The chapter provides a chronological overview of significant sites and discoveries from the prehistoric period in France. The chronological span is from around 1.3 million years ago until around 2500 BC. The focus is on five main topics from distinct geographical areas of France. The chapter initially will consider evidence of the earliest known humans in France, from the southern sites of Bois-de-Riquet at Lézignan-la-Cèbe (Hérault), Tautavel (Pyrénées-Orientales), and Terra Amata in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes). Second, one of the unusual features of the archaeology of France is the wealth of art from the Upper Paleolithic era, both cave art from sites such as Lascaux (Dordogne), Chauvet (Ardèche), and Pech Merle (Lot); and portable art, such as tools and figurines, with a particularly fine collection in the Musée d’Archéologie nationale in the western suburbs of Paris. The third focus will be the significant archaeological monuments in Brittany, the “megaliths” dating from the Neolithic period at sites such as Carnac and Gavrinis (both Morbihan). Attention then will turn to another type of archaeological site, the Neolithic and Bronze Age “lake villages” such as Charavines (Isère). Finally, discussion will focus on the archaeology of the Bronze Age in France, particularly the hoards found during the period.
Ongoing archaeological research in France continues to reveal important new sites and allows reinterpretations of existing sites. These discoveries are considered in chapter 6.
The Earliest-Known Humans
Prior to the sole human presence of Homo sapiens, a number of types of humans existed who have left evidence of their presence in modern-day France, from the end of the geological epoch known as the Early Pleistocene. The most recent discovery is from a site known as the Bois-de-Riquet in the commune of Lézignan-la-Cèbe, close to the town of Pézenas (Hérault). The site is in an abandoned basalt quarry, which stimulated interest in the 1990s with the chance discovery of a mammoth tusk. The first systematic excavations by a team led by Laurence Bourguignon took place in 2008 and produced mammal fossils and, most strikingly, stone tools dating from between 1.1 million and 1.3 million years ago.
Other evidence of humans who predate Homo sapiens in France has been found at two Lower Paleolithic sites in southern France: La Caune de l’Arago, close to Tautavel (Pyrénées-Orientales); and at Terra Amata in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes).
La Caune de l’Arago, also known as La Grotte de Tautavel, is a cave about three kilometers from the village of Tautavel (Pyrénées-Orientales) on the banks of the River Verdouble, which runs through the Corbières massif. Approximately 150 human fossils have been found in the archaeological levels that date from between 560,000 and 300,000 years ago, especially the levels of 450,000 years ago. Excavations began at the site in 1964 by a team of archaeologists led by Henry de Lumley, the catalyst being the discovery of early stone tools by Jean Abélanet in the previous year. The first major discovery was made in July 1969 of the almost complete fossilized mandible, with six teeth, of a female aged between forty and fifty-five at death. In July 1971, with further fragments found in July 1979, archaeologists discovered part of the fossilized skull of a male aged no more than twenty, estimated to have lived some 450,000 years ago (figure 2.1). The male, identified as Homo heidelbergensis, now generally is known as the Homme de Tautavel (Tautavel Man), and his skull fragments have enabled reconstruction of his face. The discoveries at Tautavel led to the establishment of the Musée de Préhistoire de Tautavel Centre Européen de Préhistoire. The main exhibits of the museum are a facsimile of La Caune de l’Arago and a reconstructed skeleton of Tautavel Man, made from fossil remains from Tautavel and casts of fossils found at other sites. Excavations continue at La Caune de l’Arago, and in 2015 a human tooth was found in levels in the cave dating to 560,000 years ago, more than 100,000 years older than the other human fossils in the cave. In addition, archaeologists have found tools made from animal bones, especially horses, reindeer, and bison, which provide good evidence for the animal species in this part of France during this era.
Figure 2.1. Skull of “Tautavel Man.” Alamy
Henry de Lumley also undertook excavations at two sites that are in the city of Nice (Alpes-Maritimes): Terra Amata and La Grotte du Lazaret. Terra Amata, which dates to about four hundred thousand years ago, was discovered in 1966 during a construction project at the port of Nice. The site appears to have been a group of shelters on what was a beach in prehistory. Terra Amata is notable for producing early evidence of the domestication of fire and the use of pigment. Around seventy-five pieces of pigment in yellow, brown, red, and purple, many of which have traces of artificial abrasion, plausibly were introduced to the site as they do not occur naturally at Terra Amata. La Grotte du Lazaret is in the eastern suburbs of Nice. The cave, which is thirty-five meters long and between four and fourteen meters wide, was used as a shelter by early types of humans during the later part of the Lower Paleolithic period, between 200,000 and 130,000 years ago.
A site with a long history of occupation is La Grotte de la Baume Bonne at Quinson (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence). The cave was discovered and initially excavated in December 1946 by Bernard Bottet and his son Bertrand. Excavations continued by Henry de Lumley from 1957 to 1968 and recommenced in 1988 under the direction of Jean Gagnepain and Claire Gaillard. The earliest evidence from Baume Bonne dates from the Lower Paleolithic, some four hundred thousand years ago. Occupation continued into the Middle Paleolithic, the evidence being stone tools from this period. Objects found in the cave are displayed at the Musée de Préhistoire des Gorges du Verdon. The cave, a little over an hour’s walk from the museum, can be visited.
The people known as “Neanderthals,” the species Homo neanderthalensis, sometimes are described as our closest extinct human relatives. Evidence of Neanderthals can be found in various sites in France, most notably at Biache-Saint-Vaast (Pas-de-Calais), the Grotte de Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne), La Chapelle-aux-Saints (Corrèze), La Ferrassie (Dordogne), and the Grotte du Renne (Yonne). The importance of the site of Le Moustier in the village of Peyzac-le-Moustier (Dordogne) is discussed further in chapter 4.
Fossilized human remains were found at Biache-Saint-Vaast (Pas-de-Calais) during rescue excavations conducted between 1976 and 1982 on the site of an iron foundry. The many fossilized faunal remains included those of humans from the Middle Pleistocene epoch, between 200,000 and 175,000 years ago. Of particular interest were the three cranial fragments from the same individual, which the excavators named Biache-Saint-Vaast 2 (BSV2), which were identified among other faunal remains in 1986. Analysis of BSV2 indicates a number of anatomical similarities with Neanderthals, suggesting that the people at Biache-Saint-Vaast in this period were members of an early European Neanderthal group. Blache-Saint-Vaast is also a significant site for evidence of the early use of composite tool technology, in particular the attachment of a worked stone tool to a handle. This technology increases the efficiency of the tools, accordingly making foraging and hunting more productive. The debate is whether this technology was devised independently in Europe by Neanderthals or spread from Africa into Europe.
The Grotte de Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne) first was accessed in 1990 by cavers; archaeological work started in the early 1990s, followed by a more recent project that began in 2013. The archaeologists found that the only evidence of human presence in the cave are two round structures made from whole and broken stalagmites associated with four smaller piles of stalagmites and traces of burned bone. The position of the structures deep in the cave is interpreted as the marking of symbolic or ritual space. Dating undertaken by the more recent projects indicates that the largest of the structures was built between about 175,000 and 179,000 years ago. Although no human remains were found, the Neanderthals were the only human people in this area at this time. The investigations at the Grotte de Bruniquel indicate a high level of sophistication, including the use of deep areas within caves, the exploitation of the stalagmites in the caves for construction, and the use of fire.
The fossilized skeleton of a male Neanderthal, named by archaeologists La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1—sometimes referred to colloquially as le Vieillard (“Old Man”)—is considered to be the first relatively complete Neanderthal skeleton found in a secure archaeological context. The skeleton was found in August 1908 by Jean Bouyssonie, with his brothers Amédée and Paul and their colleague Louis Bardon in a small limestone cave called Bouffia Bonneval near the commune of La Chapelle-aux-Saints (Corrèze). A large proportion of the skeleton, which is about sixty thousand years old, was retrieved: the well-preserved skull, jaw, most of the vertebrae, several ribs, most of the long bones of the arms and legs, and some of the small bones of the hands and feet. The remains were bought by the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, where an early reconstruction was undertaken by the geologist, palaeontologist, and physical anthropologist Marcellin Boule. The reconstruction now is considered to be extremely misleading, although it strongly influenced the former popular perception of Neanderthals as primitive and brutish. A new excavation of the Bouffia Bonneval took place in 2011 and 2012. This work enabled archaeologists to conclude that the burial of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 was intentional and conducted quite rapidly. In addition, more fragments of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 were found, together with the remains of a second adult and two young individuals. A replica of the burial of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 is on display at the local museum of Le Musée de La Chapelle-aux-Saints “Jean Bouyssonie.”
