Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

ARCHAEOLOGY

5,000-year-old dolmen discovered during construction of Swiss garage

Archaeologists in the canton of Valais have discovered a 5,000-year dolmen, or megalithic tomb, during construction of an underground garage, cantonal authorities said on Thursday.

Published: 28 June 2018 15:45 CEST

5,000-year-old dolmen discovered during construction of Swiss garage

The dolmen could contain the remains of hundreds of people. Photo: ARIA SA, Sitten

The discovery of the “extraordinary” dolmen occurred just as the archaeologists were about to close up an excavation site at the Don Bosco celtic burial grounds in the city of Sion.

The researchers had been monitoring and guiding construction during foundation works for a new garage in the north of the city when they came upon a number of massive stone slabs weighing several tonnes.

Read also: Swiss hi-tech spear helps explain Neanderthal hunting tactics

The slabs are part of a 5,000-year-old dolmen that could contain the remains of hundreds of bodies, cantonal authorities said in a statement.

Investigations will now be carried out to try and date the dolmen more precisely.

Researchers will also examine the stone slabs to see if they were engraved and try and ascertain if human remains are still present, or if these have been washed away during flooding of the La Sionne river.

The finding of the dolmen is reminiscent of the discovery of another megalithic tomb unearthed in the Petit-Chasseur district of Sion at the beginning of the 1960s.

That dolmen and its engraved stele are considered prehistoric masterworks of Europe-wide significance, Valais authorities said in their statement.

Archaeologists will now try and place the new find in the context of other discoveries in the city.

Read also: Traces of new dinosaur discovered during construction of Swiss motorway

France to compensate relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

More than 200,000 Algerians fought with the French army in the war that pitted Algerian independence fighters against their French colonial masters from 1954 to 1962.

At the end of the war, the French government left the loyalist fighters known as Harkis to fend for themselves, despite earlier promises it would look after them.

Trapped in Algeria, many were massacred as the new authorities took revenge.

Thousands of others who fled to France were held in camps, often with their families, in deplorable conditions that an AFP investigation recently found led to the deaths of dozens of children, most of them babies.

READ ALSO Who are the Harkis and why are they still a sore subject in France?

French President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 asked for “forgiveness” on behalf of his country for abandoning the Harkis and their families after independence.

The following year, a law was passed to recognise the state’s responsibility for the “indignity of the hosting and living conditions on its territory”, which caused “exclusion, suffering and lasting trauma”, and recognised the right to reparations for those who had lived in 89 of the internment camps.

But following a new report, 45 new sites – including military camps, slums and shacks – were added on Monday to that list of places the Harkis and their relatives were forced to live, the government said.

Now “up to 14,000 (more) people could receive compensation after transiting through one of these structures,” it said, signalling possible reparations for both the Harkis and their descendants.

Secretary of state Patricia Miralles said the decision hoped to “make amends for a new injustice, including in regions where until now the prejudices suffered by the Harkis living there were not recognised”.

Macron has spoken out on a number of France’s unresolved colonial legacies, including nuclear testing in Polynesia, its role in the Rwandan genocide and war crimes in Algeria.

Url copied to clipboard!