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Origin and history

The Dolmen de Buzy, nicknamed Calhau-de-Teberno, is a West-Pyrenean megalithic building ranked among the most imposing in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Its grey marble cover table, measuring 3.75 m long for 7 tons, evokes a turtle shell in its shape, as the archivist Paul Raymond pointed out in 1867. The monument was searched in 1842 by Édouard Lartet, revealing flint tools, reindeer wood objects and pottery, attesting to his funeral and ritual use in the Neolithic.

In 1880, the construction of the Oloron-Laruns railway line nearly led to its destruction. Saved in extremis by the Society of Sciences of Pau, the dolmen was moved by 40 meters thanks to the intervention of Mr Beigbeder, conductor of the Bridges and Chaussées. Confusion with a nearby natural rock led to its erroneous classification in 1889 under the name Calhau de Teberno, although it was a human work. The excavations related to his displacement brought to light 79 cut flint and 86 reindeer wood objects, confirming his archaeological importance.

Near its original location was a petroglyph slab decorated with circles and arches in the shape of wings, now preserved in Arudy for its protection. The site also served as a gathering place for transhumance, highlighting its role both as a funerary and as a social one in Pyrenean neolithic communities. His rescue in the 19th century illustrates the beginnings of the preservation of the megalithic heritage in France, then threatened by major industrial works.

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