CARNAC, kitennk' (Celtic). A Breton parish and village in the Department of Morbihan, France. 17 miles southeast of Lorient (Map: France, C 4). The village, situated on a gentle slope overlooking the Bay of Quiberon, has an interesting archwological museum and a church built in 1639. The latter contains some fine marble altar-pieces of the Renaissance period. The inhabitants are engaged in agricultural and fishing pursuits, and coasting trade. Popula tion of village, 1901. 646: of commune, 312.5. The parish has world-wide fame in connection with some of the most remarkable megalithic monuments extant, and with the remains of a G:ilb)-Itoman town. The chief megalithic relies are situated about half a mile to the north of the village, near the road leading to Auray, on a spacious desolate plain bordering the seashore. They consist of long lines of roughly hewn gran itic menhirs or standing stones, varying from 3 to 18 feet in height, which, weather-beaten and covered with minute white lichen:, present a stweession of weird eve There are three groups. containing 1991 men hirs; in the Sixteenth Century they numbered more than I5,000. Their exploitation for build ing purposes and to make mon for agricultural improvements during the succeeding three cen turies has been arrested by their na tional property and being authoritatively classed among historical monuments. A tine view of the lines is obtained from the summit of 3Iont Saint-31ielwl, a grass-grown 'galgar or tumu lus, 65 feet high and 260 feet in diameter, eon sisting of blocks of stone piled over a dolmen and crowned with a chapel dedicated to the Archangel 3liehael.
The origin and object of these ancient monu ments remain a mystery. They have been the subject of much arclueological speculation and are generally considered to be the Celtic monu ments of a Druidical cult, traces of which exist in some of the primitive customs of the natives.
In the year n.c. 56. from these shores Cwsar watched the naval victory of Decimus Brutus the younger over the Veneti in the Bay of Qui beron. The Humans occupied Brittany during five centuries, and considerable remains of Gallo Roman habitations, with interesting relics, have been excavated at the llossenno. i.e. mounds, on the plain. 1 mile to the east of Canute. and also at the base of the artificial Stout Saint-Michel. Consult: Galles. Fouilles du Mont Saint-Michel en Carnae (Paris, 1864). and Tam alms et dol mens tic Reread() (Paris, 1864) : Fouquet, Des monuments eeltiques et ruines romai MR le Morbihan (Paris, 1873) : Lukis. Chambered Bar rows and Other Prehistoric Monuments in Morbi han (London, 1875) : .Mile, Execrations at rar vac (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1877-81): %Vorsfold, "The French Stonehenge," in British .1.rehteotogi cal issociation Journal, Vol. IV. (London, 1898).