Dating of the Azile layer 10 000 - 9 000 av. J.-C. (≈ 0)
Stone tools and bones dated carbon 14
19 février 1979
Historical Monument
Historical Monument 19 février 1979 (≈ 1979)
Official protection of shelter under rock
1970 - 1990
Main search period
Main search period 1970 - 1990 (≈ 1980)
Major archaeological campaigns on the site
Juillet 2019
Inauguration of the teaching space
Inauguration of the teaching space Juillet 2019 (≈ 2019)
Opening to the public of an interpretative journey
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui Aujourd'hui (≈ 2025)
Position de référence.
Heritage classified
Rock shelter called The Old Church (cad. A 674) : classification by decree of 19 February 1979
Key figures
Henri-Georges Naton - Geoarchaeologist
Author of site studies (2000)
Pierre Bintz - Archaeologist
Co-head of excavations and publications
Claude Olive - Prehistory
Contributor to the first results (1984)
Origin and history
The sub-rock shelter of the Old Church, located in La Balme-de-Thuy in Haute-Savoie, is an exceptional archaeological site whose stratigraphic levels range from the Upper Paleolithic to the Middle Ages. Stunned mainly between 1970 and 1990, it offers an overview of human settlement in the alpine valleys after the withdrawal of the Wurmian glaciers. Its location, at 620 m above sea level on a south-facing urban cliff, makes it a strategic place for prehistoric hunter-gatherers.
The deepest layers (levels 9 and 8) reveal traces of consumption of marmots, deer and hares, attesting to a stop of hunters. Strata 7, dated between 10,000 and 9,000 years before the present by carbon 14, is attributed to the Azilien and contains stone tools (gratters, slats, tips) as well as bones of ibex, deer and trout. Layer 6, associated with the Mesolithic Saverrian, delivers deer wood objects and lithic tools, illustrating the evolution of subsistence techniques.
Ranked Historic Monument in 1979, the shelter extends over 600 m2 (40 m long and 14 m deep). An educational space, inaugurated in 2019, exhibits some artifacts discovered, while others are preserved at the National Museum of Thônes. The site thus bears witness to the transition between nomadism and sedentarization in the limestone Prealps of the Bornes-Aravis massif.
Under the shelter, a nearby cave houses a Marian place of worship, highlighting the sacred continuity of the site throughout the millennia. The excavations also highlighted subsequent occupations, including the Bronze Age and Chalcolithic, although these periods were less documented in available sources.
The research, published notably in the Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française (1984) and the Annales Littéraires de Besançon (2000), highlights the geoarcheological importance of the site. Successive environments, reconstructed by wildlife and lithic remains, reveal a constant adaptation of populations to climate and landscape change after the last glaciation.
