Dolmen de la Gastée

The Dolmen de la Gastée (also Dolmen de la Gastet) is located east of Cabasse , near Saint-Raphaël in the Var department in Provence in France . In France, dolmen is the generic term for Neolithic megalithic structures of all kinds (see: French nomenclature ).

description

The dolmen, excavated in 1948, lies in the middle of a round hill about 16.0 m in diameter. The small chamber consists of four upright supporting stones, the overlying capstone, which has been split and does not completely cover the chamber, and a wall made of dry stone on the north side. The roughly square chamber is divided on the north-south axis by means of a vertical but low plate, which makes the passage into a kind of antechamber (as in the "Dolmen of Muraires 1"). The 1.6 m long corridor, of which only two side stones have been preserved, opens to the west. The upper part of one of the pillars at the entrance to the chamber was broken during a seismic movement, as was also described for other megalithic structures in the center of the Var (see “Dolmen of Amarron Brignoles”).

Dolmen de la Gastée

Archaeological finds

The looted dolmen has been used for small Roman burials since ancient times. The disturbances hampered a full investigation. However, an area 40 cm wide and 1.0 m long, which was covered and preserved by the broken cover plate, was examined by Gérard Bérard. The resulting deposit was 60 cm thick and consisted of two layers. The higher layer, up to 35 cm deep, contained fragments of loose human bones and some calcined fragments. The lower layer is 35 to 60 cm deep and contained many bone fragments, including 1,600 teeth from up to 80 people. Pearls from calcite and white limestone , lunulae (hanging crescents of stone) and retouched arrowheads were also found.