ABSTRACT

The second half of the fourth millennium cal. BC was marked by a series of important social and cultural transformations across the Armorican region. Firstly, the evidence suggests a marked expansion of settlement, with much of the interior of the Armorican Massif being settled for the first time. Secondly, the construction of passage graves ceased, though many of the existing passage graves continued in use. The construction of Grand Tumulus monuments also ceased. The evidence from St-Just suggests that ritual activity around the alignments continued, though it is unclear whether the actual construction of megalithic alignments continued into the Late Neolithic. Thirdly, the period is marked by the proliferation of new types of burial monument, most notably the gallery graves and lateral entrance graves. The organisation of space in these monuments is less complex than that of the passage graves: a gallery grave (figure 6.1) consists of a simple rectangular chamber, in some cases divided into a main chamber and an antechamber, whilst a lateral entrance grave (figure 6.2) is a similar monument, elaborated by the addition of a short entrance passage, set at right angles to the long axis of the chamber. Gallery graves are found right across Northern France, from Western Brittany to the Paris Basin, whereas lateral entrance graves occur only in the Armorican region. Art is rare in Armorican gallery graves and lateral entrance graves, but carved representations do occur in some monuments in Northern Brittany. Unlike the motifs in passage graves, which are highly stylised and often hidden from general view, these motifs are in prominent positions and are often explicitly representational. The most common motif is a female anthropomorphic representation, stylised as a pair of breasts and a necklace and executed in haul-relief (figure 6.11a).