Dolmen de Pierre-Fade

About

Le dolmen de la Pierre-Fade () is a dolmen located in the commune of Saint-Étienne-des-Champs, in the French department of Puy-de-Dôme, in Auvergne. It is the only megalithic building, among the three well preserved examples of the department of Puy-de-Dôme, which still has its tumulus.

Situation: The dolmen of Pierre-Fade stands on the sides of a hillside, more precisely on a slope fracture, at 674 m above sea level, at the place known as Les Brousses, in the commune of Saint-Étienne-des-Champs (Cadastral Park AX n°131). Below, flows the Sioulet River, which could have been a determining factor for the installation of the monument. Many pebbles were found in the structure of the tumulus (basalt galets) and in the archaeological layer of the chamber (small quartz and micaschist pebbles).

History: The first records of the dolmen were made by 19th-century historians such as Jean-Baptiste Bouillet and Louis Leguay. In 1910, a summary search was reportedly undertaken, but the rare exhumed objects (a small stone axe and a terracotta bowl) have now disappeared. Claire Gautrand-Moser drove a...