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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The tumulus Le Petit Dognon is part of a set of four tumuli located in Tusson, in the Charente department (New Aquitaine). These monuments, dated from the Middle Neolithic, are among the most imposing in Europe. Aligned on a south-west/north-east axis, they are located east of the village, on a plateau, and have never been searched. The Petit Dognon is 57.40 metres long and 3.40 metres high, but has been cut in half by an operating road, partially revealing its dry stone structure.

These tumuli, including the Petit Dognon, the Gros Dognon, the Old Breuil and the Justice, are about 200 meters away from each other. Their long-distance visibility suggests a major symbolic or territorial role. The Petit Dognon was listed as a historic monument on 13 September 2012, well after the other three tumuli of the ensemble, protected between 1960 and 1962. No objects or human remains have been documented due to the absence of archaeological excavations.

A fifth tumulus, the Magnou tumulus, is located 600 metres southwest, but is damaged and much smaller in size (15 metres in diameter). Tusson's tumuli illustrate the importance of collective funeral practices in the Neolithic region, where farming communities raised these monuments as landscape and memorial markers. Their alignment and exceptional size may reflect a complex social organization, although details remain unknown for lack of in-depth studies.

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