Another notable group of Neanderthal burials were discovered in the rock shelter at La Ferrassie in Savignac-de-Miremont (Dordogne), found in 1909 by Louis Capitan and Denis Peyrony, with additional excavations conducted by Henri Delporte between 1968 and 1973. Both excavations discovered fossilized human remains of both adults and children, seemingly buried intentionally. The best-preserved remains were those of an adult male, designated La Ferrassie 1. His leg and feet bones indicated that he walked upright, strongly contradicting the incorrect suggestion made by Boule. La Ferrassie also provided an example of Neanderthal art, as a limestone block above one of the child burials was decorated with a series of small hollows known as “cupules” or “cup marks.” Excavations at La Ferrassie between 2010 and 2014 and reevaluation of one of the child skeletons from La Ferrassie are discussed in chapter 6.
Perhaps the most striking example of Neanderthal art is the proto-figurine found during excavation at the site of La Roche-Cotard in the commune of Langeais (Indre-et-Loire). The cave of La Roche-Cotard was found in 1912 by François d’Achon, although the proto-figurine was not found until 1975, when further archaeological work revealed an intact occupation layer where about seventy-five thousand years ago people, in all likelihood Neanderthal, stopped on the bank of the river Loire, lighted a fire, and prepared food. The proto-figurine, often referred to as a “mask,” is a piece of retouched flint some ten centimeters tall. It has a natural conduit through which a piece of reindeer bone some 7.5 centimeters long carefully was inserted and held in place with small stones, giving the impression of eyes.
Pigments have been found at Neanderthal sites, including red pigment associated with human remains at Le Moustier (Dordogne) and La Chapelle-aux-Saints (Corrèze). At Le Pech-de-l’Azé in the commune of Carsac-Aillac (Dordogne), more than five hundred pieces of pigment, dating from between sixty and fifty thousand years ago, have been found. Most were manganese dioxide, which produces a black and blue pigment; some were pieces of iron oxide. Some were rounded or polished into a shape that suggests their possible use for drawing onto a soft surface.
Important evidence regarding the demise of Neanderthals comes from La Grotte du Renne, one of a group of caves in Arcy-sur-Cure (Yonne). The cave yielded deposits dated between fifty and thirty thousand years ago, containing evidence of both Late Neanderthal and Homo sapiens activity. Objects made by Neanderthals included bone awls, the canine teeth of wolf and fox, together with a fossil shell, all with incised grooves suggesting they were used as pendants; a fragment of bone with a wide carved hole; and a fossil with a hole bored through the center.
Paleolithic Art
The Upper Paleolithic period, sometimes referred to as the “Ice Age,” is noted for evidence of artistic production. Portable art and jewelry were created from about 40,000 BC, and caves with decorated surfaces are found from around 30,000 BC. However, most of the known art dates to the latter part of the Ice Age, around 10,000 BC. The vast majority of caves with decorated walls have been found in the southwest of France, in the départements of Ardèche, Dordogne, Lot, and Ariège.
Ardèche département: La Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc
The group of paintings in the Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, near the commune of Vallon-Pont d’Arc (Ardèche), once were thought to be the oldest known cave paintings in France. The cave is close to the natural rock arch created by the river Ardèche known as the Pont d’Arc, which is thought to be the largest natural arch in Europe, standing sixty-six meters high, with a span of thirty-four meters.
The cave was found in December 1994 by three cavers: Jean-Marie Chauvet, after whom the cave was named; Eliette Brunel Deschamps; and Christian Hillaire. It was found in the course of the team’s systematic survey of the Ardèche gorge, which they had been conducting since 1991. The team already had located new cave sites, some of which had been decorated in the Paleolithic period. Study of the Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc began in 1998, led by Jean Clottes. Following the deterioration of paintings observed at Lascaux, the cave has never been open to the public, and accordingly a replica cave, known as the Caverne du Pont d’Arc, was constructed close to the original. The question of public access to painted caves and the views on replication, are discussed in chapter 5.
The Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc is very large, around four hundred meters long, and almost certainly had more than one entrance. It can be divided into fifteen discrete areas, with decoration on the walls throughout the cave, apart from the initial section. The most elaborate decoration is in the Salle du Fond, deep in the cave. A large range of animals are depicted, fourteen different species, a greater number than found in the caves at Cosquer (eleven species), Lascaux (nine species), and Niaux (six species). In addition to the animals that appear frequently in other Paleolithic caves, such as horses, bison, and aurochs (a type of early cattle, now extinct), there are images of animals rarely seen elsewhere in cave art, such as lions and cave bears, the latter a species that became extinct between twenty and twenty-five thousand years ago. There is no clear depiction of a complete human figure in the Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, with the exceptions of the lower part of a female (the so-called Venus), adjacent to a man-bison composite drawing (the so-called Sorcerer).
The paintings fall into two main series, one group predominantly using red pigment; the other, mainly featuring black charcoal. Those rendered in red are located close to the present-day entrance to the cave. This phase also included simple images of animals, including cave bears, reindeer, and mammoth, in red and also black outline. These images are likely to date from the time when humans visited the cave around twenty-eight thousand years ago, although nothing directly indicates that humans ever lived in the cave. Evidence indicates that they used torches and a hearth, samples of which have been dated using AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) and conventional radiocarbon dating. The cliff face where the modern-day entrance to the cave is situated apparently collapsed between twenty-two thousand and fifteen thousand years ago. Most of the images rendered in black charcoal, including horses, bison, and lions, date to this phase and are located in areas of the cave that are now perceived as deeper due to the relocation of the cave’s entrance. Among the earliest may be a series of images of human hands, some rendered by the artist placing his or her hand against the cave wall as a stencil and blowing fluid pigment around the hand, with others being handprints. A fascinating discovery was a single track of footprints made by a child in what is today the deepest gallery of the cave.
Dordogne département
A particularly important group of rock shelters and caves in the Dordogne département are known as the Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley, added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1979. The commune of Les Eyzies in the Vézère Valley is home to the Musée national de préhistoire, founded by Denis Peyrony in 1913 with the acquisition by the state of the ruined Château des Eyzies. A large new building was opened on the site in 2004, designed by the noted architects Buffi Associés.
The Abri Cro-Magnon in Les Eyzies is the rock shelter that gave its name to a group of early modern humans who lived around twenty-eight thousand years ago in the Upper Paleolithic period and who were first recognized at this site. The rock shelter was discovered in March 1868 during road building when the workmen had discovered fossilized human remains and stone tools. This led to a series of archaeological excavations, begun by Louis Lartet, son of the noted prehistorian Edouard Lartet, whose achievements are discussed in chapter 4. The work was completed in 1907 by Denis Peyrony. The rock shelter was found to have contained the fossilized remains of a total of five humans, four adults and a baby, as well as around three hundred perforated shells. It is generally believed that the humans had been buried deliberately in a single grave. The “type skeleton,” named Cro-Magnon 1, is of a male aged under forty at death, and the other remains are fragmentary skeletons of two other adult males, a female, and a newborn baby. In addition, there are cranial fragments of another adult. In April 2014, a site museum opened at the Abri Cro-Magnon.
Another rock shelter in Les Eyzies is the Abri Pataud, which produced fossilized human remains in the course of excavations in the 1950s and 1960s by Hallam L. Movius of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, in collaboration with the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. The archaeologists found that the use of the rock shelter had changed over time. From about thirty-five thousand years ago to about twenty-eight thousand years ago, the rock shelter was used for short-term occupation by seminomadic hunter-gatherers. By twenty-eight thousand years ago, erosion had enlarged the rock shelter; by the end of the Gravettian period, about twenty-two thousand years ago, the roof had collapsed, leaving only a narrow passage. Archaeologists found the remains of six individuals who died at the end of the Gravettian period, a discovery that has shed light on funerary practices from this period. Excavations at the Abri Pataud recommenced in 2005, undertaken by the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris.
The Abri de la Madeleine, close to the small town of Tursac, is the “type site” for one of the later phases of the Upper Paleolithic in Western Europe, dating between 15,000 and 10,000 BC. The rock shelter produced many small carvings made from bone and antler, revealed during a series of excavations beginning in 1863 by Edouard Lartet. These excavations subsequently were continued by other archaeologists including Denis Peyrony, whose most spectacular find came to light in 1926. This was the burial of a small child, aged between two and four years, who died around 8,000 BC and now is popularly called “l’enfant de la Madeleine.” The child was buried in the rock shelter accompanied by around fifteen hundred items of jewelry made from shells, bone, and teeth, and may have been wearing clothing decorated with beads made from shells. The burial of the child known as “l’enfant de la Madeleine” is now in the Musée national de préhistoire at Les Eyzies.
The Grotte de Lascaux, located two kilometers southeast of Montignac, undoubtedly is the most famous of the decorated caves. The cave is said to have been a chance discovery in September 1940 by four young boys who followed their dog into an opening that led to the cave. The importance of the paintings was recognized immediately by archaeologists Denis Peyrony, Jean Bouyssonie, André Cheynier, and Henri Breuil. It was fortunate that Breuil, who at that time was a professor in Paris, was staying at Brive, a little over thirty kilometers from Lascaux, at the time of the discovery.
