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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.

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