Timeline

Heritage classified

Origin and history

The tumulus of the Cross-La Botte, located in the town of Tilhouse (Hautes-Pyrénées), is an archaeological complex dating from the Bronze Age and Iron Age 1. This site includes a main tumulus, called La Croix-La Botte, as well as five other tumuli named T1 to T5. These funeral structures reflect the burial practices and rituals of local protohistoric societies, although their precise details are not explicitly described in the available sources.

The monument was officially recognized as a Historical Monument by an order of inscription on 22 July 1969, thus protecting the tumuli and their immediate environment (cadastral parks B 675 and 681). The property belongs to the municipality of Tilhouse, and its location, although approximate, is estimated as satisfactory a priori according to the available geographical data. No information is provided on its current accessibility or tourist use.

The tumuli of this period, like those of Tilhouse, were generally associated with specific elites or social groups. In the south-west of France, the Bronze and Iron Age 1 corresponds to an era of transition to more hierarchical societies, where monumental burials played a symbolic and territorial role. These structures could also mark places of collective memory, although the sources do not specify their exact function for this site.

The Monumentum source mentions an approximate location near the Route Départementale 938, near Capvern, but without further details on the excavations or artifacts discovered. Internal data and cadastral references confirm its anchoring in the landscape of the High Pyrénées, a region rich in protohistoric remains.

No information is available on any historical characters related to this site, nor on any specific events taking place there. The tumuli, however, by their very nature, evoke cultural and religious practices shared by the communities of the time, without their local context being further clarified.

The Creative Commons license associated with the photo of the site (credit: Sotos) suggests accessible visual documentation, but text archives remain limited to administrative and legal descriptions, without detailed historical narrative.

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