Le hameau moderne abandonné de Pré-Rigot (Compains, Puy-de-Dôme)

Abstract

The site is located at the edge of a high basaltic plateau in the Sancy mountains, at an altitude of 1100 m. We discovered this site during a field prospecting campaign carried out in 2013. It consists of several constructions partially encased it the ground, enclosed by walls and fencing. No trace or mention of this habitat is to be found in the archives. We undertook a 230 square meter test-hole, in order to reveal an entire building. The construction consists of two rooms, sadly having sustained important damage through their ulterior use as a dumping site. Based on it’s architecture and wares found, it was undeniably a permenantly inhabited agricultural building of medium rank, not a pastoral temporary building destined to a specific use (buron or proto-buron) as one could expect by it’s geographical situation. The construction dates back to the 12 th century, altered at least once at an unknown date, before being recently used as a dump and a depository for dead cattle, this latter use is responsible for the site’s mutilation.The interpretation of the entire site, following a first analysis suggests it was a hamlet, consisting of at least seven buildings, their contemporaenous use and existence remain to be established. The site appears to be creatd ex-nihilo and deserted quite suddently. The cause of this brutal and permanent abandon remains a mystery, perhaps linked to agricultural changes, the expansion of specialised cattle breeding and or demographic crisis at the end of Louis XIVth rule.

Keywords

• Auvergne
• Sancy
• rural settlement
• modern times
• village
• hamlet