Figure 2.2. The “Falling Horse,” La Grotte de Lascaux. Jean Vertut, P. Bahn collection
The discovery of the Grotte de Lascaux initially was reported by Breuil in the journal Nature and in a preliminary report made to the Académie des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres. It was more widely known in English-speaking countries through an article that appeared in the Illustrated London News in February 1942. Scientific excavation of Lascaux began in 1947, when charcoal was recovered for radiocarbon dating, the first from a Paleolithic decorated cave. Between 1952 and 1963 an inventory of images was compiled by André Glory.
The Grotte de Lascaux’s range of galleries have been given modern names: La Salle des Taureaux, Le Diverticule Axial, Le Passage, L’Abside, Le Puits, Le Nef, and Le Diverticule des Félins. They contain approximately fifteen hundred individual representations of animals, the majority engraved, some painted, together with “signs”—motifs that are either abstract or geometric in form. A wide range of animals are shown, particularly aurochs, horses, and deer, although more than half of the animal images are found in a single area, known as L’Abside, with a large number, albeit poorly preserved, in Le Passage.
The first large room in the cave, known as La Salle des Taureaux, is arguably the most spectacular of all the painted galleries at seventeen meters long, six meters wide, and seven meters high. The room is named from the images of a series of massive bull aurochs, more than five meters long. The aurochs were painted at a high level in black outline, often superimposed over older images. An intriguing image in the Salle des Taureaux is an indeterminate composite creature, misleadingly nicknamed “La Licorne” (unicorn) as it has two horns, with possible human characteristics. The series of animal images, which also include horses, stags, a few bison, and a single bear, are painted as though moving toward the Diverticule Axial, a narrow area that leads from the Salle des Taureaux.
The Diverticule Axial is decorated with aurochs, deer, wild goats, and horses, and includes the “Falling Horse” (figure 2.2), painted around a rock in a very skilfull manner. The paintings and engravings on the walls of Le Passage, which also leads from the Salle des Taureaux, of 286 animal figures—mostly of horses—that were recorded by André Glory are quite difficult to see. The number of animals in this gallery is exceeded only by L’Abside, which leads from it. The walls of L’Abside are covered with more than one thousand engravings and paintings, both animal figures and signs. The 250 recognizable animal figures include 125 horses, 70 deer, 38 cattle, and 17 ibex.
This leads to Le Nef, which contains some of the most famous images in the entire cave. Unlike other parts of the cave, where the lower part of the wall is distinguished from the ceiling by a high ledge or cornice, Le Nef has a deep recess at the back of the ledge. Nearly eighty animal figures have been recorded in this section, among which is a depiction of five deer, seemingly swimming with their heads above the water; a series of seven ibex; and a pair of bison facing in opposite directions with their crossed back legs giving the impression that one is closer than the other. Le Panneau de l’Empreinte has engraved and painted horses and bison, and a panel with a large black aurochs. These two latter sections include grid-like rectilinear symbols depicted below the animals. It is clear that all of the panels in Le Nef focus on several images of a particular species. The only section of the main galleries at Lascaux that apparently has no decoration is La galerie du Mondmilch, an extension of Le Nef, whose floor and lower walls are covered with a coating of friable white calcite popularly known as “mondmilch” (moon milk). Leading from Le Nef is a corridor known as Le Diverticule des Félins, which is decorated with engravings of lions. Also there are engravings and a few paintings of bison, horses, female deer, ibex, and signs, including some checkerboard designs.
La Grande Diaclase and Le Puits lead from L’Abside, although both would have been difficult to access. One wall of Le Puits is painted with figures of a human lying dead in front of a severely wounded bison, with a bird (or perhaps a sculpted spear thrower) and rhinoceros facing in the opposite direction. A horse’s head is painted on the opposite wall. Analysis suggests that the pigment used for the rhinoceros, a species not depicted elsewhere in the cave, is sufficiently different to show that the scenes were not painted at the same time.
In addition to the wall paintings, around one thousand objects have been found in the cave, the most fascinating objects arguably being those used by the people who painted the cave, including lamps, grinding equipment for the minerals used to make pigments, hollowed stones still containing pigment, and around 160 fragments of the minerals themselves. Red and black, the dominant colors found in the paintings, were made from naturally occurring minerals, including red ochre, a form of hematite, and goethite to render red; and manganese oxide, as well as charcoal, to render black. Large areas of the walls, especially in the Salle des Taureaux and the Diverticule Axial, were covered with a thin layer of white calcite, which made the colored figures stand out.
The period of use of Lascaux has been very difficult to date, principally because the contents of the cave were cleared in 1948 without any archaeological investigation having been made. However, wood charcoal from the floor of Le Passage has been radiocarbon dated to 17,190 years ago, with another charcoal sample taken from Le Puits dated somewhat later, to 15,516 years ago. Although the conventional view is that the paintings and engravings at Lascaux were made in a single period of occupation, more recent thinking favors the view that it is likely that Lascaux was in use over a number of different periods.
Lascaux cave was opened to the public in 1948 and attracted large numbers of visitors. However, the decision was made to close the cave to the public in April 1963 due to the extreme deterioration of the paintings. To cater to public interest, a facsimile of the cave, known as Lascaux II, was begun in the early 1970s and opened to the public in 1983. In addition, an exhibition known as Lascaux III was devised; it primarily displays paintings not included in Lascaux II and has traveled to several destinations worldwide. Lascaux IV, more formally known as the Centre International d’Art Pariétal (CIAP), is a new facsimile of the cave that opened in winter 2016 and is discussed further in chapter 5.
Also in the Vézère Valley is the only decorated cave in France with polychrome paintings that remains open to the public: the Grotte de Font-de-Gaume, whose significance is discussed further in chapter 1.
Two of the caves in the Dordogne, Bernifal, close to Meyrals and Rouffignac, are noted for images of the now-extinct mammoth. In particular, the cave system at Rouffignac, more than eight kilometers long, contains at least 160 depictions of mammoths, approximately one-third of all known mammoth depictions in caves.
Lot département
Several decorated caves are located in the river valleys of the Lot and the Célé, but only two are open to the public: Les Grottes de Cougnac and La Grotte du Pech Merle.
Les Grottes de Cougnac, near Gourdon (Lot), was discovered in 1949 and 1952, although only one of the caves is decorated. The paintings were made using red ochre, almost always in outline, and depict mammoths, ibex, possible human figures, and, most striking, three megaloceros, a type of giant deer. It is notable that in many cases the ancient cave painters took advantage of the natural shapes of the cave wall, such as an image of an ibex whose legs were formed by natural fissures in the walls of the cave.
La Grotte du Pech Merle, near Cabrerets (Lot), southeast of Cougnac, is equally striking. The cave was discovered in 1914 by two students, who found the chamber later called the Salle Rouge. In 1922, the son of the owner of the land where the cave is located and his friend discovered the Salle Blanche and alerted the Abbé Amédée Lemozi, priest at Cabrerets, who had a great interest in prehistory. Later that year, further chambers were discovered. The cave, which extends for about two kilometers, has been open to the public since 1924, when an artificial entrance and walkway were created.
The decoration dates to two phases between twenty-eight thousand and twenty-two thousand years ago. The most renowned painting from the earlier phase of decoration is a scene about four meters long showing two horses, partly overlapping. Their coats are rendered by a series of black spots surrounded by images of stencils of human hands. The black charcoal pigment of one of the horses has been radiocarbon dated to more than twenty-four thousand years ago. The later phase of decoration included that found in the Chapelle des Mamouths, an alcove three meters high and seven meters long on the south side of the main chamber known as La Salle Préhistorique. The decoration includes the Frise Noire, a series of drawings of animal figures in black outline, predominantly mammoths, along with bison, aurochs, and horses. A small number of engravings are considered to be from the final phase of decoration and include the head of a bear. It appears that the Grotte du Pech Merle was never inhabited, the scant evidence of human presence indicated by the remains of twelve footprints of an adolescent or small adult, pointing in two directions, deep in the cave. The Musée Amédée Lemozi, named in honor of the Abbé Lemozi, is near the cave entrance. In 1934 he founded a prehistoric museum from his private collection, which provides an introduction to the prehistory of the Quercy region of southwest France, as well as the cave paintings.
Ariège département
One of the most accessible caves is the Grotte du Mas d’Azil (Ariège), a natural tunnel, 420 meters long and 50 meters wide, which was occupied from about 30,000 BC (figure 2.3). The D119 road from Carcassonne (Aude) to Lescure (Ariège) runs through the middle of the cave. The building of the road required embankments, whose construction revealed archaeological remains. The first scientifically organized excavations were conducted between 1887 and 1897 by Edouard Piette, who found stone tools and portable art, including examples of “galets peints” (so-called Azilian pebbles), discussed in chapter 5. In addition, Piette believed he had identified a new distinct culture, which he named the “Azilian era,” which followed the Magdalenian. Further excavations by l’Abbé Henri Breuil in 1901 and 1902 revealed the first paintings and carvings in the cave. Joseph Mandement continued investigations between 1938 and 1958, discovering the human skull known as the “crâne de Magda” in 1949, which is now in the museum of Le Mas d’Azil. The results of new research at the Grotte du Mas d’Azil, announced in 2015, revealed that the cave was occupied from thirty-five thousand years ago, much earlier than previously known, in the Aurignacian period.
