DOLMEN DE CHANGEFEGE

The Tuile dolmen , located in the immediate vicinity of the village of Changefège , is one of the most popular and visited in the department. It is part of a set of at least 8 dolmens scattered on this small causse. Excavated and published in 1857 and 1867, it is protected as a Historic Monument in 1887. Despite the trials of time, it remains in good condition. From the cairn (pile of stones covering the table of the dolmen) emerges the cover slab (table) with large dimensions: 4.60 m long, 3.40 m wide and 60 cm thick. Unfortunately, made up, like the whole set, of limestone extracted on site, the dolmen is sensitive to frost which broke the table in two. The bedside (stone closing the bottom) has disappeared but there are still the two stones forming the amounts of the access, even if their collapse makes them difficult to see. The specificity of this dolmen is to have an angled access very represented in this region between Mende and Chanac. The meaning, if any, or the dating of this specific type of access escapes us completely. The excavations carried out on the dolmen are very poorly known because they are old (end of the 19th century) but we know that several objects have been found (point of a spear in flint, bracelets in bronze, vase...) from very different periods. These vestiges bear witness to the very long use of these burial sites, at least from about -3000 BC until the end of Antiquity. However, the lack of precision of the excavation reports does not allow us to identify the number of burials, nor to classify them in terms of chronology or social rank. The Mende tourist office can offer you guided tours by reservation. To find out more about the megaliths in the Pays d'art et d'histoire: click to find out more about the megaliths in the Pays d'art et d'histoire

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