Dolmen des Beaumes
There are only two known dolmens in the volcanic Haute Ardèche. Locally, this dolmen is known as "l'autel des druides" or "Grotte" or "Beaume de Saint Martin".
It is located away from the areas with the highest concentration of dolmens, such as the south of the Ardèche and Lozère, the Aveyron and the Lot.
According to the elders of Saint Martin de Valamas, their patron saint came to die in this cave.
It consists of three vertical slabs, made of locally sourced phonolite, serving as supports, and a horizontal table that doesn’t quite seem to be in place, surrounded by a mantle-shaped tumulus made up of large blocks covered in vegetation.
A dolmen is a funerary monument consisting of one or more cover slabs called tables, supported by upright blocks called supports or orthostats. It is generally set into a mound or tumulus made of stones and/or earth. The device forms a sepulchral chamber, designed to accommodate successive burials, often with funerary furnishings.
The 1977 archaeological dig revealed two periods of use for the dolmen: one during the Gallo-Roman period and before the La Tène period (2nd Iron Age, Gallic period before Roman occupation), and the other in the 2nd century AD.
The excavation yielded fragments of large flat tiles and shards of vases from the Gallo-Roman period, but no ornaments or other archaeological remains such as lithic material. Fragments of metamorphic rock from the bottom of the valleys 500 m below were also found, proving that this was indeed a deliberate act.
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