Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The prehistoric site of Les Fieux, located on the Causse de Gramat in the north of Quercy (Miers commune, Lot), consists of an adorned cave and an open-air deposit. Discovered in 1964 by E. Caminade and a team from the Bergerac Speleo Club, it reveals traces of continuous human occupation, from the Middle Paleolithic (340,000 years) to the Middle Ages. The cave, classified as a historical monument in 1967, houses negative hands, animal engravings (mammouths, bouquetins) and digital punctuations, attributed to the Aurignacian and gravetian phases. Its access was expanded in 1966, leading to the discovery of locus 1, a stratigraphic sequence rich in Mussterian, Solutrian and Saveterian remains.

The locus 1 is a karst network formed in the Tertiary, occupied from the Quaternary by hunter-gatherers. The excavations, initiated by Fernand Champagne and René Espitalié in 1966, exhumed Mosterian tools (dated to more than 340,000 years), Aurignacians, engravens and rescuers, as well as Neolithic and medieval clues. Loci 2, adjacent outdoor site, contains vestiges of the upper and middle Paleolithic, while Loci 3 (formerly "Northern Sector") confirmed an ancient Musterian occupation via uranium-thorium dating.

The site, acquired by the community of communes Causses and Vallée de la Dordogne, was designed to protect and open to the public in June 2007. Since 2006, annual excavations have been aimed at clarifying the shadow areas of its history, including transitions between cultural periods. The Archaeosite des Pieux, managed by the Flint.

The adorned cave, about thirty meters long, presents a unique room accessible by a low corridor. Its walls carry thirteen negative hands (eleven red, two black), picketings and engravings (bouquetin, mammoths, horse), attached to the Paleolithic art of Quercino. Mammoths, incised on older picketed lines, could date back to a later phase. The site thus illustrates an uninterrupted human occupation, marked by cultural and artistic adaptations.

Ranked and protected, the Pious deposit is an exceptional witness to regional prehistory. Its remains, studied since the 1960s, have been the subject of scientific publications (e.g. Gallia Préhistoire, 1990) and search reports available online. The partnership between the local community and the Flints Lot association now ensures its educational and tourist value, while continuing archaeological research.

Future

The site can be visited since June 2007.

External links