Grotte, gisement du Roch et abri sous roche du Pas-Estrét
MonumentHidden Treasure
Grotte, gisement du Roch et abri sous roche du Pas-Estrét, located in Saint-André-d'Allas (Dordogne), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Saint-André-d'Allas, Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 44.9082, 1.1319
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00082798
At the boundaries of the Périgord noir, the Roch deposit and the Pas-Estrét rock shelter reveal twenty millennia of human occupation: parietal art, Magdalenian tools and Neolithic remains, listed since 1932.
History
Nestling in the limestone cliffs overlooking the steep-sided valleys of Saint-André-d'Allas, the cave, the Roch deposit and the Pas-Estrét rock shelter form an exceptionally dense archaeological complex. Here, the rock itself is an archive: each sedimentary layer, each fissure in the Périgord limestone contains traces of successive human communities from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Neolithic, spanning almost twenty thousand years of silent history. What makes this site truly unique is the superimposition of two major cultural traditions that can be read in the soil and in the stone. The oldest levels correspond to the hunter-gatherers of the Upper Palaeolithic, contemporaries of the artists of Lascaux and Les Eyzies, who used these shelters as seasonal camps as they travelled in search of game. More recent levels testify to the settlement of Neolithic communities, the first farmers in the region, whose funerary and domestic practices contrast with the itinerant lifestyle of their predecessors. The rock shelter at Pas-Estrét - an Occitan toponym evoking a narrow passageway carved out by time - has a morphology that is characteristic of covered open-air sites in the Périgord: a sloping limestone vault, protecting a slightly sloping floor, which naturally concentrates the archaeological finds. The low-angled light of the morning reveals walls where, depending on the season, traces of ochre dyes and tool marks remain, discreet evidence of millennia of use. To visit this site is to experience (almost) open-air archaeology, far removed from the museum-like atmosphere of the major tourist sites nearby. The setting remains wild: downy oaks, junipers and calcareous grasslands surround the rocky outcrops, in a landscape that has hardly changed since the first humans built their fires here. For prehistory enthusiasts, this raw authenticity is a reward in itself.
Architecture
The Roch site and the Pas-Estrét rock shelter are as much about geology as architecture in the strict sense: it is the tectonics of the Périgord coniacian limestone that has shaped its morphology, creating overhangs, galleries and niches that prehistoric man knew how to recognise and exploit. The rock shelter at Pas-Estrét has a flattened barrel-shaped profile typical of karstic erosion in the Périgord Noir: a sloping limestone vault spanning some ten metres, protecting a modestly sized floor area that was nevertheless large enough to accommodate a family group of hunter-gatherers. The walls, hollowed out by dissolution and the action of frost, feature natural cavities and ledges that may have been used for storage or to support lightweight structures made of perishable materials. The deposit itself, known by the name of Le Roch, corresponds to a multi-metre sedimentary accumulation - often several metres of stratified deposits - sealing the remains of successive occupations under successive layers of silt, limestone scree and ash. This natural stratigraphy is in itself an architectural document of the utmost importance: it allows archaeologists to read the passage of time like the pages of a book, with each layer corresponding to a distinct period and culture. The impermeable calcite of the walls has contributed to the exceptional preservation of the organic matter - bone, charcoal and pollen - that is essential for radiocarbon dating.
Related Figures
Édouard Lartet — paléontologue pionnier de la préhistoire périgourdine, dont les travaux dans la région au XIXe siècle ont ouvert la voie à la reconnaissance des sites comme celui du RochGabriel de Mortillet — préhistorien qui établit la première classification des cultures du Paléolithique supérieur, cadre dans lequel s'insèrent les occupants du gisementDenis Peyrony — inspecteur des Monuments Historiques et fouilleur majeur du Périgord dans les années 1920-1930, contemporain du classement du site en 1932Homo sapiens magdalénien — principal « habitant » du site, chasseur de renne et artiste présumé des parois, acteur central de l'occupation préhistoriqueLes premiers agriculteurs néolithiques — communautés agropastorales ayant réoccupé le site entre 6 000 et 2 000 ans avant notre ère, porteurs d'une nouvelle civilisation
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Grotte, gisement du Roch et abri sous roche du Pas-Estrét located?
Grotte, gisement du Roch et abri sous roche du Pas-Estrét is located in Saint-André-d'Allas, Dordogne department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France.
Is Grotte, gisement du Roch et abri sous roche du Pas-Estrét open to visitors?
Grotte, gisement du Roch et abri sous roche du Pas-Estrét is currently closed to visitors.