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22-554: The Stone Lud is a standing stone in the parish of Bower in Caithness , in the Highland area of Scotland . It is located and about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) south of Castletown . The stone has been claimed as the grave stone of Ljot Thorfinnsson, the 10th century earl of Orkney . At about 3 metres (9.8 ft) from ground level, however, it seems rather taller than anything the 10th century Norse are likely to have used. It

44-961: A chambered cairn in Orkney, which is built so that sunlight will penetrate the cairn at the time of the winter solstice sunset. The name of Ljot is very close to that of Lot or Loth, the mythic King of Orkney and Lothian in Arthurian legend , and in Celtic Myths and Legends (1912), Charles Squire identifies Lot as a late incarnation of a British god who is remembered in medieval Welsh legend as Lludd Llaw Eraint . Modern scholars are more skeptical of this connection. 58°32′12″N 03°20′10″W  /  58.53667°N 3.33611°W  / 58.53667; -3.33611 Standing stone A menhir ( / ˈ m ɛ n h ɪər / ; from Brittonic languages : maen or men , "stone" and hir or hîr , "long" ), standing stone , orthostat , or lith

66-417: A following word: The soft mutation occurs in: These mutations are limited. When the first word ends in a vowel or -l, -r, -m, -n it causes the soft mutation wherever possible, but when the first word ends in any other consonant only the consonants g-, gw-, m-, b- change in the following words. The mutation occurs following: In the spoken language the spirant mutation is usually replaced with

88-950: Is a large upright stone , emplaced in the ground by humans, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age . They can be found individually as monoliths , or as part of a group of similar stones. Menhirs' size can vary considerably, but they often taper toward the top. Menhirs are found across Europe, Africa, and Asia, with a concentration in Western Europe , notably in Ireland , Great Britain , and Brittany . Theories concerning their purpose remain speculative, with hypotheses ranging from druidic rituals to territorial markers or elements of an ideological system. Some menhirs feature engravings , including anthropomorphic figures and symbols, and are often associated with ancient religious ceremonies and burial chambers . The word menhir

110-509: Is also unknown. It is known, however, that they buried their dead and had the skills to grow crops, farm and make pottery, stone tools and jewelry. Identifying the purpose or use of menhirs remains speculative. Until recently, standing stones were associated with the Beaker people , who inhabited Europe during the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age —later third millennium BC, c.  2800 –1800 BC. However, recent research into

132-495: Is by far the most frequent mutation in Breton, both in terms of the number of consonants it affects and the number of environments in which it occurs. The definite article al/an/ar and the indefinite ul/un/ur cause the soft mutation of: Nouns beginning with d- and a few others do not mutate after the articles. A notable exception is d or ("door") → an n or . The following grammatical words cause mutations to

154-571: Is one of the more impressive standing stones in Caithness and has mass and size to compare with those of the Ring of Brodgar in Orkney. Also it is one of two stones, of which the second is now fallen, about 30 metres (98 ft) from the first. When erect the second is supposed to have been behind the first as seen from the direction of the northern hemisphere summer solstice sunset. In The Standing Stones of Caithness (2003) Leslie J Myatt gives

176-491: Is the same process seen in the spirant mutation (e.g. following hor "our"), it is really an external sandhi which has become fixed in writing. Breton has a series of 'interchangeable' consonants, composed of plosives and fricatives. When these sounds occur word-finally, they may be pronounced voiceless or voiced depending on the word that follows: The table below shows the 'interchangeable' consonants: These changes are never written but occur regularly, regardless of how

198-425: Is used, with peul meaning "stake" or "post" and van which is a soft mutation of the word maen which means "stone". In Germany and Scandinavia the word Bauta is used (e.g., de:Bautastein and no:bautastein ) and this occasionally makes its way into English with the term "bauta stone". Almost nothing is known of the social organization or religious beliefs of the people who erected the menhirs. Their language

220-682: The age of megaliths in Brittany strongly suggests a far older origin, perhaps back to six to seven thousand years ago. During the European Middle Ages, standing stones were believed to have been built by the giants who lived before the biblical flood . Many of the megaliths were destroyed or defaced by early Christians; it is estimated that some 50,000 megaliths once stood in Northern Europe, where almost 10,000 now remain. Menhirs have also been found in many other parts of

242-409: The alignment of the stones as 322 degrees, from the fallen stone to the still standing stone. This alignment may appear to suggest a summer solstice sunset which is too far north for the latitude. However, at about 75 metres (246 ft), the altitude of the stones is quite high with respect to an Atlantic horizon which is visible on this bearing. The sunset alignment differs from that of Maeshowe ,

