Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Palaghju alignment, also called Pagliajo, is a major prehistoric site located in the municipality of Sartène, in South Corsica. It consists of several megalithic alignments and funeral chests, dating from the Bronze Age. With 258 menhirs, it represents the highest concentration of this type of monument in the Mediterranean basin. Menhirs, mostly carved in the shape of human silhouettes, are organized into seven groups, six of which are oriented north-south and one is-west. Three of them, called Pagliaiu I to III, are statues-menhirs carrying engravings of warrior attributes like swords or daggers.

The site was first mentioned in 1889 by Étienne Michon, who recorded between seventy and seventy menhirs. In 1914, Louis Giraux identified another ten. In the 1960s Roger Grosjean conducted several excavation campaigns (1964-1968), discovering a total of 258 monoliths and qualifying the site as "the laboratory of Corsican megalithism". Despite repeated clandestine excavations, his work allowed the discovery of megalithic chests, only one of which escaped looting. The latter, searched by Georges Peretti, delivered archaeological furniture from the ancient bronze age, now preserved at the Sartène Museum.

Discovered artifacts include a decorated tulipiform cut, cups, a polished stone archer armband, dagger fragments, and gold and silver rings. These objects suggest a male burial dated the first half of the second millennium BC. A slab of the chest, adorned with lined cups, gave rise to various interpretations, evoking stellar symbols or a cult related to water. A local legend claims that these cupules, called E Pile, would collect rainwater with magical virtues during storms. The site was classified as historical monuments by order of 23 October 1974.

External links