The Musée de Préhistoire d'Île-de-France (Ile-de-France Prehistory Museum), located in

Nemours Nemours () is a Communes of France, commune in the Seine-et-Marne Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in north-central France. Geography Nemours is located on the Loing and its canal, c. south of M ...

, in

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

, is a departmental museum with a regional vocation. It presents the

Prehistory Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

of the

Paris Basin The Paris Basin () is one of the major geological regions of France. It developed since the Triassic over remnant uplands of the Variscan orogeny (Hercynian orogeny). The sedimentary basin, no longer a single drainage basin, is a large sag in ...

, from the first vestiges attesting to the presence of Man, more than 500,000 years ago, to the end of the Gallic period, in the last quarter of the 1st century BC. AD. Completed in 1980, the raw concrete and glass building is the work of architect and urban planner Roland Simounet.

General presentation

Leaning against the natural slope of the land, the museum is surrounded by a forest of regional tree species (

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

es,

hornbeam Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the family Betulaceae. Its species occur across much of the temperateness, temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Common names The common English name ''hornbeam'' derives ...

hazelnut The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel tree and therefore includes any of the nuts deriving from species of the genus '' Corylus'', especially the nuts of the species ''Corylus avellana''. They are also known as cobnuts or filberts according to ...

acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

s, etc.) and by

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

boulders. The picturesque natural site is part of the forest of Nemours- Poligny, which is itself a southern extension of the forest of

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau ( , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Functional area (France), metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the Kilometre zero#France, centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a Subprefectures in Franc ...

. The path inside the museum that guides visitors through the exhibition is chronological. The rooms, distributed around patio-gardens presenting the flora of the different periods of Prehistory, are largely open to the outside through bay windows. Large floor casts (from the

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

sites of Pincevent and Étiolles) evoke the excavation work and show the archaeological sites as they first appeared to the

archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

who discovered them. The tour ends with the presentation of a large dugout canoe from the

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid c ...

period, discovered in an old channel of the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

at Noyen-sur-Seine (

). The ''Musée de Préhistoire d'Île-de-France'' offers a flexible programme that caters to the interests and needs of school groups, adults, children and people with disabilities.Musée de Préhistoire d’Île-de-France
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Bibliography

* ''Un enclos dans la forêt : Roland Simounet : le Musée de préhistoire de Nemours'', Paris, les Productions du EFFA, 2018, 110 p. (BNF 45597020) * Jean-Bernard Roy and René Delon, ''Nemours : Musée de préhistoire d'Île-de-France'', Edition du Castelet, 1992, 28 p. (BNF 35524220)

References

External links

*
Musée de Préhistoire d'Île-de-France
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musee de Prehistoire d'Ile-de-France National museums of France Seine-et-Marne Museums established in 1981 1981 establishments in France

General presentation

See also

Bibliography

References

External links