Allée couverte des Mureaux

The gallery was built at an altitude of 25.50 m on a high point of an alluvial plain. All the stones used in its construction had to be brought to the site, probably from an escarpment about 4 km away. The monument is aligned on a north-west/south-east axis, with the entrance opening to the south-east.

The chamber measures 9.72 m in length, with a width of between 2.10 m and 1.70 m. Its height falls from 1.60 m at the end wall to 1.55 m near the entrance. It is bounded by fifteen sandstone orthostates and an end slab of puddingstone, and is covered by five capstones of sandstone or millstone grit. The floor is paved with limestone slabs about 0.30 m wide and 8 cm to 10 cm thick.

The entrance and antechamber were damaged by the building of a road in the Roman period, so their original architecture is uncertain. Two proposals have been made. According to the first (Hamy and Roussel in 1890, Perrier du Carne in 1892, Paul de Mortillet in 1903), the entrance was formed by a trilithon identical to that of the Pierre Turquaise. According to the second (Paul de Mortillet in 1911 and his brother Adrien de Mortillet in 1920), it was composed of two superposed slabs pierced by a circular opening in their adjacent edges. Adrien de Mortillet supposed an antechamber bounded by two slabs 0.90 m wide set about 1.50 m apart. The small staircase of three steps at the end of the antechamber, although mentioned since 1891, is probably not original.

A slab on the north-east side, to the right of the entrance, bears a natural formation: an oval sandstone nodule with a heart-shaped (or breast-shaped) pebble set in its centre. It is not excluded that the builders deliberately reused this natural curiosity to represent the mother goddess.

The monument was completely buried and was found at a depth of about 0.70 m. It had not been disturbed, although the surrounding area was actively occupied from the Roman period and into the Merovingian period. The existence of a covering tumulus has not been demonstrated.

According to Dr Verneau, the burial chamber was entirely filled with skeletons piled in irregular layers, sometimes separated by a layer of paving, all mixed with infiltrated soil and without apparent order. At least sixty burials are thought to have been made there. From study of the long bones, Manouvrier estimated the average height of the men at 1.638 m and that of the women at 1.543 m. Several skull fragments showed traces of trepanation, some of them healed.