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Origin and history

The dolmen d'Ors, nicknamed the Piare in Saintongeais or the Grosse Pierre, is a megalithic vestige located on the island of Oléron, at Château-d'Oléron (Charente-Maritime). It corresponds to the southeast corner of a 30 m long quadrangular tumulus, originally home to several burial chambers. The circular cover table (16 m of circumference), broken in half by an explosion, is the only element still visible today. The excavations revealed traces of nearby Neolithic habitat, as well as bone remains and funerary furniture (ceramics, flint) dating from the Middle Neolithic (-4600 to -3500).

The building was first mentioned in 1867 by H. Luguet and then searched in 1884 by Dr Emmanuel Pineau, who discovered significant archaeological furniture. At the beginning of the 20th century, a house of Ponts et Chaussées was built on the cairn. Ranked a historic monument in 1940, the site was surveyed in the 1960s, revealing adjacent neolithic habitat. In 1988, Luc Laporte led an archaeological expertise at the request of the commune, revealing a corridor and a second funeral chamber, before re-introducing the remains to preserve them.

The excavations of 1884 and 1988 identified four skeletons, including two children, as well as a funerary furniture typical of the Middle Neolithic (ceramics, flints, fractured pebbles). The tumulus, initially much larger, may have contained other rooms now missing. The dolmen illustrates the collective funeral practices of this period, with polygonal sepulchral chambers accessible by narrow corridors, characteristic of the Angoumois dolmens.

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