Swiss archaeologists have discovered a large stone block they think is a prehistoric menhir. My headline is deceptive, I freely admit (I can’t resist an Asterix reference), because the stone was discovered at the Bronze Age site of Breitenacher outside of Bern and thus far predates even fictional menhir-slinging indomitable Gauls. The Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern has been excavating the site near Kehrsatz in advance of construction and have unearthed the remains of an extensive Bronze Age settlement dating to around 3500 years ago. The monolith is two meters (6.6 feet) long and 1.3 meters (4.3 feet) in width and weighs somewhere in the environs of two or three tons. It is ovoid in shape, coming to a gentle point at the top end.

Its siliceous sandstone identifies it as having come from the debris ridge of a nearby glacier and there is no direct evidence of tooling, carving or working by human hand on the surface of the stone, but archaeologists don’t think it just randomly landed where they found it. It wasn’t deposited there by glacial movement. Humans were involved. Which humans, when and how is unclear.

Traces on the ground … suggest that the stone was once laid vertically and was lying in a pit at the beginning or during the Bronze Age settlement. The location of the stone, equidistant from several Bronze Age houses, could imply that it played a role in the construction of the city, for example as a point of reference. Similarly, other blocks, which have not yet been exhumed, may have been around. It is also possible that the stone was used in earlier times, in the Neolithic, and that it was moved to make room for the construction of the Bronze Age houses.

By its size and shape, the stone of Kehrsatz looks like a menhir (breton maen , hir ). This term refers to oblong, often uncut, isolated stones used to mark the location of places of worship or assembly. The megalithic alignments and dolmens (tumulus) of the Neolithic, about 4500 to 5000 years old, probably had similar functions. In Switzerland, there are about a hundred of these megalithic monuments, mainly in the Lake Geneva region, in Valais and at the foot of the Jura. In the canton of Bern, a dolmen used as a collective grave was updated a few years ago in Oberbipp.

To date, only about fifteen isolated menhirs have been discovered in Switzerland. These are usually simple blocks from one to four meters high. The best example of the canton of Bern is for the moment in Sutz-Lattrigen, on Lake Biel. The discovery of a menhir at Kehrsatz would therefore be an event. This interpretation must in any case be verified by examining other stones in the vicinity. This discovery would be all the more interesting because, with the exception of a few isolated finds, very little is known about the settlement in the Stone Age around the city of Bern.

The possible menhir has been raised and moved to an indoor facility where it can be protected from the elements and studied further. Once the site has been fully excavated, authorities plan to return the stone where it was found and put it on public display. Construction on the mixed-used development will proceed after excavations have been completed.