Dolmen de la Siureda

About

The dolmen de la Siureda is a rectangular dolmen, in a simple plane (i.e. without corridor) located in Maureillas-las-Illas, in the French department of the Pyrénées-Orientales, at the eastern end of the Pyrenees. Its name comes from the Catalan word meaning "cork oak wood".

Built at the end of the third millennium B.C. to serve as a collective burial, it is equipped with an original system that allowed it to be opened to deposit dead bodies. Its plan and its orientation towards the southeast are usual for the dolmens of this department.

Re-used several times over the ages, it was rediscovered in 1985 and then subjected to archaeological excavations. If the dolmen and its tumulus are well preserved, the excavations have only discovered small pottery coats and some small objects, including a pearl, a fusaïole (part of a spindle to spun from the textile), a bronze ring fragment and fragments of human bones whose dating is not certain. Easy access, near a road and a marked trail, it is indicated as a hiking goal by several specialized guides.