abri Audi
MonumentHidden Treasure
At the gateway to Les Eyzies, the abri Audi opens onto two stone ages, from the Mousterian to the Perigordian, offering an exceptional testimony to human continuity in the Vézère valley.
History
Nestling in the golden limestone cliffs that line the Vézère valley, the Audi shelter is one of a constellation of prehistoric sites that have earned Les Eyzies-de-Tayac the unofficial title of "Prehistory Capital of the World". This modest rocky outcrop under a cornice, unobtrusive to anyone who doesn't know how to look, nonetheless conceals archaeological strata spanning several dozen millennia of human occupation, from the Middle Neanderthal Palaeolithic to the first cultures of Homo sapiens in the Upper Palaeolithic. What sets the Audi shelter apart in an extraordinarily rich area is precisely this stratigraphic superposition: the successive sedimentary layers form a veritable natural archive, a stone book open to the long transition between two humanities. The lithic industries found on this site illustrate the gradual transition from Mousterian tools to the lamellar tools characteristic of the Périgordian period, providing specialists with invaluable material for understanding the settlement dynamics of the Périgord. A visit to the Audi shelter is a natural part of a wider tour of the Périgord Noir region. The site itself retains the atmosphere of silent authenticity that is typical of places that time has managed to preserve from excessive artificialization. Faced with the rock shelter, you can intuitively see why our ancestors chose this spot: favourable exposure, protection from the prevailing winds, immediate proximity to the river and its hunting resources. The surrounding natural environment plays a full part in the experience: the pubescent oaks and box trees clinging to the limestone walls, the low-angled light that, depending on the time of day, sculpts the crevices of the cliff, all combine to place the visitor in a sensitive and almost physical relationship with this vertiginous past. The Audi shelter is a place for the demanding curious, those who prefer the sobriety of an authentic archaeological site to a reconstructed museum show.
Architecture
The Audi shelter belongs to the category of rock shelters, a geological formation typical of the limestone cliffs of the Périgord Noir. These natural canopies are formed by the differential erosion of coniacian and santonian limestone: the soft layers, attacked by frost, seepage and run-off over thousands of years, become recessed, while the more resistant strata form a protective cornice overhanging the cliffs. Prehistoric man set up his semi-permanent camps under these natural canopies, which generally faced south or south-west to benefit from maximum sunlight. The morphology of the Audi shelter, like that of its Perigordic counterparts, is characterised by a vertical or slightly sloping rock face forming the base of the shelter, a naturally outward-sloping floor that facilitates water drainage, and a rock ledge offering protection from the elements. The local limestone, blonde to ochre in colour, has a granular texture that is ideal for preserving organic and mineral matter in the sediments that have accumulated over the centuries. The stratigraphic deposits that have built up - a mixture of hearth ash, faunal bones, carved tools and aeolian sediments - constitute the site's main archaeological interest. There are no architectural features in the strict sense associated with this type of site: the prehistoric shelter derives all its value from its natural state and the buried remains it contains. The rock face itself, smooth in places as a result of erosion, may contain traces of preparation or use that are difficult to distinguish without detailed analysis, as is the case with many shelters in the region where cupules, tracings and ochre residues have been discovered after close examination.
Related Figures
Denis Peyrony — préhistorien périgourdin, directeur du Musée des Eyzies, figure centrale de l'exploration et de la documentation des abris de la vallée de la Vézère au début du XXe siècleHenri Breuil — abbé et paléontologue, surnommé le « pape de la Préhistoire », dont les travaux dans la région des Eyzies ont contribué à établir les grandes chronologies du PaléolithiqueÉdouard Lartet — géologue et paléontologue, pionnier des fouilles préhistoriques en Périgord dès les années 1860, dont l'œuvre a ouvert la voie à l'exploration systématique de la VézèreLouis Capitan — médecin et préhistorien, collaborateur de Breuil, impliqué dans l'inventaire et l'étude de nombreux sites périgordins au tournant du XXe siècle
