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The caves of Arcy-sur-Cure are a series of caves located on the commune of
Arcy-sur-Cure Arcy-sur-Cure (, literally ''Arcy on Cure'') is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. The caves of Arcy-sur-Cure, just south of the commune, hold the second-oldest cave paintings known, after tho ...
,
Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former Regions of France, administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Duke of Burgundy, Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11 ...
, France. Some of them contained archaeological artefacts, from the Mousterian to Gallo-Roman times. Some hold remarkable
parietal art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also m ...
, the second oldest presently known after those of the
Chauvet cave The Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave (french: Grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, ) in the Ardèche department of southeastern France is a cave that contains some of the best-preserved figurative cave paintings in the world, as well as other evidence of Upper Pale ...
. Another notable characteristic of these caves is the time-long series of pollen, related to determined and consistent archaeological levels. Between 1947 and 1963, they were searched by the French prehistorians Arlette and André Leroi-Gourhan. Listed '' monument historique'' (Heritage Monument) in 1992, they are partially open to the public.


Location and description

Arcy-sur-Cure is south-east of
Auxerre Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are ref ...
, in the
Yonne Yonne () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the river Yonne, which flows through it, in the country's north-central part. One of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's eight constituent departments, it is ...
departement. The caves are south of Arcy-sur-Cure, on the left bank of the river
Cure A cure is a substance or procedure that ends a medical condition, such as a medication, a surgical operation, a change in lifestyle or even a philosophical mindset that helps end a person's sufferings; or the state of being healed, or cured. The m ...
. At this place the river has meandered through the coral limestone substrate, creating a valley bordered by crests standing up from the present river bed. The caves are in a meander and on the outer side of it where the flow is at its strongest. Most of them are south-orientated, with the most western ones slightly turned towards the south-east. At that place the erosional valley shows very steep sides, in some parts akin to cliffs.Interactive map of France, focused on the valley and showing the location of the caves
in ''geoportail.fr''.
The scale (1/17000) of th
Geoportail maps
(1/17000) can be modified by zooming in or out. Aerial photography and geology maps available in the ''Catalogue de données'' panel tab on the left hand-side of the map (Aerial photography layer is in ''Catalogue de données'' tab, ''Données de base'' sub-menu, ''Photographies aériennes'' 9th entry down; geology map layer: ''Catalogue de données'' tab, ''Données de base'' sub-menu, ''Carte géologique'' 3rd entry down). Many other different layers can be added via the ''catalogue de données'' menu.
Several caves are distributed along some of the valley's side, at various levels. Following its inhabitants from the Lower Palaeolithic culture in the Pleistocene era, the caves have sheltered Neanderthals from the Middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian and Châtelperronian); those have left behind them circular huts supported by mammoth tusks. Modern humans followed, with
Aurignacian The Aurignacian () is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with European early modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the Levant, where t ...
s, Gravettians, Proto- Solutreans and Magdalenians. All in all the caves were inhabited up to the Middle Ages.Virtual visit of the caves
on the caves' website ''grottes-arcy.net''.
They are privately owned by Mr. Gabriel de la Varende, who allows and has actively supported archaeologic research from the beginning. Originally open at both ends, collapsing ground closed one of the caves when the underground water flow sharply diminished. This cave now ends with basins at ground level formed by limestone deposits left by the water. There are several lakes.


