterrent.
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There is a horrendous example of this in Logierait, Perthshire with a 2000 year old yew tree that had been used as a hanging tree. After failing to locate it, we eventually found a small plaque inside the pub that said the tree had been there until a previous owner failed to get planning permission for a new car park. The tree mysteriously burned down and permission was then granted.:incan:
 
Stormkhan said:
How often are 'protected' trees felled, without permission, and the fine is a tiny portion of the money earned by developers?
"Gee! We did bad. (opens cheque book) I'm sure this'll settle it."
In some areas, the law and punishment is not a deterrent.
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Not always the case though as some landowner found out in the UK when he destroyed a vast amount of river habitat and got a prison sentence.
 
Perhaps it's the scale of the damage.
I just think that when a planning permission failure seems to result in an 'accidental fire', there doesn't seem to be much of an investigation of potential arson. I believe in evidence-based prosecutions but what about introducing a law that makes the owner responsible for the safety of the property and if there's a mysterious fire then they're obliged to pay reparations commensurate to the 'value' of the property.
 
I think the only answer would be to have automatic and perpetual refusal of planning permission for any site on which it had previously been turned down for the presence of something historic. So 'mysterious fires' or 'accidental' cutting down of a tree means a permanent planning permission ban for that site. Obviously there would have to be alternatives in place - say permission would be granted if the building changed use or the tree was to remain on the site and building allowed around it - to prevent places being stuck, but it might work in some cases.
 
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