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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Dolmen de Peyrebrune, also known as Peyre-Brune or Pierre-Brune, is a megalithic monument located in Saint-Aquilin, Dordogne, New Aquitaine. It is located on a forest road linking the hamlet of Seyssac to the village of Segonzac, 200 metres above sea level. This dolmen, erected on the sands of the upper Eocene, is built of siderolithic sandstone slabs and is 2.70 m long for 1.90 m wide, with an inclined cover table.

Mentioned for the first time in 1828 by F. Jouannet, then studied by L. Drouyn and A. de Gourgues, the site was searched in 1874 by the Société archéologique du Périgord. Édouard Galy provided the first full description. Ranked a historic monument in 1889, the dolmen delivered a variety of funerary furniture: lithic tools (haches, knives, arrow tips), ornaments (stonestone locks, flint and shell), and grey ceramic teasses, typical of artenacian culture, with a reuse at La Tène III.

According to a local legend reported in 1830, the dolmen would house the grave of a military leader married to a fairy, killed in combat. The fairy reportedly ordered six pages to erect the monument with stones, cursed anyone touching the grave. Part of the artifacts discovered is now preserved at the Perigord Art and Archaeology Museum in Périgueux.

The dolmen illustrates protohistoric funeral practices, with a sepulchral chamber containing plant ash and charcoal. Its present state, with a loosely covered table, bears witness to the alterations suffered over the centuries. The accuracy of its location is estimated at 8/10, and the site remains owned by the commune of Saint-Aquilin.

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