List of caves and shelters

Fifteen cavities at various altitudes and of various locations, sizes and contents, are grouped in that bend of the river: * * * , about long. * * , highest among all the caves of the site, it opens between the Hyena cave and Bear cave; its entrance is framed with two natural stone walls. Its name comes from a trilobite fossil found in it by Dr. Ficatier from Auxerre. Alexandre Parat (1902)
« Les grottes de la Cure (côté d'Arcy) - La grotte du Trilobite, l'Égouttoir, les Nomades, la Roche-aux-Chats »
''Bull. Soc. des Sc. hist. et natur. de l'Yonne'', 2nd semestre, 42 p.
* Bear cave (''grotte de l'Ours'') * Reindeer cave (''
grotte du Renne The Grotte du Renne (French for "Reindeer's cave") is one of the many caves at Arcy-sur-Cure in France, an archaeological site of the Middle/Upper Paleolithic period in the Yonne departement, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It contains Châtelperronia ...
'') ** Schoepflin gallery (''galerie de Schoepflin'') * Bison cave (''grotte du Bison'') * Wolf cave (''grotte du Loup'') * Lion cave (''grotte du Lion'') * * Two Flows cave (''grotte des Deux Cours'') * Small shelter, Large shelter (''Petit abri, Grand abri'') * Goulettes cave (''grotte des Goulettes'')


Parietal art

Prehistoric parietal paintings were discovered by Pierre Guilloré in April 1990 in the Great cave, protected by a thin layer of lime/calcite sediments hiding them from view. Jean-Claude Liger
''Concrétionnement et archéologie aux grottes d'Arcy-sur-Cure (Yonne)''
(''Concretionation and archaeology in the caves of Arcy-sur-Cure'') Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, 1995, Vol. 92, no. 4, pp. 445-450. Page 448. The article is a study of the way lime accretions develop in these caves.
But engravings of animals (among which several mammoths in the Horse cave) are recorded at the latest in 1946. Jean-Claude Liger
''op. cit.''
page 445 (shows a map drawing of the Horse cave, made from an assay by A. Hesse in 1961).
Unfortunately, some of the paintings were destroyed by regular cleanings of the cave's walls with high-pressurized water sprays between 1976 and 1990. At the time no-one thought that under the black smoke layer – at least some of it having come from torches carried during past centuries' visits –, prehistoric paintings could exist under a thin layer of lime sediments hiding them from view. Made on walls in cave rooms located away from the entrance, the paintings are 28,000 years old for the oldest, according to radiocarbon dating measures on charcoal remains discovered in these cave rooms in the corresponding strata. Thus they are the second oldest after the
Chauvet Cave The Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave (french: Grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, ) in the Ardèche department of southeastern France is a cave that contains some of the best-preserved figurative cave paintings in the world, as well as other evidence of Upper Pale ...
(31,000 years old), well before those of
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 t ...
(15,000 to 18,000 years old); but they cannot compare with the latter in their quantity, as only 160 of them have been found so far, against over 400 in the Chauvet cave and about 1,900 in that of Lascaux. The paintings were executed with
ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...
and charcoal. One finds there at the same time some hands of men, women and children, and some representations of animals. The hands are 'negative hands': they are represented by outlines and not by their surface. One knows precisely today that at least one hand was drawn with some ochre with the help of a pipette. To represent animals, the first European ''Homo sapiens'' often chose parts of the walls of which the relief, under the torches' flickering lighting, would come out as shapes that reminded of the animals' anatomy, such as eyes or the antlers of large deer. They then used the paint sparingly, drawing only the elements that the relief did not show. Only the animals' outlines were generally represented, the inside being left entirely blank. Here the animals' feet are often open, a feature which is characteristic to these caves. They are generally portrayed with one leg at the front and one leg at the rear. Among the most interesting paintings, one finds a mammoth drawn entirely and a prehistoric stag whose antlers could be 4 meters tall ('' Megaloceros giganteus''), partially depicted while using reliefs in the wall. Other animals also appear among the paintings, such as bear and woolly rhinoceros.


Speleothems and calcite deposits

The lowest parts of the caves are regularly filled with water. One finds there stalagmites, stalactites, columns, draperies and the ''Virgin's room''. One of the lakes shows a remarkable phenomenon of limestone deposit that covers the surface of the water, falls to the bottom then periodically comes back up to the surface. This phenomenon is still poorly understood, but does not seem directly due to bacteria. Some parts of this phenomenon are akin to
calcite rafts Calcite crystals form on the surface of quiescent bodies of water, even when the bulk water is not supersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate. The crystals grow, attach to one other and appear to be floating rafts of a white, opaque materi ...
. The stalactites grow at the noticeable rate of about every 100 years. Engraved figures on some walls are in plain sight, totally untouched by calcite deposits; whereas such deposits can appear mere inches away from the engravings in some cases. When they do exist these wall deposits grow very quickly. The Horse cave is typical of such behaviour.


