La Grotte Des Fées
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La Grotte des Fées is a cave located in
Châtelperron Châtelperron () is a Communes of France, commune in the central French Departments of France, department of Allier. It is the location of the site known as La Grotte des Fées. Population See also * Châtelperronian *Communes of the Allier ...
, in the central French department of
Allier Allier ( , , ; ) is a Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region that borders Cher (department), Cher to the west, Nièvre to the north, Saône-et-Loire and Loire (department), Loire to the east, Pu ...
.


Description

The name refers to three caves, of which one is collapsed.


Location

The caves are located in the commune of Châtelperron, about 1 km north of the town, on the left bank of the Graveron River at 5 or 6 m above stream level. They belong to the Massif Central.


History

Two interlinked caves were first discovered around 1840, perhaps in 1848, during the construction of the railwayThe railway line, which followed the Graveron hollow, has disappeared, where a path now runs. which used to link the mines from
Bert Bert or BERT may refer to: Persons, characters, or animals known as Bert *Bert (name), commonly an abbreviated forename and sometimes a surname *Bert, a character in the poem "Bert the Wombat" by The Wiggles; from their 1992 album ''Here Comes a ...
to Dompierre-sur-Besbre.For the delving research results, see : João Zilhão, Francesco d’Errico, Jean-Guillaume Bordes, Arnaud Lenoble, Jean-Pierre Texier et Jean-Philippe Rigaud, « La Grotte des Fées (Châtelperron, Allier) ou une stratification « Châtelperronien-Aurignacien » illusoire. Histoire des fouilles, stratigraphie et datations », ''Paléo'', 19, 2007, pp. 391-432
viewable online
The first delving research was led by Albert Poirrier, who carried out the construction of the railway line and who had a keen interest in prehistory. A few years later, between 1867 and 1872, Dr. Guillaume Bailleau undertook new research. A third cave (today collapsed), was discovered in 1867 by Bailleau. Several thousand flint blades and
mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...
tusks of over long were found. The last research, from 1951 to 1954 and in 1962, was led by Henri Delporte and revealed back blades of flint (named "couteaux de Châtelperron"), burins, drills and scrapers. Most of the artifacts are today located at the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
and at the Philadelphia Museum. A few pieces are on display at the Moulins museum and at the
Musée d'Archéologie Nationale The National Archaeological Museum (French: Musée d'Archéologie nationale) is a major French archaeology museum, covering pre-historic times to the Merovingian period (450–750). It is housed in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the ''dà ...
at
Saint-Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the ÃŽle-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. ...
. The display at Châtelperron (Préhistorama, located in the former railway station) has only reproductions for the time being. It is to the Grotte des Fées that the
Châtelperronian The Châtelperronian is a proposed industry of the Upper Palaeolithic, the existence of which is debated. It represents both the only Upper Palaeolithic industry made by Neanderthals and the earliest Upper Palaeolithic industry in central an ...
era (– B.C.) owes its name. Delving results have also sparked the debated theory of the hypothetical cohabitation between
anatomically modern humans Early modern human (EMH), or anatomically modern human (AMH), are terms used to distinguish ''Homo sapiens'' ( sometimes ''Homo sapiens sapiens'') that are anatomically consistent with the range of phenotypes seen in contemporary humans, from ...
and
Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...
s. The site was registered by the
French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture () is the ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of France in charge of List of museums in France, national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and pro ...
as a ''
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 collection of buildings, ...
'' in 1949. Châtelperron - grotte des fées - 1.jpg Châtelperron - grotte des fées - 2.jpg Châtelperron - grotte des fées - 3.jpg File:Grotte des Fees de Chatelperron mod.jpg, Inside topography


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grotte des Fées, La 1848 archaeological discoveries Fees, grotte des Landforms of Allier Upper Paleolithic sites in Europe Prehistoric sites in France