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Pair-non-Pair cave in Prignac-et-Marcamps en Gironde

Patrimoine classé
Vestiges préhistoriques
Grotte
Grotte ornée
Gironde

Pair-non-Pair cave in Prignac-et-Marcamps

    4-8 Chemin de Pair Non Pair
    33710 Prignac-et-Marcamps
Grotte de Pair-non-Pair à Prignac-et-Marcamps
Grotte de Pair-non-Pair à Prignac-et-Marcamps
Grotte de Pair-non-Pair à Prignac-et-Marcamps
Grotte de Pair-non-Pair à Prignac-et-Marcamps
Crédit photo : Xabi Rome-Hérault - Sous licence Creative Commons

Timeline

Antiquité
Haut Moyen Âge
Moyen Âge central
Bas Moyen Âge
Renaissance
Temps modernes
Révolution/Empire
XIXe siècle
Époque contemporaine
0
100
1800
1900
2000
32 000 ans avant le présent
Creation of engravings
6 mars 1881
Discovery of the cave
1896
First engraving identified
20 décembre 1900
Historical monument classification
2008
Opening of the building
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui

Heritage classified

Pair-non-Pair paint cellar: by order of 20 December 1900

Key figures

François Daleau - Discoverer and searcher Explored the cave in 1881.
Henri Breuil - Prehistory Studyed engravings between 1897 and 1937.
Baptiste Milpied - Landowner Purchased the land in 1892.
Patrick Hernandez - Architect Manufacturer of the host building (2008).

Origin and history

The Pair-non-Pair cave, discovered in 1881 by François Daleau, is a cave adorned with the Upper Paleolithic in Prignac-et-Marcamps, Gironde. It contains parietal engravings dated over 32,000 years, attributed to the Aurignacian culture. These works, buried under prehistoric deposits, played a key role in the official recognition of prehistoric art, then controversial.

The cave was classified as a historical monument in 1900, becoming the first French cave protected by the state. His exploration revealed exceptional animal representations, such as a megaloceros and a horse of 2.50 m long, as well as tools and objects in flint, bone and ivory, bearing witness to a human occupation of the Moustarian to the Gravettien. The excavations, initially conducted by Daleau, were taken over by researchers like Henri Breuil.

Access to the cave is today through side entrances, the original entrance having been blocked by a collapse of 40,000 years ago. The site, open to the public under strict conditions to preserve the works, includes a modern reception building inaugurated in 2008. The archaeological remains, including a bearded gypaete bone flute, are preserved at the Museum of Aquitaine and the Museum of Bordeaux.

The name "Pair-non-Pair" comes from a linguistic distortion of the term "Penot père", mentioned in notarial acts of the seventeenth century. The cave, unique in Gironde, is a major testimony of prehistoric art and life, with more than 15,000 tools and 6,000 animal bones uncovered, including mammoth and equidae remains.

His study made it possible to date precisely the engravings between 37,000 and 32,000 years, confirming their attribution to the Aurignacian. The site, abandoned at the end of the Gravettien due to its pruning, remains an emblematic place to understand the origins of human artistic expression.

External links