Apart from the two small entrance stones, there are no real orthostats.
The pile of stones looks like a tumulus, and measures 8m. in diameter – but could be just the rubble from the collapsed walls of the ‘cabane’. Reconstructions of neolithic village dwellings, such as the ones at Cambous, show low very thick walls – a metre high and a metre thick :
My measurements indicate that it is 2.5 m. long, and 1.5 m. wide, and it faces south-east.
The dry stone wall construction is evident in the photos above and below – at both sides of the entrance.
The entrance stones have been carefully set on the ground – they are not buried in the earth.
I’ve cleared some weeds for this shot. The ‘wall’ on the right does now seem more like a rubble-filled construction, while the ‘wall’ to the left is more part of the ‘tumulus’.
The entrance stones are knee-high, the height of the remaining walls.
It certainly looked like a dolmen-tumulus from the direction I approached it first. But if it is in fact a ‘cabane’, then what age? And should there not be others, forming a ‘village’ or groupment of dwellings close by? I saw no signs of any – but I was not looking for ‘habitations’.
Another possibility is that it was once a dolmenic tomb, but so comprehensively trashed that it lost its ‘form’ entirely. It was then rebuilt as habitation. The large stones to the left may be the shattered remains of capstones and orthostats. Someone knows the story.
Then again – it may turn out to be part of ‘ le village chalcolithique des Lacs’ :-
There is tantalisingly little to be found about this site: Village chalcolithique des Lacs. M. Paul Ambert a repris l’étude de ce gisement qui avait été repéré par M. J. Lauriol. Les structures paraissent bien conservées (fig- 56). Gallia préhistoire 1970 Volume 13
My little round ‘dolmen’ may be ‘locus I’ in the bottom-left corner of this deliberately unhelful ‘map’. It’s position relative to the bend in the track, does not fit with my experience, nor the GPS coordinates. Another visit seems necessary.
NB All coordinates for Les Lacs will be included in my report to SESA.
