Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Aldene Cave, also known as the Coquille Cave or Fauzan Cave, is a major prehistoric site located in Cesseras, Herault. It was occupied from the lower Paleolithic, as evidenced by the limestone tools and bones of the Quaternary animals ( cave bears, mammoths). Its walls house deep engravings dating from the Aurignacian (about 30,000 years old), representing animals such as bears, rhinoceros and horses, studied by Denis Vialou. These works, comparable to those of the Chauvet Cave, reveal an early artistic mastery.

Between 1888 and 1937, the cave was exploited for its brushite deposits, a natural phosphate resulting from the decomposition of bones, transformed into fertilizer under the name of minervite. A specialized company, the Natural Phosphates of the Fauzan Cave, dug a well and buildings to extract this ore, whose ruins remain today. This industrial operation partially altered the site, but also discovered the paleolithic engravings hidden under sediments in 1927.

The lower network, discovered in 1948 by Father Denis Cathala, delivered prints of human steps and animals (hyenas, bears) dating from the Mesolithic period (about 8,000 years B.C.E.). In 2018, Namibian trackers identified 26 individuals, including children carried. Excavations conducted between 1971 and 1991 by Louis Barral and Suzanne Simone confirmed a continuous occupation until the Bronze Age, with artifacts and traces of ritual or domestic attendance.

Ranked a historic monument in 1955, the cave of Aldena is distinguished by its development of 8,000 meters and its elevation of 70 meters. His study helped to reconstruct the prehistoric lifestyles, from hunter-gatherers from Paleolithic to the first metallurgical societies of the Bronze Age, to artistic and funeral practices unique in Europe.

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