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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Dolmen du Pouey Mayou is a megalithic vault located in Bartrès, in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées (Occitanie). Its name, meaning main occitan terre (pouey for "height" and "highest") reflects its dominant location at 540 m above sea level, at the western edge of the forest of Ossun. Nearby is the Menhir de Peyre Hicade, 800 m south. This site, initially a 45 m-diameter tumulus, was partially altered by earth samples prior to archaeological excavations.

The monument has had various uses over the centuries: a tumulus transformed into a support for a telegraph tower, then into a geodetic pillar by staff officers during triangulation work. The first excavations were carried out by the owner of the site, M. Clouchet, before being taken over in 1879-1880 by archaeologist Édouard Piette, assisted by Aymar de Saint-Saud. Their work revealed a 7.37-metre-long funeral chamber, covered with four slabs (one in sandstone), as well as stratified archaeological layers: ashes, calcined bones, and objects such as a gold pearl or a flint knife. Piette estimated that two burials had been placed there, backed by the north and south walls.

Ranked a historic monument in 1889, the Pouey Mayou is distinguished by its exceptional dimensions for the region, where the megalithic chests usually measure 1.50 to 2 m long. The excavations brought to light traces of cremation, fragments of pottery, and beds of flat stones alternating with layers of white, grey and yellow clay. Although Piette evoked the discovery of a gold necklace and ivory knives in a telegram, only a fragment of gold pearl, a flint knife and tesses were officially identified, leaving a doubt about possible subtlety by the workers.

The architecture of the site includes a pebble cairn girding the room, whose entrance opens to the east. The ceiling height varies from 2.60 m at the entrance to 2 m at the bedside. Orthostats, granite and sandstone, delimit a funerary space originally covered by slabs now partially collapsed. The upper layers of the tumulus contained two levels of ash and bones separated by 20 cm of earth, showing complex funeral rituals. The work of Piette, although controversial for their invasive method (a 4.70 m trench cutting the tumulus in two), remains a reference for the study of the Pyrenean megaliths.

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