Megalithic systems from Prignon

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The megalithic complexes of Prignon - a round grave and a rectangular dolmen - are 300 m apart, on the hill of Prignon in Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne near Grasse in the Alpes-Maritimes department near the border with the Var department in France . They were discovered in 1866 by Jean René Bourguignat (1829-1892) and last excavated in 1971 and 1972 by Gérard Sauzade .

Round grave (Prignon 1)

Prignon 1 is a grave with a round chamber made of blocks ( French Tombe à chambre circulaire en blocs ). It is at the western end of the Prignon hill ( Lage ). The completely closed, somewhat oval round chamber is 0.70 m deep, 1.7 to 1.5 m in diameter, consists of ten unprocessed limestone blocks and lies in an oval cairn of around 12 × 9 meters. The ceiling construction, via which the access was presumably made, is completely missing. A corridor was not planned. The finds consist of some human bones, a vase with a round bottom (opening diameter 12 cm) with a shoulder on which two nipples can be seen.

Dolmen (Prignon 2)

Prignon 2 is a north-south oriented rectangular dolmen, which is also located on the western slope of the hill ( location ). It was excavated by A. de Maret in 1876 and by Gérard Sauzade in 1972. The cairn remnant, about one meter high, has a diameter of about 10 meters, in the middle of which there is a rectangular chamber, which consists of an end plate in the south, a large high plate on the east side, which exceeds the height of the end plate, and two smaller plates and one on the west side, one on the north side and drywall . The corridor in the west is marked by three aligned plates on the north side. The cover plate was already missing when it was discovered.

Finds by A. de Maret

A. de Maret identified two archaeological levels that were separated from each other by irregular paving. The first yielded fragmented human bones from 25 to 30 individuals. Three arrowheads, one with two notches in the base, a 152 mm long dagger broken on the upper side edge. A piece of blade or dagger made of banded flint . Pieces of a needle and an awl made of bronze . Remnants of a domestic horse (equus cabalus). Two pendants made of pierced cockles.

Finds by G. Sauzade

Some bone fragments and 1465 teeth (from at least 91 individuals), two leaf arrowheads, flint, corroded shards, three pierced fox teeth, a tooth-shaped bead, three green soapstone beads, three dark green steatite beads in barrel shape, three pendants, a ring fragment. The base layer is reminiscent of the Old Neolithic or the Chalcolithic , the upper layer of a Bronze Age horizon . The radiocarbon dating of this stage is 2070 BC. Chr.

Surroundings

In the vicinity are the megalithic complexes of Mauvans sud , the Dolmen des Puades and the Dolmen de la Graou .

See also

literature

  • Jean Clottes: Inventaire des mégalithes de la France, 5-Lot , supplement to Gallia préhistoire , Éditions du CNRS, 1977, ISBN 978-2-222-01945-9 , p. 552.
  • Jean-René Bourguignat: Monuments mégalithiques de Saint-Cézaire, près Grasse, in: Mémoire de la société des Sciences Naturelles et Histoire, des Lettres et Beaux-Arts de Cannes et de l'arrondissement de Grasse , vol. 5, 1875.
  • Bernard Gassin: Atlas préhistorique du midi méditerranéen, feuille de Cannes , CNRS, Paris, 1986, p. 93.
  • Gérard Sauzade: Les deux tombes du Prignon et les dolmens de Saint-Cézaire (Alpes-Maritimes) , 1979.

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