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Unless otherwise stated, this image is the copyright of the submitter. Contact them for permission to reproduce it. |  | | Description | Bowl cut into top of menhir...common in this area...locals used to and some cases still fill these with fat, petrol or parrafin and light them at night.. |
| Posted Comments: TheCaptain
(2011-02-24) | perhaps made for mounting a cross in the top ? Seems to be a fairly regular thing in France. | Quesadillas
(2011-02-24) | Indeed many do have or have had crosses attached to them or are even recarved into a cross.
The Pierre Plantée des Fades has both a similar (although a squarer cut) bowl like indentation along with remenants of iron embedded deeper still at its centre. Maybe there was once an iron cross there or prhaps the iron was a skeleton for a wooden cross.
The base of example in the photo above was pecked out and smooth with no signs of any metal.
It would appear that if these Haute Loire examples did indeed bear crosses, they were removed a relatively long time ago...in respect that the locals have been lighting up these bowls at night since atleast the early 20th Century.
This practice still occurs at some of the menhirs...when I visited the Pierre Plantée des Soeurs, the inside of the bowl contained a little recently burnt material. Here too there is no evidence of any metal and the bowl as regular and smooth as in the above photo.
Next time I visit the area, I will try and find out more about this local tradition and visit a few more of the menhirs....
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