Pierre de Matafin

Pierre de Matafin is a legendary stone at Chardonnay in Saône-et-Loire, France. Although it was identified as a dolmen in the early twentieth century, archaeological excavation in 1980 showed that this identification was wrong.

The site consists of two roughly parallel limestone slabs oriented north–south. The western slab is a natural rock, while the eastern slab was set up by people. Their narrow spacing, the lack of a burial chamber, the absence of packing stones, and the failure to find traces of a mound indicate that the structure was not a dolmen.

Excavations in 1919 and 1980 found no evidence of inhumation. Finds included worked flints, pottery sherds, bone remains, and metal objects. The pottery was mainly medieval, with one very small sherd attributed to a prehistoric or protohistoric period; the lamella and pierced arrowhead were assigned to the final Neolithic.

The horizontal covering slab, which tradition said once rested on the two upright slabs, was replaced in 1922. It was overturned and broken during the Second World War. The site was classified as a historic monument as a dolmen on 24 August 1934, but it is now understood to be probably a very old legendary stone rather than a true dolmen.

Pierre de Matafin is a dolmen in Chardonnay, France. A typological estimate: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the French article "Pierre de Matafin", shown in the original language.