Landscapes of Neolithic Brittany, 2011, 344 p., 149 ill. -

Brittany has long been famous for its Neolithic monuments, which include the largest prehistoric standing stone ever to have been erected in Western Europe, and the spectacular Carnac alignments. How and by whom were they built? This fully illustrated study aims to answer those questions using the results of recent French research on these sites, along with the insights provided by the author's own field studies. The emphasis is on the landscape setting of these monuments, and how that landscape may have influenced or inspired the construction of megalithic tombs and settings of standing stones. The development of the monuments is set within a chronological narrative, from the last hunter-gatherers of the late 6th millennium BC and the arrival of the first farmers, down to the end of the Neolithic period 3000 years later. This book places the Neolithic of Brittany within its broader French and European context, discussing parallels with material from other regions, including Britain, and incorporates much new and previously unpublished research, to answer crucial questions about spectacular sites such as Carnac.