Fauna

The caves are home to at least five species of bats. Driven away by visits to the main cave, they were provided a new shelter. Access has been closed to visitors.


History

Excavations started in the middle of the 19th century in the Fairies cave with their then owner the marquis de Vibraye. In his wake, the abbé Parat studied the main stratigraphic sequences in the caves and those of Saint-Moré upriver. Then from 1946 onward professor Leroy-Gourand and his team worked in the Hyena cave, Reindeer cave, Bison cave and Lagopede cave. Dug by the Cure river in a limestone massif from the Mesozoic (secondary era), the caves were used as shelter by humans since at least 200,000 years ago. The oldest traces of human presence were stone tools found at the bottom of the cave of the Hyena (''grotte de la Hyène''), from Neanderthals during the Mousterian (
Middle Paleolithic The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleo ...
, the middle part of the European Old Stone Age). These were accompanied by bones of hippopotamus, beaver and land tortoise. Following the time-line, the next stratum is contemporary to the
Riss glaciation The Riss glaciation, Riss Glaciation, Riss ice age, Riss Ice Age, Riss glacial or Riss Glacial (german: Riß-Kaltzeit, ', ' or (obsolete) ') is the second youngest glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch in the traditional, quadripartite glacial classi ...
in the Alps region (corresponding to the Illinoian in America) and contains few artefacts, still in the same cave of the Hyena. The Riss ice age was marked by two glaciations and one
interglacial An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene i ...
episode in between. During this Riss-Würm interglacial, the river flooded the cave of the Hyena but not continuously: remains of human habitat were found in the thick layer of deposits that it left behind. The sand present in the Reindeer cave (''
grotte du Renne The Grotte du Renne (French for "Reindeer's cave") is one of the many caves at Arcy-sur-Cure in France, an archaeological site of the Middle/Upper Paleolithic period in the Yonne departement, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It contains Châtelperronia ...
'') is thought to have been deposited at the same period. In these two caves, the next (more recent) layers ( Würm stage 1) are rich in Mousterian artifacts; some human remains, notably part of a maxilla and a part of
mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...
, have been found in the earliest deposits of that stage. After that first layer of the Würm stage 1 came a period of high humidity and of floodings; the river lever rose by several meters. The lower caves were flooded and the higher ones eroded. At that period some water filtered through the caves' ceiling, draining with it some older sediments and bringing some anomalies in the series of pollen analysis. Thus some pollens (essentially tropical ferns pollens) from the Secondary era were found between two Mousterian layers. This phenomenon has also been found in some places in south-west France and in Provence. Following this very damp period are a high number of Mousterian strata, notably in the Reindeer cave, the Bison cave and the Schoepflin gallery that prolongs them by 30 meters. Victor Petit
''Description des villes et des campagnes de l'Yonne'', vol 2 : arrondissement d'Avallon
Auxerre, 1870. pp. 326–327.
The Reindeer cave (''
grotte du Renne The Grotte du Renne (French for "Reindeer's cave") is one of the many caves at Arcy-sur-Cure in France, an archaeological site of the Middle/Upper Paleolithic period in the Yonne departement, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It contains Châtelperronia ...
'') holds the richest Châtelperronian collection known to date, notably famous for its bone and ivory works.