Figure 2.3. Entrance to La Grotte du Mas d’Azil. Alamy
Access through the cave is facilitated by a series of staircases, where the galleries have been given modern names, some of which reflect natural or perceived features (“silex” [flint], “temple” [temple], “ours” [bear]), whereas others (Piette, Breuil, Dewoitine-Mandement) are named after archaeologists or, in the case of Dewoitine, an aircraft manufacturer who considered making planes in the cave in World War II. The areas of the cave with painted walls are not open to the public to limit their deterioration, although reproductions are on display in the museum in Le Mas d’Azil.
The majority of the finds from the Grotte du Mas d’Azil were collected by Edouard Piette and are now in the collection of the Musée National d’Archéologie nationale. Later finds were moved from the cave to the museum in the main square of town of Le Mas d’Azil, with a much smaller display in the interpretation center in the cave itself, which opened in 2013. However, the archaeologists have left a few objects in situ, such as the skull of a cave bear and mammoth teeth.
A small group of archaeological finds from the Grotte du Mas d’Azil were acquired by the town and initially exhibited in the Musée Ladeveze. The collection was expanded considerably in 1965 with the acquisition of the collection of objects excavated in the cave by Saint-Just Péquart between 1936 and 1944. In 1981 a new museum was opened on its present site in the main square of Le Mas d’Azil, now known as the Musée de la Préhistoire. The displays, which extend over three floors, include examples of the “galets peints” (so-called Azilian pebbles), whose simple designs painted in red ochre encouraged the widespread forgeries discussed in chapter 5. Other finds from the Grotte du Mas d’Azil include the “crâne de Magda,” which are the only human remains found in the cave. The crâne de Magda is a human skull, without lower jaw or teeth, of a young woman aged between fifteen and twenty. A disc made from deer bone was found over her left eye, another near the skull. The woman was given the name Magda after the Magdalenian period when the cave was in use. The skull reportedly was found mixed with animal bones rather than given a separate burial. A decorated spear thrower, a type of hunting tool, is another renowned find from the cave. The spear thrower is carved from deer antler in the shape of a fawn turning its head toward two birds. The object is very similar to a spear thrower found in the Grotte de Bédeilhac, discussed later in this chapter. The top floor of the museum, in a display opened in 2011, gives the visitor the opportunity to see reproductions of the paintings and engravings in parts of the Grotte du Mas d’Azil that are not open to the public.
The Grotte de Niaux, in the Vicdessos valley, consists of a series of chambers and passageways, more than thirteen hundred meters long with the lateral galleries adding a further six hundred meters. The paintings at Niaux had been known since at least the nineteenth century, although their age and significance were not realized until study of the paintings in the gallery of the cave named the “Salon Noir,” discovered in September 1906 by Commander Moland and his two teenage sons. The paintings came to the attention of Emile Cartailhac, a prehistorian from the University of Toulouse, who, together with Henri Breuil, published a partial survey in 1908. More recently, the images in the cave were recorded systematically by Jean Clottes and Denis Viatou between 1980 and 1981. The vast majority of animal figures in the cave, together with more than one-third of all of the abstract signs, are found in the Salon Noir, nine hundred meters from the entrance, and so called because of the color of the drawings using primarily charcoal. With one exception, all figures are rendered in black, with only a few signs in red. The animal images in the “Salon Noir” are dominated by bison, as well as deer, ibex, and horses. In addition to the walls, number of engravings are on the floor of this part of the cave. A full-size reproduction of the paintings in the Salon Noir is displayed at the nearby Parc de la Préhistoire at Tarascon-sur-Ariège.
The Grotte de la Vache, also in the Vicdessos valley, was opened to the public in 1979. Initially, it was excavated by Félix Garrigou in 1860 and more recently by Romain Robert, in excavations which took place over a period of twenty years, concluding in 1964. Robert’s most spectacular find was the “Salle Monique,” which he interpreted as a camp of prehistoric hunters. This room alone yielded more than 200,000 finds from the Magdalenian period, including around 143,000 animal teeth and bones. Other finds comprised about 36,000 stone tools, about 2,000 spear throwers, some 300 harpoons made from deer antler, and about 300 bone needles. Robert also found about 200 animal teeth and shells that had been pierced to act as jewelry, together with 220 pieces of portable art. There is no site museum at the Grotte de la Vache, and the finds are now in the Musée National d’Archéologie nationale-Domaine national.
The Grotte de Bédeilhac was first recorded by Marcorelle, who visited the cave in 1773 and in 1776 published his description of his “underground journey” in his book Voyage souterrain, ou, Description des grottes de Lombrive et de Bédeilhac. However, the first archaeological exploration did not take place until 1906, when l’Abbé Henri Breuil discovered in the “large gallery” a painting of a bison dating from the Magdalenian period, the first to be found in the Ariège département. This stimulated interest in the cave, and other archaeologists followed Breuil, discovering approximately one hundred images, mostly engraved. Unusually, some of the engravings were made on the soft floor of the cave. As mentioned above, one of the most notable discoveries in the Grotte de Bédeilhac is a spear thrower in the form of a fawn looking at a bird, which is very similar to a spear thrower from the Grotte du Mas d’Azil.
Apart from archaeology, the cave became famous in 1929 when it was the location of one of the first films made underground. In addition, this cave, as well as the Grotte du Mas d’Azil, was considered by Emile Dewoitine as the possible site for the manufacture of aircraft during World War II, although there is no substance in the rumor that the cave was used as a Nazi airbase in World War II. However, a small tourist plane was landed in the cave in 1972 by the test pilot Georges Bonnet. Bonnet repeated the feat in 1974 during filming of the dramatization of the novel Le Passe Montagne by Christian Bernadac. A replica of the plane is displayed close to the entrance of the cave. It is likely, however, that the leveling of the entrance to the cave led to the destruction of much archaeological evidence.
Sculpted Reliefs
An unusual type of Ice Age art are sculpted bas-reliefs, notable examples of which can be found at the rock shelters known as Le Roc-aux-Sorciers, the Abri du Cap Blanc, and the Abri du Poisson, the latter discussed further in chapter 5.
Le Roc-aux-Sorciers, near the commune of Angles-sur-l’Anglin (Vienne), was first investigated in 1927 by Lucien Rousseau, and the sculpted frieze excavated by Suzanne de Saint-Mathurin and Dorothy Garrod between 1950 and 1957. The exposed section of the frieze, which was cut into fine-grained limestone, is at least eighteen meters long and 2.5 meters high, and it has been suggested that it would originally have been in daylight. The decoration of the frieze consists of animal and human figures depicted at two levels. A facsimile of the frieze is displayed at the Centre d’Interprétation de la Frise Magdalénienne at Angles-sur-l’Anglin; some of the sculpted fragments, which apparently fell from the cave walls, are in the collection of the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale.
Another example of a sculpted frieze, although on a smaller scale than that at the Roc-aux-Sorciers, was found at the Abri du Cap Blanc, a rock shelter in the commune of Marquay (Dordogne). The relief frieze, which depicts a series of horses, bison, and deer, was discovered in 1909 by Dr. Gaston Lalanne, a medical doctor from Bordeaux. At the nearby rock shelter known as the Abri de Laussel, Lalanne also discovered the famous figure known as the “Venus of Laussel.” The figure is around twenty-five thousand years old and was found carved in relief into a block of previously fallen limestone. The “Venus,” which is forty-five centimeters high, is shown naked, holding a curved object. The figure originally was colored red with ochre, of which some traces remain. Other carvings from the same block as the Venus depicted additional female figures. All were removed to Bordeaux, where they entered the collections of the Musée d’Aquitaine in Bordeaux (Gironde). The museum also has in its collection a cast of the “Vénus déhanchée” (“Ungainly Venus”), the original of which was sold to a Berlin museum in 1912 and destroyed in World War II.
In 1911, further excavation at the Abri du Cap Blanc to install protection for the carved animal frieze revealed a human skeleton, which was lifted by Louis Capitan and Denis Peyrony. The skeleton was found two to three meters away from the frieze, lying on its left side, in a crouched position, immediately below a hearth from the Magdalenian period. In 1926 the skeleton was acquired in New York by Henry Field for display in the Field Museum in Chicago. For many years it was described as “Magdalenian Girl,” although now it is considered to be the skeleton of an adult woman. A cast of the skeleton, including a cast of the rare, small ivory object found in the abdomen area of the skeleton, has been installed in its original findspot in the Abri du Cap Blanc.
