Timeline

Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Pech Merle Cave, located in Cabrerets in the Lot (Occitanie), is an adorned cave discovered in the early twentieth century. It opens in a hill overlooking the valleys of Sagne and Célé, in Quercy. His parietal paintings, dated from Gravettien to Magdalenian (between 25,000 and 13,000 years before the present), make it one of the most important adorned caves in France. The cave was classified as a historical monument in 1951.

The discovery of the cave took place in several stages. In 1915, Henri Redon and his cousin explored the Red Hall. In 1920, Abbé Amédée Lemozi and children from the village, including André David, explored the cave without discovering the paintings. It was not until 1922 that André David and Henri Dutertre, having cleared a casing, reached the white room and discovered the first betting works. In 1923, the cave was acquired by Jean Lebaudy and Miss de Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, who financed its layout to open it to the public in 1924.

The cave has two floors of galleries, 1,200 metres of which are accessible to visitors. It contains 700 painted or engraved motifs, including 69 animal figures (mammouths, bison, horses, etc.) and 13 human or para-human figures. Among the most famous signs are the "black frieze", with its mammoths and bison, and the "punched horses" sign, dated the Gravettien (about 25,000 years). The pigments used, such as manganese oxides and charcoal, were analyzed to understand prehistoric artistic techniques.

Archaeological studies, carried out in particular by André Leroi-Gourhan and Michel Lorblanchet, revealed three distinct artistic phases: an archaic phase (around 25,000 years), a medium phase (undetermined period) and a recent phase (Magdalenian, around 14,000 years). The cave also delivered traces of human occupation, such as fossilized footprints and flint tools, although it did not serve as permanent habitat. In 1949, the cave was ceded to the municipality of Cabrerets for a symbolic franc.

Today, the Pech Merle Cave is one of the rare paleolithic adorned caves still open to the public. To preserve the paintings, the number of visitors is limited to 700 per day in high season, and the works are protected by fences. An adjacent museum, the Amédée-Lemozi Museum, completes the visit by offering an immersion in prehistoric life and the history of archaeological discoveries. In 2017, the cave welcomed more than 80,000 visitors.

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