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Origin and history

The Dolmen de Boisseyre, nicknamed La Pierre Couverte, is a megalithic building located on the edge of the plateau overlooking the Dore Valley, near Albert (Puy-de-Dôme). This simple dolmen, dated from Neolithic, consists of four orthostats, a bedside slab and a single micaschist cover table. Its external dimensions reach 4.65 m long for 3.80 m wide and 2.50 m high. The inner chamber, rectangular (3.50 m x 2 m), opens east-southeast. A local feature is the closure slab (orthostate no. 4), the only example still in place in the department.

The cover table, measuring 4.65 m long for 2.90 m wide and 0.75 m thick, has a sharp break on the west side, with three detached fragments visible on the ground. A northerly line, it rests on only three of the four orthostats, although it initially covered all four according to 19th-century observations (Grivel, 1852). The original tumulus has completely disappeared, and the chamber has been emptied of all archaeological material at an indefinite time. No trace of objects related to its use was found.

Ranked a historical monument by decree of 26 April 1927, the dolmen was the subject of ancient descriptions, including that of Mr Cambry in 1805, wrongly evoking the existence of several tables. Subsequent studies, such as those of Sylvie Amblard (1983) and Frédéric Surmely (1995), have clarified its architecture and regional context. The site, although without funerary furniture, illustrates the megalithic practices of Neolithic in Auvergne, dominated by simple structures in local slabs.

The location of the dolmen, at approximate address 9023 Boisseyre, 63600 Ambert, is geographically accurate (level 8/10). The monument, closed to the visit, remains a rare testimony of the collective burials of the region, now integrated with the inventories of the megaliths of Puy-de-Dôme and the French historical monuments.

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