Vézère Valley Paleolithic Caves

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CONTENTS

• UNESCO World Heritage Site
• Why is the Vézère Valley Important?
• Famous Cave Art
• UNESCO Listed Caves
• Other Caves in the Vézère Valley
• Other Hotspots of Paleolithic Culture
• References

UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Vézère Valley in the French Dordogne is world famous as a hotspot of Stone Age culture, due to its network of 150 paleolithic caves and rock shelters, of which about 30 are decorated.

Since 1979, the most important of these sites, clustered around Les Eyzies, and along a 25-km stretch of the Vézère river system from Lascaux to La Mouthe, have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This is listed under the title "The Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley."

Why is the Vézère Valley Important?

Because its a goldmine of paleolithic art and culture.

First, the Vézère Valley has a long history of human occupation, from about 400,000 BC.

First by Homo erectus (Homo erectus tautavelensis), then by Neanderthals, and lastly by a modern variant of Homo sapiens, known as Cro-Magnons, who were named after the Vézère's Cro-Magnon rock shelter.

These occupations spanned a number of tool industries, including those of the Late Acheulean, Mousterian, Micoquien, Tayacien, Châtelperronian, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures.

Three of these tool cultures are named after sites in the Vézère Valley: the Mousterian (after Le Moustier), the Micoquien (after La Micoque), and Magdalenian (after Abri de la Madeleine).

As a result, archaeologists and anthropologists have gleaned huge insights from the archaeology, burials, stone tools, artifacts and domestic middens left behind.

Second, the caves and shelters of the Vézère Valley are celebrated for their remarkable collection of prehistoric art, including dramatic cave paintings, exquisite rock engravings and unique relief sculpture.

• The area attracted several of France's greatest prehistorians. They include: Emile Riviere (1835-1922), Louis Capitan (1854-1929), Denis Peyrony (1869-1954), and Henri Abbé Breuil (1877-1961), who made many of the early discoveries.
• A more recent archaeological activist in the Vézère Valley, is the New York archaeologist Randall White.
• In 1952, Henri Breuil published his list of the six 'giants' of Franco-Cantabrian cave art. Three of them - Lascaux Cave, Font-de-Gaume, Les Combarelles - are located in the Vézère Valley.

Famous Cave Art

A number of artworks found in the caves of the Vézère Valley, are widely regarded as masterpieces of their type.

• Cave Painting
  e.g. Hall of the Bulls, Crossed Bison, Great Black Bull (Lascaux); polychrome bison (Font-de Gaume).
• Black Drawings
  e.g. Mammoths & Ibex (Rouffignac Cave); Shaft of the Dead Man Scene (Lascaux).
• Rock Engravings
  e.g. Drinking Reindeer (Les Combarelles); Major Stag (Lascaux). The Sorcerer (Gabillou Cave).
• Sculpture
  e.g. High relief frieze of horses and bison (Cap-Blanc); Salmon carving (Abri du Poisson); Venus of Laussel (Abri de Laussel).
• Mobiliary Art
  e.g. Bison Licking its Side, Creeping Hyena (Abri de la Madeleine).

