The Rouffignac cave, in the French commune of

Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac (; oc, Rofinhac e Sent Sarnin de Relhac) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Geography Surrounded by rolling hills and agricultural land uses, Rouffignac's nea ...

in the

Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; oc, Dordonha ) is a large rural department in Southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, it is named af ...

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

, contains over 250 engravings and

cave painting In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...

s dating back to the

Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...

. In conjunction with other caves and

abri A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long, rock shelters are almost alway ...

s of the

Vézère The Vézère (; oc, Vesera) is a 211-km-long river in southwestern France. It is an important tributary to the Dordogne. Its source is in the northwestern part of the elevated plateau known as the Massif Central. It flows into the Dordogne near ...

valley, the Rouffignac cave was classified a

Monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

in 1957 and a

world heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

site in 1979 by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

as part of the ''

Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley The Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in France since 1979. It specifically lists 15 prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley in the Dordogne department, mostly in and around Les Eyzies-d ...

''.

Geography and description of the cave

The ''Cave of the hundred mammoths'', also known as ''Miremont cave'', ''Cro des Cluzeau'' or ''Cro de Granville'', is about south of Rouffignac on a hill slope along the right-hand side of the La Binche river, a left tributary of the

Manaurie Manaurie (; oc, Manàuria) is a former commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Les Eyzies.Fleurac. The rocks of the cave are flat-lying

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

s belonging to the uppermost

Coniacian The Coniacian is an age or stage in the geologic timescale. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series and spans the time between 89.8 ± 1 Ma and 86.3 ± 0.7 Ma (million years ago). The Coniacian is preceded by t ...

; they are very rich in

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

nodules. These rocks together with overlying

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya (million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 mya. The ...

rocks form the limestone plateau of ''Légal'', the divide between the drainage basins of the rivers Lisle and

. The Rouffignac cave and the Villars Cave possess the most extensive cave system of the

Périgord Périgord ( , ; ; oc, Peiregòrd / ) is a natural region and former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne department, now forming the northern part of the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is div ...

, with more than of underground passageways. There are 10 natural shafts that lead to a deeper level. So far, a further of passageways have been explored in this deeper level. Below the deeper level exists a bottom level with a small underground rivulet. Visitors of the cave board an electric train that takes them about into the interior. The plan of the cave reveals a

fractal In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as illu ...

-like

dendritic Dendrite derives from the Greek word "dendron" meaning ( "tree-like"), and may refer to: Biology *Dendrite, a branched projection of a neuron *Dendrite (non-neuronal), branching projections of certain skin cells and immune cells Physical * Dendr ...

pattern that is not random but organized along certain preferred directions. Presumably the cave was formed during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58François de Belleforest François de Belleforest (1530 – 1 January 1583) was a prolific French author, poet and translator of the Renaissance. He was born in Samatan (actual department of Gers), into a poor family, and his father (a soldier) was killed when he was ...

. In his ''Cosmographie universelle'' he cites “paintings and animal traces”. In the 19th century the cave was known as a tourist attraction. Famous

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

s such as

Henri Breuil Henri Édouard Prosper Breuil (28 February 1877 – 14 August 1961), often referred to as Abbé Breuil, was a French Catholic priest, archaeologist, anthropologist, ethnologist and geologist. He is noted for his studies of cave art in the Somme a ...

André Glory André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation ...

and

Édouard-Alfred Martel Édouard-Alfred Martel (1 July 1859, Pontoise, Val-d'Oise – 3 June 1938, Montbrison), the 'father of modern speleology', was a world pioneer of cave exploration, study, and documentation. Martel explored thousands of caves in his native Franc ...

had visited the cave in the early 20th century, but it was only in 1956 that Louis-René Nougier and Romain Robert, two prehistorians from the Pyrenees, rediscovered and confirmed the

cave art In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...

. During the Second World War the cave served as a hide-out for the French

Résistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

. In 1959 the cave was officially opened for visitors. In his editorial in 'Antiquity' December 1958 (reproduced in 'Writing for Antiquity'..Thames and Hudson ) Glyn Daniel mentions the then disputed authenticity of the paintings at Rouffignac.He compares the dispute to the Glozel forgeries and the Piltdown man which authenticities were initially endorsed by many archaeologists. He notes that Martel spent eighteen hours in the caves in 1893 and saw nothing, and the four members of Cambridge University Speleologic Society who visited Rouffignac in 1939 and saw nothing. He further quotes O G S Crawford, previous editor of 'Antiquity' who asserted that 'those who believe in their authenticity have been the victims of a hoax'.

Artistic representations

The artistic representations in the cave were mainly executed as engravings or black contour drawings. In contrast with the caves in

Lascaux Lascaux ( , ; french: Grotte de Lascaux , "Lascaux Cave") is a network of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 parietal wall paintings cover the interior walls and ceilings of ...

and

Font-de-Gaume Font-de-Gaume is a cave near Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil in the Dordogne départment of south-west France. The cave contains prehistoric polychrome cave paintings and engravings dating to the Magdalenian period. Discovered in 1901, more than ...

