menhir

A prehistoric standing stone near Dol de Bretagne, France.

One of a pair of standing stones sited in a field near Lamorna in Cornwall, jointly known as The Pipers. The function of standing stones in the prehistoric societies that erected them is unclear, although they may have had specific cultural or religious significance.

Prehistoric tall, upright stone monument or megalith. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths or in groups. They have a wide geographical distribution in the Americas (mainly as monoliths), and in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and belong to many different periods. Most European examples were erected in the late Neolithic (New Stone Age) or early Bronze Age.

The menhirs at Carnac in Brittany, northwestern France, are particularly impressive, one example standing about 10 m/39 ft high. In nearby Morbihan, Le Grand Menhir Brisé once stood almost 21 m/68 ft high.

In the British Isles, standing stones in England include the Devil's Arrows, Boroughbridge, West Yorkshire, and the Five Kings, Upper Coquerdale, Northumberland; and in Wales, Harold's Stones, Trelleck, Gwent. Numerous Irish examples, known as goulaun, gallan, dallan, or liagan, were built from the Neolithic to the early Christian period. In Scotland, groups of menhirs are often called cat stones, from Gaelic cath ‘a battle’.

Occasionally menhirs bear rough engravings of conventional human and animal forms, and some are of obvious phallic significance. Later examples, generally dating from early Christian times, have inscriptions in rough Latin or ogham (ancient Celtic or Pictish characters).

In general the purpose of menhirs is unknown, though some mark the sites of prehistoric burials, such as the entrance to a long barrow (burial mound); and others are possible boundary or landmarks, meeting places, sacred sites, or part of larger ritual structures.