UNESCO Listed Caves

• Abri de la Madeleine
  Best known as the type site for the Magdalenian period, and for the Bison Licking Its Side (13,000 BC), a decorated spear-thrower made of reindeer bone.
• Abri du Poisson
  Best known for its 1-metre long engraving of a fish, dating to 25,000 BC.
• Cap Blanc
  Best known for its huge frieze of animals, carved in high relief, dating to 13,000 BC. A benchmark of Magdalenian rock carving.
• Cro-Magnon Rock Shelter
  Type-site of the sub-species of H. sapiens known as Cro-Magnons, after the discovery of skeletal remains. Dates to 26,000 BC.
• Font-de-Gaume Cave
  Famous for its polychrome rock engravings of bison and horses, dating to c.14,000 BC.
• La Micoque
  An archaeological deposit best known as the type-site for the Micoquien tool industry. Has some of the oldest traces of archaic humans in the Dordogne, dating back 450,000 years.
• La Mouthe Cave
  An Aurignacian site best known for helping to convince sceptics that prehistoric art discovered at Altamira and elsewhere was genuine.
• Lascaux Cave
  Arguably the greatest decorated cave in history. See also: Lascaux Cave Paintings & Layout. The site is filled with 900 animal paintings, a large quantity of engravings and abstract motifs, and several iconic images like the Great Black Bull, Unicorn, Chinese Horses, Falling Cow, Upside-Down Horse, Frieze of the Small Horses, and more. From about 19,000 BC.
• Laugerie-Basse
  Occupied around 12,000 BC, it is best known for its Vénus Impudique, the first venus figurine.
• Laugerie-Haute
  With a 200 metre-wide mouth, it is one of the largest rock shelters in the Vézère Valley.
• Le Moustier Cave
  The type-site of the Mousterian tool culture, which lasted from 160,000 to 40,000 BC.
• Les Combarelles Cave
  Famous for more than 600 prehistoric engravings and monochrome paintings, dating to 11,700 BC.
• Rouffignac Cave
  8 km long, it contains hundreds of engravings and monochrome paintings, mostly of mammoths, dating to 11,000 BC.
• Grotte du Sorcier
  Best known for its anthropomorphic image known as the Sorcerer, dating to 15,000 BC.

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Other Caves in and around the Vézère Valley

• Abri Blanchard (Castel-Merle)
  This shelter is known for a rock engraving of an aurochs, as well as dozens of cupules, dating to 36,000 BC.
• Abri Castanet (Castel-Merle)
  This shelter is noted for its engraved drawings of male and female motifs, plus a number of abstract signs painted in red, black or grey, and some crude red-ochre paintings of horses. The oldest art dates to 35,000 BC.
• Abri Cellier
  Best known for its rock carvings of aurochs, dating to 36,000 BC.
• Abri de Laussel
  Home of the famous Venus of Laussel, also known as Venus with a Horn, a bas-relief of a nude woman, decorated with red ochre (23,000 BC).
• Abri Pataud
  Noted for its engravings, a female bas-relief, as well as the Venus of l'Abri Pataud, a small carved figurine (19,000 BC).
• Abri Reverdit (Castel-Merle)
  Best known for its 3.5-metre frieze carved in bas-relief, of bison and horses (14,000 BC).
• Bara-Bahau Cave
  Contains around 18 engraved drawings of animals, and a male motif, dating to around 15,000 BC.
• Bernifal Cave
  Noted for a small number of engraved drawings of animals (12,000 BC), as well as an image of a human head wearing a crown of antlers or horns.
• Ferrassie Cave
  Ancient Mousterian site noted for the skeletal remains of up to 8 Neanderthals, as well as a cluster of cupules, all dating to around 60,000 BC.
• Gabillou Cave
  A neighbour of Lascaux, it is best known for its engraved drawing known as 'the Sorcerer'.
• Grotte du Grand Roc
  Located near the Laugerie-Basse rock shelter, it is the only site with no prehistoric art.

Other Hotspots of Paleolithic Culture

There are several hotspots of Stone Age cultural activity in Europe. Here are three:

Swabian Jura, Germany
The paleolithic caves here are world famous for their ivory carvings from the Aurignacian (40,000-30,000 BC). In 2017, the sites of Hohlenstein-Stadel, Bocksteinhöhle, Geissenklösterle, Hohle Fels, Sirgenstein and Vogelherd - became part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site entitled 'Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura'.

North Coast of Spain
This region, which encompasses the Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque country, contains a world famous cluster of paleolithic caves, including Altamira, Altxerri, El Castillo, La Pasiega, and a dozen more. It forms the UNESCO World Heritage Site entitled: 'Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain'.

French Pyrenees
This region contains an important cluster of Stone Age caves, including: Gargas, Tuc d'Audoubert, Trois Frères, Bédeilhac Cave, Mas d'Azil Cave, and Niaux.

See: Prehistoric Art Timeline.

References

(1) UNESCO Description of Vézère Valley Sites.
(2) Lawson, Andrew J. (2012). Painted Caves: Palaeolithic Rock Art in Western Europe. Oxford University Press. p.25 ISBN 9780199698226.
(3) Clottes, J. Cave Art. (2008) Phaidon. ISBN 978-0-7148-5723-7.