Clay reliefs or figures from this period are exceptionally rare. Well-preserved clay reliefs were found by three brothers, Max, Jacques, and Louis Bégouën, in 1912 in the Tuc d’Audoubert cave in the commune of Montesquieu-Avantès (Ariège). They take the form of two bison, sixty-three centimeters and sixty-one centimeters long, sculpted in high relief, and probably date between 15,000 BC and 10,000 BC (figure 2.4). The only known example of a clay figure was found in the cave at Montespan-Ganties (Haute-Garonne), which is also noted for the clay reliefs decorating its walls. The figure, which was found in 1923, depicts a bear with no head. It is sixty centimeters high and one meter long, and it has been estimated to have been made from about seven hundred kilograms of clay.
Figure 2.4. Clay relief showing two bison from Le Tuc d’Audoubert. Jean Vertut, P. Bahn collection
Bouches-du-Rhône département: La Grotte Cosquer
Unlike the majority of decorated caves that are found in the southwest of France, the Grotte Cosquer is close to Marseille. The entrance to the cave, in the steep-walled inlet known as the Calanque de Morgiou, now is submerged thirty-seven meters below sea level, the only known painted cave with an entrance below modern-day sea level. The cave was discovered in 1985 by the diver Henri Cosquer, but the paintings were not reported until 1991. The main period of archaeological excavation of the cave was in 2002 and 2003, by a team led by Jean Courtin.
The part of the cave that is above the water line measures about seventy meters by fifty-five meters. Within the cave archaeologists found paintings, engravings, a few stone tools, and charcoal from fires. The images, probably executed between 19,500 and 18,000 years ago, consist of more than two hundred geometric signs, and almost 180 depictions of animals, with eleven separate species represented: horses, bison, aurochs, ibex, chamois, saiga antelope, red deer, megaloceros, felines, birds, and monk seal, the latter two reflecting the cave’s location. Three figures, each about twenty-six centimeters long, are thought to represent great auks, the flightless birds that were once found off the Mediterranean coast of France. In addition, the cave has more than sixty stencils of human hands, made by both adults and children, some of which were made using red pigment. The majority of the animal figures were engraved, with a small proportion painted in black. More paintings undoubtedly existed originally, as much of the network of caves is now submerged, with the consequent destruction of any paintings.
Portable Art
Other artistic activity that has survived in the Ice Age archaeological record are examples of mobiliary, or portable art, the most famous of which are female figurines made from mammoth ivory.
The Dame de Brassempouy, sometimes called the Dame à la capuche, is one of the most famous works of portable art of the Upper Paleolithic period (figure 2.5). It is a rare depiction of human facial features and detailed hairstyle from the Ice Age. Traditionally interpreted as depicting a female, the object’s name derives from its findspot, the Grotte du Pape at Brassempouy (Landes). Only 365 millimeters high, it was made in around 21,000 BC. Now part of the collections of the Musée d’Archéologie nationale, it was formerly in the collection of Edouard Piette, who bequeathed it to the museum in 1904. This collection consists of objects of prehistoric art discovered by Piette during the course of excavations undertaken from 1871. In addition, the Piette collection includes a group of figurines found in the Grimaldi caves on the Ligurian coast of Italy in around 1880 by an M. Julien and acquired by Piette in 1896. It should be noted, however, that some scholars have raised doubts about the authenticity of the “Venus” figurines from the Grimaldi caves as well as the Dame de Brassempouy. The findspot of the Dame de Brassempouy was at a site where workers were rewarded for individual discoveries. This circumstance and the very unusual features of this object are the reasons why some have raised questions regarding its authenticity.
Figure 2.5. “La Dame de Brassempouy.” Jean Vertut, P. Bahn collection
Another notable female figure is the “Venus of Lespugue,” made between 24,000 BC and 22,000 BC. Standing 150 millimeters tall, the figure was found in 1922 in the Rideaux cave at Lespugue (Haute-Garonne). The archaeologist was René de Saint-Périer, who excavated the Grotte de Gouërris and the Abri des Harpons from 1924 until 1926. The figure is notable for the depiction of clothing in the form of a skirt supported by a belt present only at the back of the figure. It has been suggested that the corded appearance of the skirt indicates it was made from plant fibre. The many modern-day reproductions of this figure are testimony to its continuing appeal, and the artist Pablo Picasso owned two copies of the Venus of Lespugue, one in its present condition and one as it would have appeared when intact.
Other examples of portable art are personal ornaments fashioned from teeth, bone, or shell; or carved tools such as the decorated spear thrower in the shape of a fawn turning its head toward two birds found at the Grotte du Mas d’Azil, with a similar example with a single bird from the Grotte de Bédeilhac. Another example is the “bullroarer” from the Grotte de la Roche de Birol, near the commune of Lalinde (Dordogne). This is a flat piece of reindeer antler, eighteen centimeters long and four centimeters at its widest point, decorated with incised designs and colored with red ochre. It is likely that the perforation at one end allowed a cord to be attached. This would cause a whirring noise when the bullroarer was spun.
The Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods in France
The end of the Ice Age, which signals the beginning of the period known as the Mesolithic, is marked by a rise in temperature, which caused a change to the coastline of modern-day France, most notably the flooding of La Manche (the English Channel). In France, the Mesolithic period is considered to begin around 9600 BC and last until around 6000 BC.
More complex funerary customs are more visible in the archaeological record of the Mesolithic period. The sites of Téviec and Hoëdic (Morbihan), both now on small islands in the bay of Quiberon in the administrative region of Brittany, have produced evidence of elaborate burial practices. Téviec and Hoëdic, which each occupy only two hundred square meters, were excavated in the late 1920s and early 1930s by Marthe and Saint-Just Péquart; they were in use toward the end of the Mesolithic period. One of the most notable burials was found at Téviec and contained the remains of two females aged between twenty-five and thirty-five, with deer antlers placed over their bodies. Offerings included jewelry made from shells and flint projectile points. The grave was excavated in a single piece and is now on display at the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de la ville de Toulouse (Haute-Garonne).
The Grotte des Perrats near the commune of Agris (Charente), also mentioned in chapter 3 as the findspot of an elaborate Iron Age helmet, produced evidence generally interpreted as indicating that cannibalism was practiced, at least at this site. Faunal remains in the cave included those of at least eight humans (five adults and three children) alongside other animals and birds apparently killed for food. The humans had been dismembered and probably eaten, their skulls and long bones opened for their contents.
An unexpected discovery from the Mesolithic period is a skeleton from the site of Combe Capelle, in the commune of Saint-Avit-Sénieur (Dordogne). Excavation at the site by Otto Hauser in 1909 revealed the skeleton of a man aged between forty and fifty, buried with grave goods including a necklace of pierced snail shells, and generally believed to have dated from the Ice Age. Hauser sold the skeleton to the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte in Berlin, and at one time it was believed to have been lost in 1945. However, it is now apparent that the skull and necklace, together with the skull from the burial designated Le Moustier 1 (discussed further in chapter 1) had been removed to the Soviet Union in 1945 and returned to the German Democratic Republic in 1958, together with other art objects. The skull from Combe Capelle remained “lost” until parts of the skull were rediscovered in a museum store in Berlin in 2001, with further fragments identified in 2003, enabling the skull to be largely reassembled (Accession number Va 3798a). Dating of one of the teeth revealed the skull to date from around ninety-five hundred years ago, in the Mesolithic period and, accordingly, much more recent than previously considered.
The Neolithic period, considered to begin in France around 6000 BC and extend until around 2200 BC, is marked in the archaeological record by the abandonment of a nomadic way of life, the adoption of the use of pottery containers, and a change in stone tool technology, with the appearance of polished or ground stone axs.
The archaeology of Brittany is renowned for the large number of Neolithic monuments around the Gulf of Morbihan (“little sea” in the Breton language) in an area of around three hundred square kilometers, such as Gavrinis and the group of monuments around Carnac-Ville (both Morbihan). The monuments take the form of menhirs (standing stones, single or in a group, the latter in a linear alignment or circular arrangement), dolmens (burial chambers), tumuli (burial chambers covered by earth), and passage graves, consisting of a burial chamber accessed by a long, narrow passage.
The monuments are often termed “megalithic,” from the Greek language and literally meaning “large stone”: very appropriate, when one considers that the single stone known as the Grand Menhir Brisé (figure 2.6) is estimated to weigh three hundred tons. The visibility of the monuments in the landscape attracted antiquarian interest from the early eighteenth century, with the first extensive excavation of Carnac alignments taking place in the middle of the nineteenth century. The precise function of the monuments is unclear, although it seems likely that the standing stones marked ritual complexes, the locations of which were sometimes subsequently used as funerary monuments.
