Has a longstanding mystery at Mont-Saint-Michel finally been solved?
A rock at the popular tourist site has been stumping experts for years. But now a German archaeologist thinks he has solved the puzzle
A rock at the famous Mont-Saint-Michel monument has been a mystery for years鈥ntil now
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An archaeologist believes he has solved a longstanding mystery at one of France鈥檚 most popular tourist attractions.
A rock at Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy had been puzzling experts for years.
Fran莽ois Saint-James, a guide at the abbey for more than 30 years, said no one had any explanation for the cupules or man-made hollows on the surface of the rock, which dates from the Neolithic period.
鈥淲e have a hole and we didn鈥檛 know why,鈥� he told . 鈥淏ut then, thanks to this visitor, we discovered these little basins.鈥�
The visitor in question was Stefan Maeder, a German archaeologist, who had seen similar man-made cupules across other sites in Europe.
He said the rock was a map of the north polar night sky and would have been considered sacred.
Mr Saint-James said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a map of the polar night sky from this epoch, about 6,000 years ago.鈥�
Researchers have since reproduced the map by computer and found it to be entirely accurate, based on the one fixed point of the North Star.
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