Dolmen and menhirs in the Puy-de-Dôme department
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The few dolmens and menhirs in the Puy-de-Dôme department in France are architecturally very homogeneous, rarely spectacular. They correspond to megalithic systems from the second half of the Neolithic . The archaeological material found is poor. The folklore associated with the constructions is sparse.
At Saint-Nectaire (six dolmens ), Clermont-Ferrand (six menhirs ) and Riom (two menhirs), more than a third of the Mégalithe are concentrated in the Puy-de-Dôme department . In contrast, the Limagne and the northeast of the department do not contain any installations. The disparity does not seem to be related to the geological context. Most of the monuments are found on crystalline massifs with granitic or volcanic rocks. The Dolmen de la Grotte is the only one with a plate that required long transport.
Dolmen
In general, dolmens were built on plateaus or on slopes between 400 m and 1080 m and menhirs in plains and valleys between 340 m and 955 m. The locations were determined by topographical rather than geological criteria. The department's dolmens are essentially of the simple dolmen type ( French dolmen simple - type A and B). There is only one gallery tomb ( L'Usteau du Loup ) and one Angevin-type dolmen. The majority belong to the group that occurs in (Aveyron and Lot). Only two show western influence ( Pierre Fade , and L'Usteau du Loup). The chambers are almost always rectangular (except for the Pierre de la Fade), but of different sizes. The smallest chamber is that of Pierre Cuberte, the largest of L'Usteau du Loup. The chambers are mostly open to the east and south-east, only the Dolmen de la Pineyre appears to open to the west, but it is not certain whether its opening is original. The inner surfaces of the orthostats are flat, even smooth, while the outer surfaces are uneven. The Dolmen de Boisseyre is the only one that has kept its capstone. The hills are egg-shaped with a diameter of 8.0 to 12.0 m and an average height of 1.5 m.
Menhirs
The menhirs usually consist of porphyry granite and to a lesser extent basalt or sandstone . The absence of hard rock (basalts) with sufficient volume or appropriate shape in this area explains the predominance of granite. While the cross-sections are triangular, oval or square, the corners and the crest are generally rounded. Some menhirs were reduced in size when they were Christianized (menhir from Villars, Croix de Saint-Roch , menhir from Freydefond). The average height is around 2.5 m. Only four specimens reach or exceed the height of 4.0 m. There are no (preserved) rows of stones or stone circles in the department .
Archaeological excavations and dating
The oldest known excavations are those carried out by Father Croizet in Cournols in 1841. Many dolmens have been looted and archaeological material has only been found in a few. Five dolmens provided lithic and three ceramic materials. As for the bones, the acidic soils only allowed them to be preserved in a few exceptional cases (Dolmen of the Park, Dolmen of Saillant , Dolmen de la Grotte ). The archaeological findings, however, allow the use of the department's megaliths to be dated between the Middle Neolithic (2800 to 2700 BC) and the Iron Age (1st century BC).
research
In his monumental statistics of the department of Puy-de-Dôme, Jean-Baptiste Bouillet compiled the first known inventory of megalithic sites in the department in 1846. It houses ten dolmens, fourteen menhirs and eight rocks. Additional recordings by Alexandre Bertrand, Étienne Castagné, Adrien Mortillet, Joseph Dechelette, Leon Ticking, G. Charvilhat and Count von Fernand Niel increase the number to 20 dolmens and 20 menhirs. The last systematic inventory is that of Sylvie Amblard from 1983. It leads to the following count:
- Dolmens: 16 real and three probable monuments, 13 missing and six probably missing monuments, 14 locations wrongly identified as dolmens.
- Menhirs: 22 real and 18 probable (disappeared) monuments, two false menhirs and nine cup stones .
literature
- Sylvie Amblard: Inventaire des mégalithes de la France, 8 - Puy-de-Dôme , Paris, Éditions du CNRS, coll. 1er supplément à Gallia Préhistoire, 1983 ISBN 2-222-03207-5
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Dolmen angevin is an allée couverte of the Loire type, with a (retracted) trilith portal as an entrance