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Origin and history

The Grotto of Prinvaux is a major archaeological site of the Protohistory, specifically the Mesolithic (9700–5000 BC), located in Boigneville in the Essonne department. It is distinguished by its rock art, composed of geometric motifs (quadrills, cupules, furrows) and rare figurative representations (animals, humans, tools). These engravings, stylistically dated, illustrate the artistic expression of hunter-gatherers in the region after the last glaciation. The cave, of small size (7 m deep, 70 cm entrance), is part of a landscape of slender chaos formed at the Oligocene by the erosion of the sands of Fontainebleau.

The location of the cave, on the hillside between the source of the Velvette and the hamlet of Prinvaux, along the Loiret and Seine-et-Marne, reflects its integration into a network of caves and natural shelters of the forest massif. Discovered around 1945 by the teacher Boussaingault, who reports it to the archaeologist J.-L. Baudet, she is also called "Boussaingault Cave" with reference to her discoverer. His engravings, studied since the 1980s, include emblematic symbols such as svastikas, stars, or "triple speakers" (concentric reflexangles), whose meaning remains debated.

The Grotto of Prirvaux has been protected since 13 October 1980, when it was added to the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments. This official recognition underlines its importance for the understanding of postglacial parietal art in Île-de-France. Although on private property, it is the subject of continuous research, as can be seen from the publications in Gallia prehistory (1981) or the Bulletin du Gersar (1986). Her artistic style, called "Bellifontain", links her to a wider regional corpus, including other sites in the Fontainebleau massif.

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