Religious geometry in prehistory
At the location 'Prés du Chêne'/Cornaux NE (568.800/ 209.000),which is situated at the river Thielle between the Lake of Biel and the Lake of Neuchâtel, they worked on silex material during about 7000 years (!), from around 12'000 until 5000 B.C., leaving thousands of silex pieces behind ('Archäologie Schweiz' as.41.2018.2 p.21-25).
With this exceptional attachment to this place over such a long time - while there was a large choice of similar places around - it seems probable that there was a special, although unknown reason for it; possibly this place had a certain "sacredness".
In fact, 'Prés du Chêne' fits into a web of precise geometric relations with various ("sacred") "monuments". At the same time this seems to indicate that these geometric relations were already established in the early neolithic or even earlier in the mesolithic period.
A straight line goes from 'Prés du Chêne' over a small overturned menhir on the Jolimont hill (Erlach BE 02; 572.580/ 208.640) and the former chapel in Tschugg BE (572.470/ 208.540) to the former castle 'Fenis' ('Hasenburg')/Ins BE As to 'Fenis', it is fairly evident that this castle was built into a prehistoric earthwork.
'Prés du Chêne' is equidistant (3.67 km, always measured horizontally) from the former chapel in Tschugg and from a "monument" with some large erratic blocks ('L'Eter'/ Le Landeron NE; 569.612/212.620 <GPS>) which suggests quite strongly that it was a 'sacred place': an "alley" of about 10m length with stones accumulated on both sides leads to the monument, in about 20m distance above a 6m broad hole in the ground, its rim partially solidified with rock stones, and it is close to a pathway which has several quite long (artificial) sunken path sectors.
From the former chapel in Tschugg and from the "monument L'Eter" is equally equidistant (9.81 km) the church in Twann BE; the straight line church Twann - "monument L'Eter" goes to the former tumulus 'La Baraque'/Cressier NE (569.250/ 212.465). It is true that this tumulus is dated to the medium Bronze age, but it is not rare that such tumuli have been built on "older places" (e.g. the giant tumulus 'Moncor' in the publication The Earthwork 'Pi Tord'/Marly-le-Grand FR).
The church in Twann is then equidistant (10.19 km) from the tumulus 'La Baraque' and from the big erratic block 'Pierre du Grison'/Lignières NE 01 (568.625/215.900), and the tumulus is equidistant (3.46 km) from 'Pierre du Grison' and from 'Prés du Chêne' !!
The menhir Erlach 02 is equidistant (3.70 km) from the former castle 'Fenis' and from the castle 'Jeanjaquet'/Cressier, and the same distance between castle 'Jeanjaquet' and the cup stone Lignières 03 (571.130/213.720). The menhir Erlach 02 is then equidistant (5.04 km) from this cup stone and from the small church in Enges NE.
Not indicated since outside this graph: the straight line church Enges - cup stone Lignières 03 goes to the (important) cup stone Twann 01 (578.320/217.640).
'Prés du Chêne' is also equidistant (3.48 km) from another mesolithic "hotspot" 'Jänet' in Gampelen BE (about 571.580/206.860) and from the old chapel in the medieval town Le Landeron; the straight line 'Prés du Chêne' - chapel Le Landeron can be prolonged exactly to the church in Ligerz BE.
This church is equidistant (6.59 km) from the chapel Le Landeron and from the cup stone 'Les Prises' (Le Landeron 01; 570,865/212.420). The straight line cup stone 'Les Prises' - chapel Le Landeron goes to the church of the former convent 'St.Johannsen'/Gals BE (571.915/210.575). This church is equidistant (2.11 km) from the cup stone 'Les Prises' and from the former chapel in Tschugg !
The mesolithic "hotspot" 'Jänet' is the equidistant (4.20 km) from the chapel Le Landeron and from the castle Erlach, and this chapel is equidistant (2.28 km) from the castle Erlach and from the castle 'Schlossberg'/La Neuveville BE- The straight line 'Schlossberg' - castle Erlach goes to the church in Erlach.
Another straight line leads from 'Prés du Chêne' over the castle Erlach to the church in Täuffelen BE. Somewhat surprisingly one finds that this castle is equidistant (5.19 km) from 'Prés du Chêne' and from the castle 'Jeanjaquet' and 'Jeanjaquet' from 'Prés du Chêne' and from the monument 'L'Eter' (1.93 km) !
At last 'Prés du Chêne' is also equidistant (3.39 km) from the monument 'Tüfelsburdi'/Gals (three huge erratic blocks, very important in this region) and from the church Combes/Le Landeron (which is orientated with 84.5° to the church in Täuffelen ...); the same distance a third time between this church and the former chapel in Gals (570.410/208.610).
This former chapel is then equidistant (1.63 km) from 'Prés du Chêne' and from the church in Gampelen; 'Prés du Chêne' is equidistant (3.00 km) from this church and from the one in Enges.
It is impressive that all these complex and precise geometric relations have already been "constructed" in the early neolithic period or before. They already form a "network", since several places come up more than once (e.g. castle 'Jeanjaquet', castle Erlach, former chapel in Tschugg); it is therefore quite possible that these relations were established in the same "period", even if such a period could be relatively long.
This study is already the second one after The Earthwork 'Pi Tord'/Marly-le-Grand FR which fairly convincingly illustrates that these geometric relations likely could have been initiated in the early neolithic or in the mesolithic period.
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