Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The dolmen du Villard, located in the municipality of Lauzet-Ubaye (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), was discovered in 1894 by Professor David Martin and reported by Gabriel de Mortillet. It is the only dolmen preserved in this Alpine region, the others having been destroyed in the 19th century. Ranked a historic monument in 1900, it now belongs to the commune. Its hybrid architecture, combining features of the provencal dolmens (entry to the west) and alpine (north-south orientation), makes it a rare testimony of local neolithic funeral practices.

The structure consists of a rectangular chamber bounded by six massive orthostats, surmounted by a triangular table resting on three slabs. The floor, covered with shale and marne slabs, as well as the interstices sealed with stones, reveal a neat construction. The entrance, low and narrow (0.30 to 0.35 m high), was closed by a trapezoidal slab in green shale. The corridor, 1.50 m long, facing west, contained human and animal bones, as well as a pottery tison, suggesting complex funeral rituals.

The tumulus, partially dismantled for agricultural crops, retained its western part, consisting of piled blocks. Archaeological excavations (1980-1983) led by Gérard Sauzade revealed that the dolmen had been erected on a burning area of 9 to 10 m in diameter, interpreted as purification or prior clearing. The chamber housed the remains of some 20 individuals, including children, with traces of bone burning and coals, indicating rituals involving fire inside the grave itself.

The funerary furniture discovered includes decorated ceramic teasses (campaniform style), a bower armband, a copper dagger, bone and limestone beads, and flint tools. Bronze objects, such as a spiral ring and a pin, attest to a re-use of the site at the middle bronze age. Animal bones (beef, dog, ovaprines) suggest ritual offerings, including two connected beef vertebrae deposited on the cairn. These elements illustrate a prolonged use of dolmen, from the recent Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age.

The first excavations, conducted in 1950 by E. Derbez (then mayor and landowner), had delivered only a few bones. Sauzade's campaigns have saved remains thanks to the partial collapse of the bedside, preserving anatomical connections and skulls. The dolmen, today communal property, remains a key site for understanding funeral and symbolic practices of neolithic and protohistoric societies in the Southern Alps.

External links