My amateur researches four years ago have turned into a more serious attempt to provide a geo-located ‘Inventaire’ .  Various attempts have been made since Germain Sicard published the first, in 1909. Michel Barbaza published another in 1979. A further inventory was made in  1996 : La France des dolmens et des sepultures collectives (4500-2000 [...]

Four years ago I started this blog without any plan. I had just read a book, Luminous debris: reflecting on vestige in Provence and Languedoc, …  in which the expatriate American Gustaf Sobin sifts the remnants of the past for the “mirroring images they might provide” to the present. . . . Interpreting vestige with [...]

Only in this département – Aude – could this happen.  A dolmen, known to the speleologists of the region, and known to the botanists of the region – known presumably to every ‘chasseur de sanglier’ and his dog – has somehow, for over a century, remained unknown to any archaeologist of the region. [Correction: the [...]

I thought I was the only person out there: up on les Causses,  in the garrigue, searching for lost dolmens. All the others – the local historians and retired archaeologists and ‘local experts’  have long since stopped taking any interest in the prehistory of their commune. They think it has all been discovered and described. [...]

1st collector for A second menhir at PicarelFollow my videos on vodpod

Few know the little stone, stranded in the middle of a big agribusiness field of corn; Even less have ever ever visited its pair – 400 m. to the south. 1st collector for A second menhir at AzérouFollow my videos on vodpod

Once again I’m looking for dolmens – reported by Marie Landriq in the 1930′s this time. Most of her reported finds never get mentioned again, by any other archaeologist. 1st collector for la Pinède, Durban-CorbièresFollow my videos on vodpod

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. Two years later Jean Miquel, of Barroubio, also explored the plateau and found one more dolmen that Sicard had [...]

Childhood interests can ignite life-long passions. For Jean Miquel de Barroubio, in the 1860′s, his long walk to and from school began a distinguished career as collector and researcher of the complex geology of our region. For Germain Sicard, at the same time, the hill above his family ‘domaine’ at Les Rivières, Félines-Minervois, must have [...]

My ‘discovery’ of a ‘new’ Bronze Age site is being taken seriously. But without actual, dated finds – this is still provisional. The strict rule to follow -  if you should be so lucky as to find ‘une vestige néolithique‘ – is first to ‘informe la Mairie de la  commune‘. I have therefore broken Rule [...]