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<< Text Pages >> Lézignan-Bourréac menhir - Standing Stone (Menhir) in France in Midi:Hautes-Pyrénées (65)

Submitted by TheCaptain on Thursday, 10 February 2005  Page Views: 4039

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir
Country: France Département: Midi:Hautes-Pyrénées (65) Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Nearest Town: Lourdes  Nearest Village: Lézignan
Latitude: 43.101000N  Longitude: 0.001W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
no data
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Menhir in Hautes-Pyrénées


Beside the road between Lézignan and Bourréac

IMPORTANT NOTE: Site believed to be near this position
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Key: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 2.4km NNE 12° Oppidum de Julos Hillfort
 4.0km E 96° Château de Lourdes Hillfort
 5.4km NW 306° Peyre Hicadé (Bartrès)* Standing Stone (Menhir)
 5.5km WSW 250° Le Rocher Mystérieux* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 5.7km W 279° Peyre-Crabère* Standing Stone (Menhir)
 5.9km NW 310° Sarrails tumulus Chambered Tomb
 6.1km WSW 248° Pierres Dressées de Bescuns Standing Stone (Menhir)
 6.4km WNW 294° Poueyferré Tumulus* Chambered Tomb
 6.4km NW 313° Pouey Casanières Chambered Tomb
 6.8km NW 315° Pouey Peyre Chambered Tomb
 7.0km WSW 254° Caverne des Espelugues* Cave or Rock Shelter
 7.0km WSW 241° Trois menhirs de Ségus Standing Stones
 7.1km NW 316° Pouey Pastadere 1 Chambered Tomb
 7.2km NW 317° La Halliade tumulus* Chambered Tomb
 7.2km NW 318° Pouey Pastadere 2 Chambered Tomb
 7.4km WNW 301° Oppidum de Peyrehicade Hillfort
 7.9km WNW 288° Peyrasse menhir* Standing Stone (Menhir)
 8.1km NW 319° Pouey-Mayou* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 8.7km NW 319° Fontaine de Trois Seigneurs tumulus* Chambered Tomb
 9.0km WNW 293° Dolmen du Peyre-Dusets* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 9.1km SW 223° Pibeste Cromlech* Stone Circle
 9.3km ENE 74° Oppidum Las Puyolles Hillfort
 9.5km N 349° Les menhirs d'Ossun Standing Stones
 9.7km SW 221° Menhir dit Calhaou de Nageou Standing Stone (Menhir)
 10.3km NW 324° Peyre Blanc tumuli Chambered Tomb
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"Lézignan-Bourréac menhir" | Login/Create an Account | 15 News and Comments
  
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Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by TheCaptain on Saturday, 04 March 2006
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Having said that, we have several pictures of dolmens in Tunisia here on the portal, see http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=a312&file=index&do=showgall&gid=600

Again, not on the 0° meridian, but getting closer, so I wwouldn rule out the possibility.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by TheCaptain on Saturday, 04 March 2006
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There are quite a lot of megalithic remains / sites in Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, but I realise these places are nowhere near 0°.

Other than that, I'm sorry but I know nothing more of African megaliths.

Of possible interest, to get you going on your search, heres a picture of an Ethiopian standing stone I saw in an exhibition at the wonderful C.A.I.R.N. centre in France
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=a312&file=index&do=showpic&pid=15158
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by PaganCelt on Saturday, 04 March 2006
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Thanks for your reply Captain/Martyn.
Rereading the info, i realise that the 'site nearby' refers to the menhir itself - my mistake.

The only bits of land that I've been able to find that touch on 180 long are rambi island, taveuni, vanua levu, and as you say Thorgrim, part of Siberia.

Im sure youre the chaps to ask about this, as Ive stooged about the net a bit, and no one seems more knowlegeable on such matters.
So, any info you can dig up on sites on the greenwich meridian would be great.
I havent been able to find out much about that part of Fiji, except they used to eat people there
I notice too that there doesnt seem to be much info for megaliths in Africa - is much/anythign known?

regards

Pagan Celt
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by Thorgrim on Saturday, 04 March 2006
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180 degrees longitude is all ocean apart from extreme Siberia and Fiji.
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Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by PaganCelt on Saturday, 04 March 2006
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I realise that the Greenwich meridian is an arbitrarily selected line to aid in longitudinal navigation.
I know too, the history of the observatory, built by Wren on the ruins of Greenwich castle.
Nevertheless, Id really quite like to know if there are, by chance, any ancient sites which happen to be located on or near this line or its continuation, 180degrees longitude.

