Siureda dolmen

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 B.C. 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.

Location
The Siureda dolmen is one of one hundred and forty-eight dolmens in the Pyrénées-Orientales region, including those attested by ancient sources but never found. They are all located in hilly or mountainous areas of the département, generally on a col, ridge line, or high ground.

The dolmen is located in the commune of Maureillas-las-Illas, three kilometers from the villages of Maureillas and Céret, on a flat part of a ridgeline of hills, at 440 m altitude. These hills, composed of metamorphic and crystalline rock, form part of the easternmost part of the Pyrenees. They dominate the Roussillon Plain and the Tech Valley. The view extends as far as the Mediterranean Sea.

The hill on which the Siureda dolmen stands is covered with cork oak woods. The Catalan word siureda (or sureda) designates a cork oak grove, or cork oak plantation. This toponym is shared with the Còrrec de la Siureda, a torrent running down the hillside. No other dolmen have been found in Maureillas-las-Illas, but six toponyms in the commune, including one just 900 m from this dolmen, may indicate megalithic sites.

The dolmen is shown under its name and marked with a star on IGN map no. 2449 OT "Céret - Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda - Vallée du Tech" (1:25,000 scale), indicating a "curiosity". It is accessible via a tarmac road. A signposted footpath following part of this road allows you to reach the dolmen from the village of Maureillas on a gentle hike that also takes in the ruined Bel Œil tower. This hiking trail forms an 8.5 km-long loop.

History
The Siureda dolmen was built in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. The oldest artefacts uncovered by excavation date from between 2200 and 2000 BC. The dolmen was reused as a shelter or burial site in the late Bronze Age, around 1100-700 BC, and in historic times. It was also emptied or looted at an unknown time.

The dolmen was rediscovered in 1985 in a cork oak wood. It was excavated by the Groupe de Préhistoire du Vallespir et des Aspres, under the direction of Françoise Claustre, from June 1986 to 1988, and published twice, in 1988 and 1990. Its discovery was first published on October 6, 1986, in the local newspaper L'Indépendant. It was then named "dolmen de Maureillas".

A model of the dolmen and its tumulus has been on display at Céret's Maison de l'archéologie (since renamed Maison du Patrimoine Françoise-Claustre), which showcases local archaeological collections since the museum's inauguration in July 1995.

Dolmen and tumulus
Relatively well preserved, the Siureda dolmen is, like most dolmens in the département, of simple plan, i.e. without a corridor, which links it to other dolmens from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Its orientation follows a northwest/southeast axis, with an opening to the southeast, which is also common for dolmens in this département. It consists of three vertical slabs topped by a cover slab 2.35 m long and 1.35 m wide. The chamber had a removable opening, which may have enabled burials to be spaced out over time. All slabs are made of locally quarried gneiss.

Excavations and furniture inventory
Views inside the dolmen (December 2011)The excavation began by cutting down the surrounding trees, as the dolmen was located in a wood, followed by stripping the tumulus and then the ground in front of the dolmen. The stripping revealed no archaeological remains a well-preserved tumulus, apparently undisturbed.

The dolmenic chamber was also occupied by a tree, which had to be uprooted. The chamber was filled with four layers of earth mixed with stones, 80 cm thick. The top layer (layer no. 1), around 30 cm thick, consisted of brown earth mixed with a few stones. Below this, layer no. 2, darker brown and containing more stones, including quartz, was between 40 and 45 cm thick. This was followed by two thinner layers (around 5 cm): one, No. 3, was light brown and contained no stones, and the last, No. 4, consisted of reddish sediment with few stones. The latter yielded no remains.

The three upper layers contained numerous pottery fragments from various periods. Layer no. 1 yielded sherds of ceramics produced by throwing, revealing a dating to the historic period. Other, older shards (Final Bronze Age, c. 1100-700 BC) were found in all three layers. Although highly fragmented, all these shards reveal urns, plates, bowls and cups. The plates have marlis (rims). Objects are often decorated with cupules, fluting, fingerprints, geometric figures and cordons. Excavations have also yielded a terracotta spindle whorl (a weight attached to a spindle for spinning wool or other textiles) and a fragment of a bronze ring, both from the late Bronze Age, and a fragment of a grinding wheel. Objects dating from the erection of the dolmen around 2000 B.C. are few in number: a few shards of pottery and a turquoise variscite bead. Variscite is a mineral of foreign origin that was highly prized at the time for making ornaments.

Stratum no. 3 also yielded small fragments of human bone, possibly from the first burials in the dolmen, but this dating is uncertain.