Figure 2.6. Le Grand Menhir Brisé, Locmariaquer. istock, 153535383
One of the earliest passage graves, which was constructed around 4400 BC, is the monument known as the Cairn de Barnenez, near Plouezoc’h (Finistère) on the Kernéléhen peninsula. It gained its name from the huge cairn made of small stones, some seventy-two meters long and up to eight meters high, which covered the entire tomb. The Cairn de Barnenez has eleven separate chambers, each of which is approached from the exterior via a separate passageway.
The most famous group of megalithic monuments are close to Carnac-Ville (Morbihan), with at least eleven “alignments” within eight kilometers of Carnac. The monuments, conventionally described as alignments, are rows of standing stones arranged in a series of parallel lines and often ending in an “enclosure” formed of upright stones marking out an oval or rectangular area. The alignments were constructed over a period of approximately five hundred years, beginning just before 3000 BC and ending around 2500 BC. The largest surviving alignment is at Kezerho, the most westerly of the Carnac alignments at Carnac-Plage, which is more than two thousand meters long and consists of a total of more than eleven hundred standing stones in ten rows. To the northeast of Kezerho is the alignment at Le Ménec, only a ten-minute walk from Carnac-Ville. The alignment is around twelve hundred meters long and has more than one thousand standing stones arranged in ten parallel rows measuring one hundred meters at its widest point. A single stone, much taller than its neighbors at around 3.5 meters high, is popularly known as the “Géant du Ménec” (the Giant of Ménec). The monument at Kermario (figure 1.3), to the east of Le Ménec, is about one thousand meters long, with more than one thousand stones in seven main rows and three partial rows. The alignment extends over the tertre (low burial mound) at Le Manio, strong evidence that the alignments at Kermario (and, indeed, elsewhere) were not built as a single event but evolved over time. Just to the south stands the Géant du Manio, a single standing stone more than six meters high, the tallest in the Carnac area. An information center is at Kermario, together with a footbridge that enables visitors to see the whole alignment, particularly informative now that access to the main alignments is restricted. East of Kermario are the alignments at Kerlescan, where a group of 594 standing stones in thirteen rows, 880 meters long and 139 meters wide, leads to a semicircular enclosure of thirty-nine stones. Further east is the small alignment of Petit Menée. An even smaller alignment is at Sainte-Barbe, near the commune of Plouharnel (Morbihan), formed of only four standing stones.
Other Neolithic monuments, both dolmens (burial chambers) and tumuli (burial chambers covered by earth), can be seen around Carnac-Ville and Carnac-Plage. Dolmens are found at Mané-Kerioned, with elaborate carvings; Rondossoc, comprising three underground chambers; Crucuno; and Mané-Croch. Tumuli in this area include the Tumulus Saint-Michel and Tumulus de Kercado. The Tumulus Saint-Michel, which contains two burial chambers, dates from the Early Neolithic period, about 4500 BC, and is more than one hundred meters long and about ten meters high. When excavated, the chamber was found to contain fine polished axs made of stone including jadeite, the latter considered prestige objects. Although the tumulus is no longer open to the public, it is worth climbing the tumulus not only to visit the Chapelle Saint-Michel but also to enjoy the view of the megaliths, together with the small islands in the Gulf of Morbihan. The nearby Tumulus de Kercado also dates from the Early Neolithic period and is notable for the carvings on the stones that form the burial chamber inside the tumulus.
The village of Locmariaquer (Morbihan), east of Carnac at the entrance to the Gulf of Morbihan, is home to a group of megalithic monuments known as the “Ensemble mégalithique de Locmariaquer.” The group consists of the tumulus of Er-Grah, the exceptionally large standing stone known as the Grand Menhir Brisé, and the Table des Marchands (figure 1.1), a Middle Neolithic passage grave. The tumulus of Er-Grah was originally two hundred meters long and is an example of the type of tumuli known as “Carnac Mounds,” found at several sites around the Gulf of Morbihan. The Grand Menhir Brisé is the most spectacular of the Locmariaquer group. It is no exaggeration to say that it is one of the greatest prehistoric monuments in Europe. The Grand Menhir Brisé is a massive single stone, by far the largest known megalith from prehistoric Europe. Originally, it was more than twenty meters high and weighed more than 350 tons, but now is broken into four pieces. The menhir has an image of an ax carved on one of its sides. It is believed that the menhir was erected in the fifth or early fourth millennium BC. The type of granite from which the menhir was carved is from a quarry twelve kilometers away from Locmariaquer, and the transport of the stone to its present site would have involved many people. Although not as large as the Grand Menhir Brisé, other colossal standing stones are in the area around the Gulf of Morbihan. Furthermore, evidence is that further large standing stones, now no longer present, were close to the Grand Menhir Brisé, where empty footings have been found that once held similar menhirs. The evidence is that at least some of the dismantled menhirs were used in the fourth millennium BC in nearby passage graves, a good example being the menhir reused at the Table des Marchands and the passage grave at Gavrinis.
The name “Table des Marchands” has been used since the beginning of the nineteenth century, undoubtedly a reference to the tomb’s original appearance; constructed from a large slab of stone resting on three supports, it looks like a table. It is unclear whether the “Marchands” was a reference to traders, or was a family name. The monument first was excavated from 1811, although any finds were either dispersed or lost, including the intriguing “peloton de fil d’or” (ball of golden thread). Further excavations took place in the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, at which time the monument’s structure was first stabilized. In 1937, Zacharie le Rouzic, best known for his work on the Carnac monuments, also attempted to strengthen the monument. Excavations resumed in 1986, under the direction of Jean L’Helgouac’h. The artificial cairn covering the tomb was added in 1993, offering protection to the structure and attempting to re-create its original appearance. Jean L’Helgouac’h was known not only as an eminent archaeologist, but also as a practitioner of traditional Breton music and composer of new works using traditional Breton instruments.
Another group of monuments a short distance from Locmariaquer are a dolmen tomb at Kerlud, a tumulus at Mané-er-Hroech, and the passage grave known as Les Pierres-Plates (figure 1.2). The entrance to Les Pierres-Plates, excavated in 1813, is marked by a standing stone. The walls of the passage leading to the burial chamber are decorated with carvings.
Figure 2.7. Engraving of axes, Gavrinis. Paul G. Bahn
To the east of Locmariaquer is the Gulf of Morbihan, which has several small islands. This picturesque area offers not only beautiful scenery, but also the opportunity to visit the small island of Gavrinis, which has a passage grave featuring decorated slabs, one of the most fascinating and unusual of all of the megalithic monuments in Brittany.
The tiny uninhabited island of Gavrinis, around 750 meters by 400 meters, is reached by boat from the town of Larmor-Baden. The passage grave was first excavated in 1835, continued by Zacharie le Rouzic in the 1920s, with further investigation in the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The grave has a passage 14 meters long, which leads to a burial chamber around 2.5 meters square. The roof of the chamber is formed from a single stone slab made from a fragment of the same monument used in the construction of the Table des Marchands, four kilometers away, and, in all likelihood, the tumulus at Er-Grah. It was noted as early as 1834 that the decorated capstone of the Table des Marchands was broken at its eastern end, suggesting that originally it was longer. The adjoining part was located in 1983, almost 150 years later, during excavations at Gavrinis, with the decoration being an exact match. This raises intriguing questions regarding not only the possible connections between these monuments, but also the meaning of the standing stones. The Gavrinis tomb is the best-known example of passage grave art found in France, with twenty-three engraved and carved vertical stones, around two meters high, along both sides of the passage and around the burial chamber (figure 2.7). The recent survey project at Gavrinis, which suggests use of the tomb between 3900 BC and 3770 BC, is discussed in more detail in chapter 6.
To the southeast of Gavrinis is the tiny island of Er Lannic (Morbihan), now a bird sanctuary. On Er Lannic are two “circles” of standing stones, better described as a horseshoe shape. Excavation revealed that they were associated with large numbers of stone axs and a distinctively shaped pottery object known as a burner, typical of the Neolithic period in France. It has been suggested that the finds are the remains of a cemetery that preceded the stone circles. The northern monument today is partly submerged in the Gulf of Morbihan; however, the southern monument, perhaps slightly earlier in date, is totally submerged, appearing only at low tide. The presence of the bird reserve on Er Lannic means that it is not permissible to land on the island, although the boat to Gavrinis passes nearby, enabling visitors to see the northern circle.
South of the Gulf of Morbihan is the peninsula known as Presqu’île de Rhuys. The landscape can be viewed from the Tumiac tumulus (Morbihan), popularly known as the “Butte de César.” This is a reference to the legend that from the tumulus Julius Caesar viewed the sea battle in 56 BC in which his forces were victorious over the Veneti, the indigenous people who lived around the Gulf of Morbihan in the first century BC. The Neolithic monument, which no longer is open to the public, was excavated in 1853, and produced stone axs and, most notably, three necklaces made from beads of the attractive green mineral variscite, popularly known as “callais,” which are relatively rare finds elsewhere. The spacing of the variscite beads of the necklaces is very characteristic: smaller beads interspersed with larger oval pendants. Variscite occurs naturally in the area of Pannecé (Loire-Atlantique), to the southeast of Brittany, and undoubtedly was the source of raw material for the beads.