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264-1069: The centuries, they have variously been thought to have been used by druids for human sacrifice, used as territorial markers, or elements of a complex ideological system, used as mnemonic systems for oral cultures, or functioning as early calendars. Until the nineteenth century, antiquarians did not have substantial knowledge of prehistory, and their only reference points were provided by classical literature. The developments of radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology have significantly advanced scientific knowledge in this area. Menhirs are widely distributed across Europe, Africa, and Asia, but are most numerous in Western Europe; particularly in Ireland, Great Britain, and Brittany , where there are about 50,000 examples, and northwestern France, where there are some 1,200 further examples. Standing stones are usually difficult to date. They were constructed during many different periods across prehistory as part of

286-547: The changes they cause: soft mutation (Breton kemmadurioù dre vlotaat ), hard mutation ( kemmadurioù dre galetaat ), spirant mutation ( kemmadurioù c'hwezhadenniñ ) and mixed mutation ( kemmadurioù mesket ). There are also a number of defective (or incomplete) mutations which affect only certain words or certain letters. The main mutations cause the following changes: The role which initial mutations play in Breton grammar can be divided into three categories (which are not mutually exclusive): The soft mutation

308-454: The final consonant is spelled: More information on this phenomenon can be found in the thesis of François Falc'hun : Le système consonantique du Breton . In Old and Middle Breton, it was extremely rare to write the consonant mutations. Around the 17th century, the Jesuits started to learn Breton and introduced the writing of mutations. Sometimes, the mutated letter is written before

330-409: The hotel. It is believed that practitioners of megalithic religions travelled via the sea, as the mass majority of menhirs are located on coasts, islands, and peninsulas. The French comic book series Asterix features the character Obelix , who is known for carrying menhirs, as a sculptor and deliveryman. Breton mutations The mutations are divided into four main groups, according to

352-632: The larger megalithic cultures in Europe and near areas. Some menhirs stand next to buildings that have an early or current religious significance. One example is the South Zeal Menhir in Devon, which formed the basis for a 12th-century monastery built by lay monks. The monastery later became the Oxenham Arms hotel, at South Zeal, and the standing stone remains in place in the snug bar at

374-532: The phonology of the preceding word and not on its function. Because of this, they cannot be described as true initial mutations and are more properly aspects of external sandhi . The true nasal mutation which occurs in Welsh never occurred in Breton and Cornish , where it was replaced by the Spirant Mutation (compare Welsh fy nghi "my dog" with Breton ma c'hi ). But there was assimilation of

396-556: The previous pictures. It is not known if this re-use was deliberate or if the passage grave builders just saw menhirs as a convenient source of stone. Where menhirs appear in groups, often in a circular, oval, henge , or horseshoe formation, they are sometimes called megalithic monuments. These are sites of ancient religious ceremonies, sometimes containing burial chambers. The exact function of menhirs has provoked more debate than practically any other issue in European prehistory . Over

418-525: The soft mutation after numerals. The mutation is caused by: The mixed mutation occurs after: All of the consonant mutations described above began as simple phonological processes in the Common Brittonic language from which Breton arose and became standardised as grammatical processes as the language developed. Similar phonological processes continued to affect Breton and cause changes to word-initial sounds, but they are usually applied based on

440-512: The voiced plosives, particularly b , d to a preceding nasal and this was often written in Middle Breton. Today it is only written with an n or "the door" but can still be heard dialectally in other words, e.g. an den /an nẽːn/ "one" (lit. "the person") and bennak(et) "some" /mˈnak(ət)/ . Today, a number of nouns beginning with k change to c'h following the articles ar "the" and ur "a": Although this

462-537: The world. Many menhirs are engraved with megalithic art , some with anthropomorphic features. Other common carvings are identified as images of stone axes , ploughs, shepherds' crooks, and yokes; and are named after these motifs. However, these identifications are not secure except for those of the stone axe images, and the names used to describe them are largely a matter of convenience. Some menhirs were broken up and incorporated into later passage graves , where they had new megalithic art carved with little regard for

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484-406: Was adopted from French by 19th-century archaeologists. The introduction of the word into general archaeological usage has been attributed to the 18th-century French military officer Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne . It is a combination of two words of the Breton language: maen and hir . In modern Welsh , they are described as maen hir , or "long stone". In modern Breton, the word peulvan

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