Menhirs and monoliths

A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock. It can be a natural formation, or – as with each of Fennick’s Haggerston Stones  – a single large piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument or sculpture.

 

There is an ancient British tradition of menhirs or standing stones. These were stones deliberately set into the ground vertically. Most of them date from 4000 BC – 1,500 BC and were put there by Neolithic people. The most massive conglomeration of these stones occurs in the British Isles and nearby Brittany in northern France, which indicates that they are a particular cultural phenomenon in the region.

 

Menhirs can be situated as just one standing stone, or they can be placed as a circle, line, or group. Although researchers generally assume that the menhirs were erected to commemorate something, or for some kind of practical (perhaps ceremonial) uses, we don’t know for sure because Neolithic peoples did not have writing and left no clear evidence. The three best-known sites for standing stones are the Carnac stones in Brittany, the Avebury stone circle, and the giant Stonehenge. But there are others, for example the 

 

By the shape and the positioning of the Haggerston stones, Bobbie Fennick references these ancient origins, underlining the link between past and present and acknowledging the frisson of excitement that comes with encountering something as mysterious as a standing stone. 

CARNAC STONES, Photo by Bertrand Borie on Unsplash

AVEBURY STONES Photo by Frans van Heerden on Pexels