New Standing Stones Found at Carnac, France, Reveal Larger Megalithic Site

Key facts

• Over 6,000 years ago, farmers in Brittany erected around 3,000 stones in long rows stretching over 4km across Carnac.
• The stones were arranged with shorter stones on the east and taller ones on the west, some nearly 4m tall.
• Builders also created semicircular and rectangular enclosures, hearths, and burial mounds.
• The Megaliths of Carnac and the shores of Morbihan were inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2025.
• Guillaume Bruniaux of ArchéoSolution led a geophysical survey of 2.5 hectares at Carnac, revealing buried standing stones, burial mounds, and cooking pits.
• In southern Spain, a team led by Juan Antonio Cámara Serrano of the University of Granada used LiDAR and drones to survey the Fardes River necropolises, identifying 40 anomalies, half of which were archaeological sites.
• In Holíč, Slovakia, a team led by Ivona Dlábiková of the Technical University of Ostrava used 3D lasergrammetry on three of 21 re-erected megaliths, revealing carvings of a human figure and an animal with concentric circles.
• The Slovakian carvings show stylistic similarities to Neolithic art in Italy, France, and Scotland.
• The site in Holíč may be an overlooked example of Neolithic monumental culture in central Europe.