To convey the impact of this extraordinary place, he falls back on the words of Germain Sicard, written 60 years before : ” C’est un vaste champ de calcaire bouleversé, un chaos en miniature, une ancienne plateforme brisée par quelque convulsion du sol…” It is already heading in the direction of ‘scientist-speak’. Jean Arnal is held in the highest respect for his work in the region – but his exemplary character is not mirrored in his style of writing. A veritable grave-robber! He later describes the situation thus: ‘ la destruction sur le plateau de la Matte a été accélérée au début de notre sciècle par des fouilles intempestives pratiquées par des collectionneurs qui sacrifiaient l’architecture à la recherche de belles pièces’. ![]() He remarks on the accelerated damage in the intervening decades: heedless treasure-hunters are castigated, and one local man is named : ‘un docteur Delmas, de Rieux, aurait vidé quelques sepulchres’. Other names for dolmens seem picked from a hat: ‘ le dolmen de la vallée du Cros’ is high up on the top of the plateau and over half a kilometre south-east of the valley and the Cros stream.Īrnal’s report is at pains to accord earlier researchers due respect, while asserting the progress that archaeological studies have achieved – and bemoaning the damage done to the historical record by the incompetencies of others. His naming is also less than helpful: his two ‘dolmens de l’Oppidum’ are nowhere near the so-called ‘oppidum’ – they are half a kilometre to the south-east, above the ancient manganese mine. An initial gross error occurs when he lists his discoveries : ‘en allant d’est en ouest’ – when in fact he means the opposite: from west to east. His textual descriptions seem accurate – until one tries to follow them. It was an impressive achievement – marred only by the lack of a detailed map, or any coordinates. Together they brought the total of tombs to 16. The Taffanels – a brilliant autodidact brother and sister team – had made their name locally and nationally by discovering a Neolithic/Bronze age/Iron age complex above their village of Mailhac. As expert companions he brought Odette and Jean Taffanel, and Madeleine Cavalier and Louis Jeanjean. Julien, the causses de Minerve, les dolmens des Lacs and the nécropolis de Bois-Bas.įor the 7 kilometre walk around the plateau de la Matte, he had as guides a father-and-son team of truffle-hunters, MMrs. Here he recounts how, during the summer of 1947 (World War 2 barely finished) he covered 250 kilometres by car across all the limestone uplands around Minerve. The story ends in the late 1952, when le docteur Jean Arnal published his collected reports : ‘ Excursions sur les Causses de Minerve’. ![]() Two years later Jean Miquel, of Barroubio, also explored the plateau and found one more dolmen that Sicard had missed. The archaeological story of the dolmens of La Matte (or la Planette – or Planete, the official ‘ lieu-dit‘ as it appears on the land-register) begins with Germain Sicard’s report and map of his visit in 1891.
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