Surroundings

upriver, on the right bank of the Cure, is the Cora site (''site Cora'' or ''camp Cora''). This camp was populated around 6,000 years ago ( Neolithic followed by a fortified Gaul village then a Gallo-Roman fort)Site Archéologique de Cora
(''archaeological site of Cora'') on the tourism office site.]
is next to another set of caves similar to those of Arcy and that were also already occupied over 200,000 years ago''Les grottes de Saint Moré à Saint-Moré (89)''
on ''petitpatrimoine.com''. Summary of these caves, with a few good photos including the ''aiguillette de Saint Moré'', a notable geology feature.
Pierre Guilloré, Jean-Jacques Lebret, Jean-Claude Liger
''Les grottes préhistoriques de Saint-Moré''
1 vol. (12 p.), Dijon 1990.
in a similar situation (coral limestone, high steep bank, concave side of a meander), the fontaine de Saint-Moré (''Saint-Moré spring''), a Merovingian sarcophagus quarryFontaine de Saint-Moré
with varied photos of the place and of the Merovingian sarcophagus quarry located among the Saint-Moré caves. See the ''geoportail'' map for the location of the caves.
and a Roman villa. Abbé Parat
''Deuxièmes glanures archéologiques. La villa romaine de Saint-Moré''
in ''Bulletin de la société des sciences historiques et naturelles de l'Yonne'', Vol. 52, 1899. Departement archives reference.

The fontaine de Saint-Moré was long considered as sacred and drew many processions, pilgrims and supplicants in its time. The
Via Agrippa ''Via Agrippa'', is any stretch of the network of Roman roads in Gaul that was built by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, to whom Octavian entrusted the reorganization of the Gauls. In all, the Romans built of roads in Gaul. Agrippa's project Agrippa's ...
from
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...
to
Boulogne-sur-Mer Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Hauts-de-France, Northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Department ...
passed to the west of the caves, crossing the river Cure at the Noère
ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...
(''gué Noère'', the name meaning "Black ford" in local French) in Saint-Moré. Three discovery paths have been installed at the Cora camp (free access), equipped with historical information panels on the Gallo-Roman fort that guarded the
via Agrippa ''Via Agrippa'', is any stretch of the network of Roman roads in Gaul that was built by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, to whom Octavian entrusted the reorganization of the Gauls. In all, the Romans built of roads in Gaul. Agrippa's project Agrippa's ...
passage.Saint-Moré – Le camp de Cora
The discovery paths.
The
GR footpath The GR footpaths are a network of long-distance walking trails in Europe, mostly in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. They go by the following names: french: link=no, sentier de grande randonnée, vls, link=no, Groteroutepad, nl, L ...
no. 13''( fr)'' passes right at the top of the cliffs on the same river side as the caves of Arcy-sur-Cure, joining Fontainebleau ( Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France region) to
Bourbon-Lancy Bourbon-Lancy is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is a rural town on the river Loire with a walled medieval area on the dominant hill. It has an authentic medieval belfr ...
(
Saône-et-Loire Saône-et-Loire (; Arpitan: ''Sona-et-Lêre'') is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the rivers Saône and Loire, between which it lies, in the country's central-eastern part. Saône-et-Loire is B ...
, south-west of the
Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former Regions of France, administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Duke of Burgundy, Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11 ...
region).


Gallery

File:Parat.jpg, Abbé Parat in front of the Fairies cave File:Arcy-sur-Cure-FR-89-les grottes-05.jpg, The Double pillar File:Arcy-sur-Cure-FR-89-les grottes-04.jpg, The
Calvary Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...
File:Arcy-sur-Cure-FR-89-les grottes-03.jpg, The Scallop pillar File:Arcy-sur-Cure-FR-89-les grottes-02.jpg, The Virgin room


Notes and references


Notes


References


See also


Related articles

* ''
Grotte du Renne The Grotte du Renne (French for "Reindeer's cave") is one of the many caves at Arcy-sur-Cure in France, an archaeological site of the Middle/Upper Paleolithic period in the Yonne departement, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It contains Châtelperronia ...
''


External links

* {{Prehistoric technology 19th-century archaeological discoveries Arcy Arcy Arcy Arcy Arcy Arcy Mousterian