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Origin and history

The cave of Marsoulas, also called the Cave of the Fairies, is a small ornate cave located in the commune of Marsoulas, in the Haute-Garonne region of Occitanie. It stands out as the first paleolithic adorned cave officially recognized in the Pyrenees, hosting parietal paintings and engravings dating from the Upper Paleolithic. Its entrance is close to the creek of the Laouin, about 80 km south of Toulouse, in a landscape marked by other prehistoric sites such as the Tarté cave and the Téoulé shelter.

The discovery of the cave dates back to 1883, during the excavations conducted by David Cau-Durban. Félix Régnault identified paintings and engravings in 1897, but their paleolithic authenticity was not recognized until 1902, thanks to the intervention of the prehistorians Émile Cartailhac and Henri Breuil. The latter, back from the congress of the French Association for the Advancement of Sciences in Montauban, confirm the seniority of the works, marking a turning point in the study of Pyrenean parietal art.

Subsequent excavations, including those of Félix Régnault, mainly reveal Magdalenian remains, as well as Aurignacian and Azilian traces. In 1931, Henri Begouën and Townsend Russel explored the entrance slope and discovered remarkable prehistoric furniture, including a 31 cm conque covered with ochre, interpreted as a possible wind instrument 18 000 years old. This conque, rediscovered in the reserves of the Muséum de Toulouse, raises hypotheses about its ritual or musical use.

The cave, classified as a historic monument in 1910, was acquired by Émile Cartailhac before his death in 1921. The latter, along with Henri Breuil, carried out partial surveys of the parietal works, which span about fifty metres and represent mainly bison, horses, cervids and barbed wire. One of the bison is distinguished by a filling of red punctuations, studied by Marc Azema in 2016. Despite its richness, the cave remains closed to the public for reasons of conservation, although a facsimile of its large frieze is exposed to the Pyrenean Park of Prehistoric Art of Tarascon-sur-Ariège.

Contemporary research, led by experts such as Carole Fritz, Gilles Tosello, and André Leroi-Gourhan, has led to significant advances in understanding his parietal art. Studies such as Pascal Foucher's in 1991, or virtual restorations published in 2010, have highlighted the complexity of superpositions of engravings and the diversity of techniques used. The cave of Marsoulas, although less known than Lascaux or Niaux, occupies a major place in the history of prehistoric art of the Pyrenees.

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