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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Vachons, or Prés Vachon, form a prehistoric site composed of three deposits: two sub-rock shelters and a cave, located in the commune of Voulgézac, 20 km south of Angoulême. These deposits have delivered upper Paleolithic lithic industries, covering periods ranging from the Aurignacian to the Solutrean. The site is located on the northern slope of the Font-Robert valley, a tributary of the Boëme, in a limestone cliff 30 meters high, bordered by the wood of Vachon.

The first exploration dates back to 1867, led by A. Trémeau de Rochebrune, followed by Georges Chauvet in 1896. Joseph Coiffard, an enlightened farmer and amateur, conducted surveys in shelters 1 and 2 between 1914 and 1922, while Pierre David searched shelter 1 from 1922 to 1926. The systematic excavations continued from 1929 to 1933, with Jean Bouyssonie exploring the cave and shelter 1, and Joseph Coiffard shelter 2. These researches have revealed characteristic tools, such as the Vachons' burin, typical of the recent Aurignacian.

The stratigraphy of the site, described in 1994 by Pierre-Yves Demars, reveals five distinct layers in the shelters, ranging from the ancient Aurignacian to the final Gravettien, while the cave has remains of the Gravettien to the Solutrean. The archaeological collections, notably those of Coiffard and Bouyssonie, had several thousand objects, now scattered between the museums of Brive, Thouars and the Institute of Human Paleontology in Paris. The site was listed as a historic monument on November 30, 1927.

The cliff, made up of limestone from the Coniacian (upper Cretaceous), is home to human remains, including a lower left molar dated from Gravettien and two other molars of uncertain attribution. The tools discovered include busted burins, slender scrapers, and reinforced blades, demonstrating sophisticated prehistoric population size techniques. These deposits provide valuable insight into human occupations in Aquitaine during the Upper Paleolithic.

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