Objects found at the megalithic monuments in the Morbihan area are exhibited at two museums: the Musée de Préhistoire James Miln-Zacharie Le Rouzic at Carnac-Ville and the Musée archéologique de Morbihan in the town of Vannes (Morbihan), situated at the head of the Gulf of Morbihan. The name of the museum at Carnac honors the first excavators of the sites in the area: the Scotsman James Miln and Zacharie Le Rouzic, who was from Carnac and whose early excavations are discussed in chapter 1. On display in the museum are several aspects of the area’s prehistory: Paleolithic stone tools from the site of Saint-Colomban and objects from Mesolithic burials at Téviec and Hoëdic as well as a significant amount of material from the Neolithic period. The galleries cover the development of megalithic architecture in the Neolithic period, as well as displays of carvings, stone tools, jewelry, and pottery. Also included are sections on objects from the Bronze Age and Iron Age, as well as objects from the luxurious Gallo-Roman villa at Bosseno, near Carnac-Ville. The villa, which was excavated by James Miln in 1874, was built in the second century AD overlooking the bay of Quiberon. The decoration included lavish frescoes, dating to the third century AD, which had the unusual addition of seashells. Objects found at early excavations of megalithic monuments, including the Tumulus Saint-Michel in the Carnac area, Locmariaquer, and Presqu’île de Rhuys, are exhibited in the Musée archéologique de Morbihan in Vannes. The main types of objects on display are polished stone axs made from a variety of stones including jadeite, and bracelets and necklaces made of variscite.
There are also notable megalithic monuments in Brittany outside the south Morbihan region. One of the finest of all megalithic monuments is the very well preserved passage grave known as La Roche-aux-Fées (Fairy Rock) in Essé (Ille-et-Vilaine), in the east of Brittany (figure 2.8). Dating from the Middle Neolithic period (fourth millennium BC), this is the largest known megalithic tomb in Brittany at twenty meters long, six meters wide, and four meters high. It is built from forty-two stones of purple schist, the source of which is in the forest at Theil-de-Bretagne, four kilometers south of Essé. The monument’s modern name is derived from the weight of the stones, as it was said that only the legendary Viviane (the “Lady of the Lake”), with her fairy helpers, could carry such heavy stones.
Figure 2.8. Tomb known as La Roche-aux-Fées, Essé. istock, 835390424
South of the Brittany peninsula, at Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), is the Tumulus of Dissignac. Built between 4700 BC and 4500 BC, it is the oldest of the megalithic monuments in the Loire-Atlantique département and was designated a historic monument in 1889. The tumulus was excavated in 1873, but no objects were recovered. Further excavations between 1970 and 1980 directed by Jean L’Helgouac’h produced pottery dating from the fourth millennium BC and stone tools, including ground stone axs made from jadeite, considered to be prestige objects.
Elsewhere in western France, the necropolis at Bougon (Poitou-Charentes), consisting of five tumuli, was discovered in 1840 and re-excavated in the 1960s. A museum opened on the site in 1993 and, as well as material excavated from the site, including jewelry, houses a replica of part of the passage grave at Gavrinis, discussed earlier. An outdoor display includes reconstruction of how megalithic monuments were built. In 1979, an experiment at Bougon succeeded in erecting a Neolithic stone block weighing thirty-two tons by using three large wooden levers, each using the force of twenty people.
In addition to megalithic monuments, France has a series of other sites from the Neolithic period, such as the Middle Neolithic site at Saint-Michel-du-Touch in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), occupied between 4500 BC and 3400 BC. The site, which initially was excavated by G. Simonnet between 1964 and 1973, is situated on a promontory at the confluence of the rivers Garonne and Touch. The site consisted of an enclosure, protected on the landward side by a series of palisades, which gradually increased the area within the palisades from five hectares to more than thirty hectares. Other sites of this type have been found in the area around Toulouse, at the commune of Villeneuve-Tolosane and Château Percin at the commune of Seilh. Inside the palisades, Simonnet discovered wells; large storage pits; more than three hundred rectangular or circular hearths that used heated pebbles; and burials, which provided valuable evidence of funerary practices in this period. One of the burials was of a male whose skeleton was well preserved, aged between sixteen and eighteen. He was 1.6 meters tall and had been buried in a crouched position on his left side. Two ceramic vessels had been placed near his skull.
Simonnet also discovered a double burial, of an adult and a child, accompanied by a lavish range of grave goods. The burials had been disturbed in antiquity and, in particular, the adult had been given a form of secondary burial. The bones had been rearranged, with two humeri placed end-to-end as if it were the bone from a single limb. The offerings included a wide range of pottery, including vase supports, and beads made from the green mineral variscite, popularly called “callais.” As mentioned earlier in this section, variscite occurs naturally in France in the area of Pannecé (Loire-Atlantique), to the southeast of Brittany, and accordingly it is possible that the beads, or the material from which they were made, were imported to the site. Similarly, some tools accompanying the burials were made from flint of a nonlocal type, also indicating contact with communities outside the settlement. It was noticeable, however, that the deceased were placed in pits or ditches whose original function was not funerary, as was usually the case in the Middle Neolithic period. A rare exception was discovered in 2008 at Sauzas, in the commune of Blagnac (Haute-Garonne). A dedicated burial area was found consisting of six distinct graves, each in a pit covered with a mound of pebbles.
On the island of Corsica, La Dame de Bonifacio is the name given to the well-preserved skeleton of a woman discovered in 1972 in the Grotte de l’Aragvina, close to Bonifacio (Corse-du-Sud). The woman, who was 1.55 meters tall, was aged around thirty-five when she died between 7000 BC and 6500 BC. La Dame de Bonifacio is now in the Musée départemental de l’Alta Rocca at Levie (Corse-du-Sud).
Neolithic and Bronze Age “Lake Villages”
The banks of the lakes close to the boundary between modern-day France and Switzerland have provided evidence of settlements traditionally called “lake villages.” The original theory was proposed by the Zurich-based archaeologist Ferdinand Keller, who reported the discovery of the first “lake dwellings” in the middle of the nineteenth century. Keller believed that the structures were not built on dry land, but on piles or stilts in the water close to the shore. Although it was subsequently suggested that the majority of “lake villages” were built on dry land at the edge of the water, archaeological excavation has revealed a more complex situation: some houses with floors raised above flood level as well as houses built on packed earth in shallow waters or peat bogs. In France, a group of lake settlements is on the shores of Lake Annecy (Haute-Savoie) and Lac du Bourget (Savoie), as well as in the département of Jura, particularly on the shores of Lake Chalain and the larger lake at Clairvaux.
The first Neolithic site in France recognized where remains were preserved due to wet conditions is La Motte-aux-Magnins on a peninsula with peaty soil on the shore of Lake Clairvaux. The site first was identified in 1869, with further excavations conducted between 1970 and 1983, and indicates that La Motte-aux-Magnins was occupied from the early fourth millennium BC until the middle of the second millennium BC. Finds from the site include organic objects, preserved as a result of the waterlogged environment, including weights for fishing nets made from pieces of limestone wrapped in birch bark and a box made from linden bark. Archaeological work began in 1970 on the shores of two small lakes, Lake Chalain and Lake Clairvaux, about twelve kilometers apart. These initial investigations revealed fifteen settlement sites at Chalain and nine at Clairvaux, ranging in date from about 5000 BC to 700 BC, a remarkable density of sites from the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. Further archaeological evaluation in 2000 and 2001 indicated that the number of known sites on the western shore at Chalain is now almost thirty, with twenty sites at Clairvaux. The main periods of occupation were between around 3800 BC and 1400 BC, and it appears that from around 3800 BC to around 2500 BC, there was regular movement between the two lakes. One of the largest settlements on Lake Chalain is designated Chalain 19. Archaeological investigation between 1995 and 2001 indicated the presence of two successive villages. The second phase, which produced radiocarbon dates from 3173 BC to 2916 BC, revealed a village occupying an area of almost two thousand square meters enclosed by a curved oak palisade. A wooden trackway, around one hundred meters long and two meters wide, was used for transport, suggested by the discovery of a yoke and a large triangular sledge of the type possibly shown on petroglyphs in the Vallée des Merveilles, discussed below. The site of Clairvaux II, which was discovered and partly excavated between 1972 and 1974, was found to have been occupied between around 3470 BC and 3445 BC. The excavation was significant in demonstrating that houses were built in more than one fashion: with raised floors on pilings in flood zones and on packed earth in damp areas. The houses with raised floors were used as the model for an experimental archaeology project undertaken in 1988 at Lake Chalain, where two Neolithic houses were constructed, with part of the work being done using Neolithic technology. The houses no longer exist, having collapsed in 2000. Although the archaeological zones at Lake Chalain and Lake Clairvaux cannot be visited, the areas of Neolithic and Bronze Age habitation can be seen from several viewpoints. Finds from the excavations at Lake Chalain and Lake Clairvaux are housed at the Musée d’Archéologie de Lons-le-Saunier (Jura), including a log boat made from an oak tree trunk, radiocarbon dated to 959 BC. The log boat, which is 9.35 meters long, was found in 1904.
