Le Petit-Chasseur is one of the most significant prehistoric sites in Switzerland, a megalithic necropolis where menhirs — standing stones carved with anthropomorphic faces and symbols — were erected and then deliberately dismantled to build a later megalithic tomb. The site dates from around 2800–1800 BC, with the menhirs among the finest examples of Neolithic carved stone anywhere in the Alps.
The original menhirs, many of which bear carved faces and weapons, are now housed in the Cantonal Museum of Archaeology in Sion (the Musée d'Archéologie). The site itself, in a residential neighbourhood of modern Sion, is less dramatic than the finds suggest, but the museum display is outstanding. The carved stones have a quality that is impossible to explain from photographs alone — standing in front of a face carved 4,000 years ago in this particular valley has a specific effect.
story: "When the Neolithic menhirs were dismantled around 2000 BC, the stones were reused face-down as building material for a new tomb — effectively burying the ancestors' portraits beneath the feet of their successors. The faces weren't discovered until 1961, when construction work exposed them."