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Origin and history

The Dolmen du Reclus, located on the commune of Bannay (Marne, Champagne), is a covered driveway dated to the Chalcolithic (end of the Neolithic). Ranked a historic monument on November 3, 1930, it was searched and restored in 1931 by Abbé Pierre Favret. Its architecture is distinguished by a south-west orientation, a length of 5.50 m, and two roof tables, one topped by a slab called Pierre de Justice. The bedside slab, rounded and prominent, exceeds 0.60 m above the whole.

Aisle rests on a slope of 8 to 10°, built on a layer of lime and clay. It was initially covered with an oval tumulus (12 m × 5.50 m), consisting of three layers (clay, rubbed earth, millstones). Its scarf position in relation to the tumulus, leaving the ends open, would have caused a partial collapse. A dry stone wall surrounded the entrance, and the monument was probably 3 m high.

The excavations of Favret revealed a collective ossuary: fragmented human bones (1.5 m3), some incinerated, accompanied by modest funeral furniture (shell trimmings, deer stew tools, coarse ceramics). Lithic furniture includes cut flints (lames, losangic arrow tips), eight polished axes placed near the entrance, and a ninth outside. These artifacts, including arrow tips, suggest late dating of the Upper Neolithic (Chalcolithic).

The dolmen illustrates the collective funeral practices of that time, where the deceased were buried after primary decomposition. Its complex architecture (arranged orthostats, interior pavement) and its atypical tumulus make it a rare testimony of the megalithic constructions of Champagne. The discovered objects, now scattered, evoke an agro-pastoral society mastering the size of the flint and the polishing of the stone.

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