Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The tumulus de la Folatière, located in Luxé in the Charente department, is a megalithic building dated from the Neolithic. It was first described in 1848 by Jean-Hippolyte Michon, who reported that the inhabitants occasionally used it as a stone quarry. Ranked a historic monument on January 9, 1957, it has never been searched or studied thoroughly. Originally, it was 120 m long for 20 m high, but its collapse and material sampling reduced its height to 10 m today.

The tumulus was initially framed by two dolmens now destroyed, and its southeast tip had four conical eminences. Nearby, a second circular tumulus, the dolmen du Roc, housed a funeral room shared by a pillar engraved with a butt, discovered by Auguste-François Lièvre after partial destruction of the site with dynamite. Exhumed furniture, including a chassian base cut and bone tools, is preserved at the Museum of Angoulême.

A third dolmen, that of Bel Air, located a few metres away, remains more than a pillar which has been on the surface since the 1880s. These structures illustrate the importance of neolithic funeral practices in the region, although their present state reflects the degradations experienced over the centuries. Michon's descriptions and Lièvre's interventions remain the main documentary sources on this major megalithic site in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

External links