Gisement de la Gravette
MonumentHidden Treasure
Gisement de la Gravette, located in Bayac (Dordogne), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Bayac, Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 44.8043, 0.7323
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00082339
Eponymous of a worldwide Gravettian culture, this Périgordian site, listed in 1945, has been yielding burins, points and ornaments for over a century, revealing 27,000 years of human presence.
History
Nestling in the limestone foothills of the Dropt valley, in the heart of the Périgord Noir, the Gravette site is one of the most important prehistoric sites in France - and the world. Its apparently banal name actually refers to an entire Palaeolithic culture: the Gravettian, a period between around 33,000 and 22,000 BC, recognised at thousands of sites scattered from the Atlantic to Siberia. The uniqueness of the site lies in the exceptional quality and density of its lithic remains. Successive excavations here have unearthed the famous 'Gravette points', finely-worked flakes with abraded backs that are the diagnostic tools of an entire era. Combined with chisels, scrapers and items of jewellery - pierced shells, shaped animal teeth - these pieces bear witness to a society of hunter-gatherers whose technical and symbolic sophistication never ceases to amaze specialists. To visit the Gravette site is to set foot on land that was trodden by Homo sapiens for millennia, when woolly mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses still inhabited the plains of the Périgord. The emotion comes from this dizzying depth of time: beneath the hedged surface of the Bergeracois lie sedimentary layers that function like an open book on the earliest days of modern humanity. The landscape setting enhances the experience: the gently rolling hillsides of the Sigoulès canton, the hedgerows and oak groves that frame the site, provide a pastoral backdrop where it's easy to imagine ephemeral encampments, hunting fires and rituals that we can only glimpse through the carved stone. For visitors with a passion for prehistory, geology or simply a curiosity about the origins of mankind, this discreet site is a must-see in a department already rich in Palaeolithic memory.
Architecture
The Gravette site is not a built structure, but an open-air archaeological site and rock shelter, characteristic of the Palaeolithic occupations of Périgord. It is set in a limestone geological context typical of the Upper Cretaceous, whose outcrops and slight overhangs provided Upper Palaeolithic human groups with favourable settlement conditions: partial protection from the prevailing winds, proximity to a watercourse, and access to quality flint deposits. The stratigraphy of the site reveals several superimposed levels of occupation, separated by sterile layers testifying to temporary abandonment linked to the climatic fluctuations of the Würm period. The Gravettian layers themselves are rich in charcoal, fragmentary animal bones - reindeer, horse and bison - and abundant lithic industries. The absence of permanent built structures is offset by the probable presence of light structures: stone wedges, demarcated hearths, storage pits, comparable to those documented in contemporary Gravettian deposits such as Arcy-sur-Cure or Kostienki in Russia. The archaeological material itself is the site's most accomplished cultural expression: the Gravette point, a straight-backed blade cut by pressure, represents the pinnacle of technical mastery in flintworking, requiring a long apprenticeship and remarkable dexterity. The presence of ornaments - steatite beads, fossil shells from far-off places - suggests ornamental and identity-related practices that foreshadow the symbolic behaviour documented in contemporary decorated caves in Périgord.
Related Figures
Alfred Mossnat — géologue et préhistorien, parmi les premiers observateurs scientifiques du site à la fin du XIXe siècleDenis Peyrony — préhistorien périgourdin, codificateur de la séquence culturelle du Paléolithique supérieur, dont le GravettienHenri Breuil — abbé et préhistorien de renommée mondiale, contemporain de Peyrony et contributeur à la connaissance du Paléolithique périgourdinDorothy Garrod — archéologue britannique ayant travaillé à la définition stratigraphique du Gravettien à l'échelle européenneFrançois Bordes — préhistorien bordelais du XXe siècle, dont les typologies lithiques ont permis de classer et comparer les industries de la Gravette avec d'autres gisements
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Gisement de la Gravette located?
Gisement de la Gravette is located in Bayac, Dordogne department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France.
Is Gisement de la Gravette open to visitors?
Gisement de la Gravette is currently closed to visitors.