Site archéologique de la grotte de la Bigourdane
MonumentHidden Treasure
Nestling in the Lot gorges, the Bigourdane cave reveals the silent traces of the first inhabitants of Quercy: an underground Palaeolithic sanctuary listed as a national heritage site in 1994.
History
Perched in the limestone cliffs overlooking the Lot valley, the Grotte de la Bigourdane is one of those places where time seems to have stood still. In Saint-Géry, an unassuming village in the Lot department, this Palaeolithic archaeological site offers a breathtaking glimpse of a humanity several dozen millennia old, contemporaneous with the great painted caves that have made the Quercy and neighbouring Périgord region famous the world over. What makes Bigourdane so special is that it is part of a network of karstic caves that is particularly dense in this part of the Lot valley. The limestone gorges of department 46 are an exceptional archaeological terrain, where cliffs and rock shelters provided the populations of the Upper Palaeolithic with natural refuges, places to live and symbolic celebrations. The cave, which has been partially protected as a Historic Monument since 1994, bears witness to this age-old occupation through material and parietal evidence that is still being studied. To visit the area around La Bigourdane is to immerse yourself in a limestone landscape of austere beauty, where the meandering Lot cuts through vertiginous peaks and barren causse. The site belongs to the tradition of prehistoric caves in the Quercy region - Pech Merle, Cougnac, Combe-Nègre - which have revealed an astonishing wealth of artistic and symbolic activity since the Solutrean and Magdalenian periods. For the curious visitor, the site is as much an invitation to meditation as it is to scientific discovery. Far from the tourist hustle and bustle of the large decorated caves, La Bigourdane offers a more confidential, almost intimate experience, in keeping with the spirit of research that drives the archaeologists of the Occitanie Regional Archaeology Service.
Architecture
The Grotte de la Bigourdane is part of the vast karstic limestone complex of Quercy, formed mainly of Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks. Like most of the prehistoric caves in the Lot valley, it takes the form of a network of galleries and chambers carved out naturally by the dissolution of limestone by seeping water, in a process of speleogenesis typical of the Lot limestone plateaux. The walls, ceiling and floor of the cave have preserved the concretions that are characteristic of limestone caves: stalactites, stalagmites, calcite flows and fistulas, which form both a striking mineral decoration and a medium on which Upper Palaeolithic artists sometimes incorporated natural reliefs into their parietal compositions. The entrance to the cave probably opens into the limestone cliffs that line the Lot valley, in a configuration typical of shelters and caves in this geographical area. The entrance porch, which faces south or south-east depending on the orientation of the valley at this point, offered prehistoric occupants effective protection from northerly winds and favourable exposure to sunlight. Inside, the alternation of low galleries and larger rooms defines spaces with probably different functions: living areas near the entrance, ceremonial or symbolic areas in the deeper, darker parts of the cave. The constituent materials are those of the local geology: Urgonian or Kimmeridgian limestone, whose relative homogeneity and whiteness may have favoured the creation of paintings or parietal engravings visible from the entrance with simple lighting using animal fat lamps. The partial protection granted in 1994 undoubtedly covers the most sensitive areas of the cave, where the archaeological remains and any parietal representations are best preserved.
Related Figures
Hommes du Paléolithique supérieur (Magdalénien, ~15 000-10 000 av. J.-C.) — premiers occupants et probables auteurs des représentations pariétalesAbbé Henri Breuil (1877-1961) — préhistorien de référence qui a documenté de nombreuses grottes quercinoises et dont les méthodes ont influencé l'étude de la BigourdaneAndré Leroi-Gourhan (1911-1986) — anthropologue dont les travaux sur l'art pariétal paléolithique ont fourni le cadre interprétatif appliqué aux sites du LotÉlie Peyrony — archéologue pionnier de la préhistoire quercinoises dont les prospections ont ouvert la voie aux découvertes en vallée du LotAgents du Service Régional d'Archéologie d'Occitanie — responsables actuels de la protection et de l'étude scientifique du site
