Dolmen de la Siureda

The Siureda dolmen is a rectangular dolmen with a simple plan (i.e. no corridor) located in Maureillas-las-Illas, in the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales, at the eastern end of the Pyrenees. Its name derives from the Catalan word for "cork oak wood". Built at the end of the 3rd millennium BC as a collective burial site, it features an original system that allowed it to be opened and the bodies of the deceased deposited inside. Its layout and southeast orientation are typical of dolmens in this département. Reused several times over the ages, it was rediscovered in 1985 and then archaeologically excavated. While the dolmen and its tumulus are well preserved, excavations have uncovered only small shards of pottery and a few small objects, including a pearl, a fusaïole (part of a textile spinning spindle), a fragment of a bronze ring, and fragments of human bone, whose dating is uncertain. Easily accessible, close to a road and marked trail, several specialized guides indicate it as a hiking destination.

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).