Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Vallonnet cave was discovered in 1958 by an 8-year-old child, Marianne Van Klaveren, who collected pieces of calcite. She alerted René Pascal, an amateur historian, and then experts like Louis Barral. The systematic excavations, led by Henry de Lumley from 1962 onwards, revealed carved stone tools (oldowayens) and bones of animals dating back 1.15 million years, making this site one of the oldest in France.

The cave, located 110 metres above Menton Bay, has five distinct sedimentary layers. Layer III (circa 1 million years) is the richest: it contains lithic tools (111 pieces of limestone, sandstone or flint) and bones of 25 species of mammals ( cave bears, sword teeth tiger, southern elephant). Humans, probably scavengers, broke bones there to extract the marrow, without traces of fire or permanent habitation.

The data combine paleomagnetism (Jaramillo period) and uranium plum (2017), confirming the age of tools between 1.2 and 1.1 million years. The cave, classified as Historical Monument in 2004, also illustrates major climatic variations: layer II (more than 1.05 Ma) reveals a tropical marine environment with shells, while layer IV (900 000–890,000 years) shows a humid and cool climate.

The site was frequented by large predators (hyenas, panthers) that brought d-herbivorous carcasses (cerfs, bison, rhinoceros). Humans exploited these remains with rudimentary tools, without organized hunting. No evidence of sedentary life was found, suggesting one-off visits. The cave remains an exceptional witness to the first human occupations in Europe.

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