3,000-year-old dolmen discovered in Switzerland

Swiss archaeologists have discovered a dolmen under the rich Celtic necropolis of Don Bosco, where the excavation of the last graves was being completed, the State of Valais said Thursday in a statement. They were monitoring excavations for the construction of an underground car park on the site.

The dolmen discovered under the Celtic necropolis of Don Bosco [Credit: ARIA SA, Sion]

The burial monument dates from the Middle Neolithic, around 3,000 years before our era. It will be excavated in order to clarify its dating, to determine if the immense slabs of several tons are engraved and if the skeletal remains of the burial chamber are preserved.

Other similar blocks were found scattered around the perimeter of car park construction site, testimony to the existence of several monuments of the same type on the site.

The discovery recalls the engraved dolmens in the Petit-Chasseur district, discovered in 1961 and 1986 and which are among the 'masterpieces of European prehistory'.

Unlike the latter, Don Bosco's dolmen "does not appear to have been erected on a triangular dry-stone podium," says the State of Valais.

Source: Le Matin [June 28, 2018]