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Abstract
In the last few decades, there has been a great deal of interest in the stone used
as building material in megalithic monuments. Several studies have been carried out
on the location of quarries and on the monumental and symbolic role of stones in various
types of architecture. However, very few works exist on the relationship between the
parietal art of these monuments and the materials that carry them. This is in contrast
to work on the Upper Palaeolithic, where there have been several studies exploring
the links between paintings and the relief of caves. In the case of Neolithic monumental
art there are many questions left unanswered; is the stone only a support for the
carved motifs? Is its role only practical, without significance? Or did it have a
more developed function related to the symbolism of the carvings? In this article,
we would like to show through different examples in Ireland and Brittany that the
stone did have a role in Neolithic monumental art. Different case studies show that
there are relationships between carvings and stone texture, stone colour and stone
relief. After the presentation of these case studies we would like to show how three-dimensional
modelling can be a relevant tool for this kind of archaeological question.