Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Commarque Cave is a prehistoric adorned cavity located in the valley of the Grande Beune, in the territory of Sireuil (comune des Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine). It is at the foot of a limestone cliff surmounted by the castle of Commarque, 2.1 km east of Sireuil. Its entrance, at 95 m above sea level, opens into a natural porch dug by erosion, with two accesses: a narrow hose (closed by a masonry) and a main entrance overlooking a room of 6 × 6 m. The cave extends over 65 m, with two floors and natural fireplaces. His name, attested as early as 1116 in the form Hospitalis de Comarco, evolved into Comarchia (1356) and then Comarca (1365).

Discovered in 1915 by Henri Breuil and Pierre Paris, the cave reveals an exceptional set of Magdalenian parietal art (ca. 13,000 BC), including eleven anthropomorphic figures (including a pregnant woman engraved on a natural relief) and animal representations, such as the mid-sculpted big horse, almost life-size. The latter, located in the deep gallery, illustrates a remarkable mastery of the use of the natural reliefs of the wall. Archaeological remains, notably in the "G2 pocket" of the gallery on the right, have delivered lithic tools (burins, blades) and bones of cold fauna (reindeer, ibex, polar foxes), dated between 13,370 and 12,710 years BP, corresponding to the end of the Dryas I.

The cave has had successive occupations: after the Magdalenian, its soil rises to the Neolithic (around 5,000 B.C.), a period when it probably serves as a sheepfold, as evidenced by the traces of lustration of figures by domestic animals. Medieval troglodytic developments, linked to the building of the castle, partially destroyed or covered the prehistoric remains. Despite these disturbances, the cave preserves traces of unique rock art, such as carved legs of bears, vulvar signs, and a bearded head superimposed on a horse, performed in 2015 by Pascal Raux. Classified as a Historic Monument in 1924, it remains a private property inaccessible to the public.

The excavations carried out between 1977 and 1981 by Brigitte and Gilles Delluc allowed us to discover new figures and to study the archaeological context, revealing an important leaching of soils and mixtures of stratigraphic layers. Palynological analyses of Arlette Leroi-Gourhan and carbon 14 dating confirmed a human occupation during a period of relative global warming, marking the transition between Upper Paleolithic and Holocene. The cave, although small, is distinguished by the density of its female representations and its proximity to other major sites such as Cap Blanc (550 m northwest) or Laussel (340 m north).

The archeoacoustic of the valley of the Beune, where Commarque is located, revealed phenomena of echo evoking a gallop of horses, reinforcing the hypothesis of a link between natural sounds and animal representations of the adorned caves. This sound context, coupled with the concentration of prehistoric sites within a radius of 10 km (Font-de-Gaume, Les Combarelles, Bernifal), suggests an intense and organized human occupation during the Upper Paleolithic. The Commarque cave, although less known than Lascaux or Rouffignac, thus offers a valuable testimony to the artistic and symbolic practices of Magdalenian societies.

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