, and

Altamira Altamira may refer to: People * Altamira (surname) Places *Cave of Altamira, a cave in Cantabria, Spain famous for its paintings and carving *Altamira, Pará, a city in the Brazilian state of Pará * Altamira, Huila, a town and municipality in ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, the representations in the Rouffignac cave are not polychrome. So far 224 animal representations and 4 human figures have been registered. The animal representations can be subdivided as follows: * 158

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...

s (70% of all represented animals) * 28

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

s * 15 horses * 12

ibex An ibex (plural ibex, ibexes or ibices) is any of several species of wild goat (genus ''Capra''), distinguished by the male's large recurved horns, which are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North Africa and East Africa. ...

* 10

woolly rhinoceros The woolly rhinoceros (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'') is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and survived until the end of the last glacial period. The woolly rhinoceros was a me ...

Additionally there is a single

cave bear The cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. Both the word "cave" and the scientific name ' ...

. Amongst the six animal groups cited the mammoths take on a prominent role. The woolly rhinoceros are also more common than in other similar caves, where representations are rare. Signs are somewhat underrepresented with 17 ''tectiform'' (house-like) and 6 ''serpentiform'' (snake-like) signs being known. Fairly common are

finger fluting In prehistoric art, finger flutings are lines that fingers leave on a soft surface. Considered a form of cave painting, they occur in caves throughout southern Australia, New Guinea, and southwestern Europe, and were presumably made over a conside ...

s, macaroni- or meander-like traces that take up a surface of and decorate walls and ceilings. In September 2011 Jess Cooney, a Cambridge archeologist, and Dr Leslie Van Gelder of Walden University, USA announced that their research had identified the artists who had created a large proportion of the flutings to be children as young as three years old.[Prehistoric pre-school: Archaeological research reveals that 13,000 years before CBeebies hunter-gatherer children as young as three were creating art in deep, dark caves alongside their parents. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/prehistoric-pre-school/ University of Cambridge Research News Website] 63 animal representations alone are found on the ceiling of the so-called ''Le Grand Plafond'' chamber. Here again the representations are associated with a shaft.

Cave bears

The presence of cave bears in the Rouffignac cave is attested by scratch marks on the walls, and also by the remains of their resting places.

Age

Because of the general lack of artifacts (a single blade was found so far) and occupation traces, the Rouffignac cave could not be dated directly so far. According to

André Leroi-Gourhan André Leroi-Gourhan (; ; 25 August 1911 – 19 February 1986) was a French archaeology, archaeologist, paleontology, paleontologist, paleoanthropology, paleoanthropologist, and anthropology, anthropologist with an interest in technology and a ...

the style of the representations can be attributed to his ''style IV'' and belong therefore into the Middle Magdalenian, about 13,000 years BP. Reconnaissance excavations in front of the entry of the cave found traces of human occupations (several fireplaces, animal bones and stone tools) dating back to the

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...

(

Tardenoisian The Tardenoisian (or Beuronian) is an archaeological culture of the Mesolithic/Epipaleolithic period from northern France and Belgium. Similar cultures are known further east in central Europe, parts of Britain. and west across Spain. It is name ...

and

Sauveterrian The Sauveterrian is the name for an archaeological culture of the European Mesolithic which flourished around 8500 to 6500 years BP. The name is derived from the type site of Sauveterre-la-Lémance in the French of Lot-et-Garonne. It extended th ...

) and to the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

. Some

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

remains capped the deposits. Therefore, mesolithic hunters must have had their encampment in front of the cave from about 9,200 to 7,800 years BP. In the Sauveterrian level, geometrically shaped

microlith A microlith is a small Rock (geology), stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 35,000 to 3,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia an ...

s were found, the so-called ''Rouffignac heads''. The neolithic and Iron Age levels yielded remnants of burials.

Visiting the cave

The Rouffignac cave is open to the public between April 1 and November 1. The number of visitors is restricted to 550 per day.

Literature

* Leroi-Gourhan, A. (1988). Rouffignac. In: ''Dictionnaire de la Préhistoire'', sous la dir. d' A. Leroi-Gourhan,

Presses universitaires de France Presses universitaires de France (PUF, English: ''University Press of France''), founded in 1921 by Paul Angoulvent (1899–1976), is the largest French university publishing house. Recent company history The financial and legal structure ...

, Paris, pp. 959–960 * Plassard, Jean (1999). ''Rouffignac''. Thorbecke, Stuttgart.

References

External links

Grotte de Rouffignac
(in French)
Rouffignac Cave - The Cave of the Hundred Mammoths
(in English)

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