Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Dolmen de Carauda, also known as the Dolmen de Caranda, is a megalithic monument located in the commune of Cierges, in the department of Aisne (Hauts-de-France). This funerary site, dated Neolithic, was discovered by chance in 1851, then searched in 1872 by the Historical and Archaeological Society of Château-Thierry. The following year, the archaeologist Frédéric Moreau conducted extensive excavations, revealing a rectangular funeral chamber of 3.60 m long, bounded by nine orthostats and covered with three slabs. The dolmen was then buried, and its exact location became undetectable on the ground.

Moreau's excavations revealed three human skeletons, flint objects (lames, scrapers, daggers), a deer horn punch, and animal teeth (horse, beaver). These artifacts, partially preserved, were documented in the Caranda Album (1877-1893), illustrated by Jules Pilloy. Part of the collections were bequeathed to the Musée d'Archéologie nationale de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, as well as to the museums of Villers-Cotterêts and Verdun. The dolmen, classified as a historic monument in 1889, remains a rare testimony of neolithic funeral practices in the region.

According to Moreau's surveys, the burial chamber was south-west/north-east facing and was 1.60 m wide for 2 m high. Its floor was paved, and it was closed by three covering slabs of uneven sizes. The discoveries suggest both funerary and symbolic use, with animal offerings and flint tools. Despite its visual disappearance after the excavations, the site retains major archaeological importance, illustrated by the publications of Gustave Millescamps (1874) and Pol Baudet (1908).

External links