All info gratefully received

Highest regards
Pagan Celt
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by Thorgrim on Friday, 03 March 2006
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Yes, but not quite arbitrary - The Internaional Date Line is dead opposite at 180 degrees and, with a wiggle or two, avoids going through land. Imagine if your town was on 180 degrees, then the east end and the west end would be 24 hours apart. So Greenwich has the happy advantage that 180 degrees further around the globe, there is a convenient land-free line from north to south. However, its got nothing at all to do with megalithic sites.
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by TheCaptain on Saturday, 04 March 2006
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    Again, the Date Line could be anywhere. Doesnt have to be 180°. Could just as easily be 143°, or 200°, a nice round number. All that matters here is that its at an agreed line, conveniently located where there is no land. But it doesnt matter what number of degrees you allocate to it, it could be anything!

    But no point getting into an argument about this, cos we all agree on the point in question, which is that this stone, which possibly sits close to the zero degrees (Greenwich) system (and currently only because thats the place on a map I found the nearest farm or something with the right name on the map near the right village) is, and wasnt, special because its at zero degrees longitude !

    Sorry, thats a horrible sentence, if anyone can write it better, then please do. It is late on a Friday night.
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by Anonymous on Saturday, 04 March 2006
      Hi Captain

      I rather hoped that you would join in as I realise it was your original spotting. So the location co-cordinates are to the Greenwich meridian but were based on a local map reference rather than a GPS reading?
      Do you have any more info on what the nearby site referred to might be?

      Regards
      Pagan Celt
      pentos@onetel.com
      [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by TheCaptain on Saturday, 04 March 2006
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      Hello Pagan Celt

      Hmmm. let me see. I spent many hundreds of hours a couple of years ago researching the interweb, books, maps and libraries searching for the many thousands of French megaliths to put onto the portal for public information, many with only approximate positional data. At this moment I have no idea where I obtained the information for this stone. I can have a few guesses. Bear with me, and my glass of Westmalle Dubbel.

      Firstly my maps. Long time searching through boxes etc. Nope, nothing to be found on any of them - which is why its only an estimated position.

      Secondly, and successfully, the following website http://perso.wanadoo.fr/best.tarbes/menhir.htm , near the bottom of the page, complete with tiny picture, but no positional information, except that its beside the road.

      So, I will have used Multimap and arbitrarily spotted a position somewhere beside the road betwen the two villages and used this as coordinates (wgs84 I believe) for the site page given here. And hence the "believed to be near here" note given on the site page details.

      Although I hunted down many megalithic sites in this region last year, and got accurate positional data from my gps reciever for them, I did not visit this menhir, and so have no better data or pictures for it.

      For a local map of the area, from multimap, just click on the green box with a circle in it, near to the top of the menhir's site page here, then zoom in and out by clicking the zoom buttons with your mouse.

      Hope this helps with your search for zero degrees stones, I wish you well.

      Martyn
      [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by Thorgrim on Saturday, 04 March 2006
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    I agree about the daftness of looking for signifance in megaliths on zero longitude. However, surely the International Dateline has to be opposite the zero line. That way you get up to 12 hours ahead of and behind the standard time on the zero line which is GMT. Any variation from the 180 line would distort local time. Think about it.
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by TheCaptain on Friday, 03 March 2006
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Zero degrees Longitude is a TOTALLY arbitrary thing. It could be anywhere. The zero we recognise and use here is through Greenwich, cos as Andy says, thats where the Royal Observatory was. However, in France, where this stone is, zero degrees runs through Paris, and to this day the French use a different system of coordinates to us. Its only the internationalisation of things in recent times, and satellite navigation etc, that they have started to consider the Greenwich meridian - which itself has been moved several times !
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by Anonymous on Friday, 03 March 2006
Hi Andy,

It's certainly true that the traditional view of modern navigation points to the 18thC as the beginning, although Colin Wilson and Rand Flem-Ath make a pretty good case for an ancient understanding of longitude base on the Giza prime Meridian in their book, The Atlantis Blueprint.

I'm really just trying to flesh out a theory, and see if theres any evidence to support it.
If you or anyone else knows of any megaliths on or near either the prime meridian or 180 degreees, I'd be realy insterested to know more.

Highest regards

Pagan Celt
pentos@onetel.com
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by Andy B on Friday, 03 March 2006
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How is this relevant? We (as in man) didn't understand how to determine longitude was until the 18th Century (or thereabouts - see the well known book of the same name). It relies on having accurate clocks to time the rotation of the earth.

And anyway, 0 degrees is put in an arbitrary place that just happened to be where it was because of the observatory in Greenwich, England!

Hmmm
Andy
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by Anonymous on Friday, 03 March 2006
    Incidentally, is there any more info available on what site is beleived to be nearby?

    Regards

    Pagan Celt
    pentos@onetel.com
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Lézignan-Bourréac menhir by Anonymous on Friday, 03 March 2006
Hello
Very interested to see a pic of this megalith - is there one posted anywhere?
Also, does anyone know of any other megaliths or ancient sites located on or very near the 0 longitude prime meridian?
all info gratefully received

Pagan Celt
pentos@onetel.com
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