Gisement préhistorique de la Madeleine
MonumentHidden Treasure
Gisement préhistorique de la Madeleine, located in Tursac (Dordogne), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Tursac, Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 44.9682, 1.0306
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00083036
The cradle of Magdalenian culture, this Perigordian site cut into the cliffs reveals 15,000 years of human history: rock engravings, flint tools and bones bear witness to a civilisation of hunters at the peak of its art.
History
Nestled beneath an imposing rock shelter overlooking the Vézère in the heart of prehistoric Dordogne, the La Madeleine site is much more than an ordinary archaeological site: it is the eponymous site of an entire culture. It was here, in this limestone fold shaped by millennia of erosion, that 19th-century researchers unearthed the remains of a remarkably sophisticated people of hunter-gatherers, living between 17,000 and 11,000 years BC, at the end of the last ice age. What sets La Madeleine apart from its illustrious Périgord neighbours is the exceptional density and variety of the artefacts discovered in its stratigraphic layers: finely decorated reindeer antler assegais, barbed harpoons, surgically precise flint blades, mammoth ivory statuettes and, above all, the famous representation of a mammoth engraved on a fragment of ivory, one of the oldest and most evocative portable works of art ever unearthed in Europe. These objects, now preserved in major national museums, have helped to define a culture on a continental scale. A visit to the site is a striking experience. You walk along the foot of ochre and white cliffs where the rock itself seems charged with memory, overlooked by the ruins of a medieval troglodytic village that was grafted onto the same shelter much later - as if each era had recognised in this place a form of natural perfection. The Vézère flows below, indolent and green, framed by poplars, in a panorama that is ranked as one of the most beautiful in the Vézère Valley, itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For visitors with a passion for rock art and prehistory, La Madeleine is a must-see intellectual landmark. Here, you're not looking at reproductions but at the original place, the very ground where men carved, engraved, hunted and dreamed at the dawn of humanity as we know it. The site is ideally integrated into a wider circuit that includes Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Lascaux and Font-de-Gaume, together forming the world's heart of prehistory.
Architecture
The La Madeleine site is part of the typical morphology of rock shelters in the Périgord Noir: a vast open natural cavity formed by differential erosion of the Coniacian limestone, with an overhanging vault providing natural protection from the elements over a length of several dozen metres. The cliff, some twenty metres high, has a geological stratification that is visible in the open, allowing specialists to read the history of successive occupations directly in the layers of sediment, ochre and ash. The site's location follows an unchanging Palaeolithic logic: a south-facing position guaranteeing maximum sunlight, immediate proximity to a watercourse (the Vézère) for drinking water and the passage of game, and an elevated position offering strategic visibility over the valley. These criteria, common to most of the major sites in the Périgord, explain the exceptional density of prehistoric sites in this valley. Superimposed on this natural substratum, the medieval troglodyte village constitutes a second architectural level of considerable interest. The dwellings are carved directly into the soft rock or set against the cliff face, with walls of local limestone rubble filling the spaces between the rocky outcrops. Niches, grain silos cut into the rock, the remains of chimneys and the eaves walls of the small chapel dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene can still be seen. Its semi-circular apse in dressed limestone is typical of the rural Romanesque architecture of the Périgord in the 12th-13th centuries.
Related Figures
Édouard Lartet — préhistorien français, pionnier des fouilles en 1863, co-découvreur de la richesse du gisementHenry Christy — géologue et ethnologue anglais, co-auteur des premières fouilles scientématiques aux côtés de LartetGabriel de Mortillet — archéologue français qui nomme officiellement la culture 'Magdalénienne' d'après le site en 1869Denis Peyrony — préhistorien périgourdin qui conduit des fouilles complémentaires au début du XXe siècle et systématise la stratigraphie du siteHomo sapiens magdalénien — les chasseurs-cueilleurs anonymes, véritables bâtisseurs culturels du site entre 17 000 et 11 000 av. J.-C.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Gisement préhistorique de la Madeleine located?
Gisement préhistorique de la Madeleine is located in Tursac, Dordogne department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France.
Is Gisement préhistorique de la Madeleine open to visitors?
Gisement préhistorique de la Madeleine is currently closed to visitors.