Further south, the site of Les Baigneurs close to Charavines, on the southern shore of Lake Paladru near Grenoble (Isère), was occupied about five thousand years ago during the Neolithic period. Although the first Neolithic remains were identified by Hyppolyte Müller in 1921 during a fall in water levels in the lake, excavation of Neolithic Charavines did not begin until 1972, by Aimé Bocquet and his colleagues from the Centre de Documentation de la Préhistoire Alpine (Alpine Prehistory Documentation Centre). Bocquet discovered that the site was occupied during two distinct phases, each lasting about thirty years. The environmental conditions enabled the preservation of wood and other organic material that normally would not survive. The first settlement at Charavines was established around 2740 BC and consisted of six or seven rectangular houses, built of wood from the European silver fir. Dendrochronological dating, based on tree ring sequences, indicated that the houses were repaired after nine years and abandoned at the end of twenty years. It is not clear why the first settlement of Charavines fell out of use, but it was clear that it was superseded some fifty-seven years later by a second settlement, consisting of a large house, again constructed from European silver fir with other buildings made from elm, ash, willow, and alder. The second settlement was occupied for a further twenty years before finally being abandoned. The many diverse finds from the site include handles made from coiled willow still attached to finely worked flint daggers. Other wooden objects included spoons, combs, and needles, as well as many ceramic vessels of various types. There were also indications of foodstuffs, including barley, wheat, and peas, which were grown and eaten by the inhabitants of Charavines. Evidence of other trees, most notably apples, hazel, and beech, also was found.
The Bronze Age in France
The Bronze Age in France is considered to extend from the earliest evidence of copper technology, around 2200 BC, lasting until around 800 BC. Some of the most significant archaeological discoveries are a series of petroglyphs in the French Alps, megalithic monuments on the island of Corsica, and deposits of bronze weapons and jewelry in deposits or hoards.
Petroglyphs in the French Alps
The area of Mont Bego (Alpes-Maritimes) in the Mercantour National Park is noted for a large number of petroglyphs, incised and carved images, found in two valleys, Meroviglie/Les Merveilles and Fontanalba, at a height of between two thousand and twenty-six hundred meters. Although the petroglyphs were noted as long ago as the fifth century, neither their age nor significance was realized, and they were first recognized as prehistoric in 1877 by the French prehistorian Emile Rivière. In 1897, Clarence Bicknell, Anglican vicar in Bordighera, Italy, who also was an amateur botanist and antiquarian, recorded almost thirteen thousand of the petroglyphs by taking rubbings. Research on the petroglyphs, of which almost thirty-seven thousand have been recorded, continues, most recently by Henry de Lumley and his team. The motifs depicted are somewhat limited in range, comprising tools and weapons; horns (sometimes interpreted as plows drawn by oxen); human forms, including the famous “Sorcerer,” a schematic figure with upraised hands; geometric motifs; and dots (figure 2.9). Comparison between archaeological examples and the weapons depicted, which are axs, halberds (combined spears and axs), and daggers with archaeological examples, may indicate that the petroglyphs were made between around 2500 BC and 1800 BC. Many are shown slanted, as though pointing in a particular direction, which has led to the suggestion that they were way markers used by herdsmen. Further research of the images, using microscopy and experimentation, has indicated that the engravings of some of the images of daggers may have been made by incising around a real dagger.
Figure 2.9. Engraving known as the “Sorcerer,” Monte Bego. Paul G. Bahn
The petroglyphs are one of the themes of the Musée des Merveilles at Tende (Alpes-Maritimes). Their displays include a few original petroglyphs, such as the “Chef de Tribu,” removed as it was considered to be under threat; and the “Echelles du Paradis,” which had been partly destroyed and the fragments retrieved, together with casts of some of the other petroglyphs.
Corsica in the Bronze Age
On the island of Corsica, the period is characterized by the megalithic monuments, many of which take the form of “statue-menhirs,” with the stones being carved with human faces, human torsos, and weapons, to represent warriors.
Filitosa in the Taravu Valley (Corse-du-Sud) was discovered in 1946. Excavations by Roger Grosjean, a noted specialist in Corsican prehistory, began in 1955 and lasted for eighteen years. Arrowheads and pottery date the earliest occupation of Filitosa to the Neolithic period, from around 3300 BC. Somewhat later, in around 1500 BC, an impressive group of “statue-menhirs,” between two and three meters high, were erected (figure 2.10). About fifteen kilometers from the commune of Sartène (Corse-du-Sud) is a group of megalithic monuments on the plateau of Cauria. The alignments of Stantari and Rinaghju include both simple, uncarved menhirs and statue-menhirs, and the well-preserved dolmen tomb of Funtanaccia (figure 2.11).
Figure 2.10. Statue-menhirs at Filitosa, Corsica. istock, 522621641
Figure 2.11. Dolmen tomb at Funtanaccia, Corsica. istock, 525076327
However, the most impressive megalithic structure on Corsica is at Palaggiu, southeast of Sartène. The alignments consist of 258 menhirs, in seven groups, including statue-menhirs, although the majority are no longer standing and are concealed by the scrub vegetation. The site was recorded in the late nineteenth century by Etienne Michon, who later became chief curator at the Musée du Louvre. It was excavated by Roger Grosjean between 1964 and 1968 and was classified as an ancient monument in 1974. Grosjean also conducted excavations at the site of Casteddu di Cucuruzzu in the commune of Levie (Corse-du-Sud) in 1963 and 1964. The site, which was designated an ancient monument in 1982, was a fortified village, occupied from around 1400 BC. The visible remains largely consist of a circular stone tower surrounded by a high wall.
Two sites in the commune of Serra-di-Ferro (Corse-du-Sud) are the dolmen tomb made from pink granite known as the Tola di U Turmentu and the single statue-menhir known as U Paladinu (Le Paladin). U Paladinu is 2.91 meters tall, and although it possesses human characteristics, does not apparently carry weapons.
Archaeological finds from excavations conducted throughout Corsica are housed in Le Musée départemental de préhistoire corse et d’archéologie in Sartène (Corse-du-Sud). The museum was refurbished in the 2000s; a new building was opened in 2009, including a room dedicated to the statue-menhirs of Corsica.
Bronze Age Hoards
Outside Corsica, the most characteristic discoveries of the Middle and Late Bronze Age in northern and central France have been deposits, or hoards, of metal objects, dating between 1600 BC and 800 BC. In many cases, it is not clear why the hoards were deposited; perhaps they could have been hidden for safekeeping or made as a religious offering.
One of the earliest is the hoard found in 1910 at Villeneuve-Saint-Vistre (Marne), which can be dated to between 1600 BC and 1300 BC, containing the earliest gold objects found in France. The hoard, which is in the collection of the Musée d’Archéologie nationale-Domaine national, consisted of two small gold cups, twelve centimeters high; and jewelry, mostly bracelets and rings.
The deposition of weapons continued in the Late Bronze Age, with a spectacular discovery at Marmesse (Haute-Marne) during excavations between 1974 and 1980 of seven bronze cuirasses. The cuirasses are believed to have been a votive deposit. All of the cuirasses, now in the collection of the Musée d’Archéologie nationale, are elaborately ornamented with stamped decoration on front and back, emphasizing the anatomy of the wearer. The hoard known as the “Dépôt de Feuilly” was found during excavations undertaken in 2000 by Inrap (Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives) at Saint-Priest in Lyon. The hoard contained bronze weapons, tools, and items of jewelry, mostly bracelets, which could be dated between 1100 BC and 900 BC. In 1985 a discovery was made in Meschers (Charente-Maritime) of a group of objects deposited toward the end of the Bronze Age. The deposit comprised fifty-five bronze objects, including bracelets, swords, and axs. A distinctive object was an element of a tintinnabulum, a large bronze disc with two smaller discs, designed to strike together as the horse moved, either part of the horse trappings or the equipment of a chariot. Better-preserved examples of Late Bronze Age tintinnabula have been found elsewhere in France, such as those from Bouzonville (Moselle) and Frouard (Meurthe-et-Moselle).
France is one of the most significant sources for Paleolithic art in Europe. Likewise, it is apparent that other phases of prehistory are well represented in France, particularly the Neolithic period monuments in Brittany and the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age lakeside settlements in eastern France, as well as intriguing evidence of early human activity throughout the region that constitutes modern-day France.