Why the Vézère Valley in Dordogne is considered the “Champs-Élysées of prehistory”

The Vézère Valley in Dordogne has been inhabited by humans for 400,000 years. The approximately 200 prehistoric sites unearthed and recorded over the past 160 years have given it worldwide renown.

It's a valley that winds between limestone cliffs in the heart of the Périgord Noir. The river that carved it, the Vézère, is a tributary of the Dordogne. In the 19th century, the entry of this territory into the era of modernity was accompanied by a quest to trace our most distant ancestors.

Following the rise of prehistory to science, the beginning of the 1860s was marked by the first explorations of deposits at Les Eyzies by the paleontologist Edouard Lartet (1801-1871) and the English ethnologist Henry Christy (1810-1865).

Stretching around thirty kilometers around Les Eyzies, the Vézère Valley has been considered the world capital of human prehistory since the 1920s, even before the discovery of Lascaux in 1940 , which increased the site's reputation due to the aesthetic quality of its engravings and paintings. In 1979, UNESCO classified 15 sites in what is known as "the Valley of Man" as World Heritage Sites.

"Les Eyzies and Montignac are the two triumphal arches that open and close the Champs-Élysées of prehistory." This quote (1) from Abbé Glory features prominently in the book " La Vallée de la Vézère, grottes ornées, abris et sites préhistoriques" (The Vézère Valley, decorated caves, shelters and prehistoric sites) , published this summer 2025. Among those who played a considerable part in the first discoveries were clergymen, the best known of whom was Abbé Breuil (1877-1961), as well as lay people, including the teacher Denis Peyrony (1869-1954).

On the left bank of the Vézère, in Sergeac, Isabelle Castanet is the owner of the Castel-Merl e rock shelters , a site which today includes ten rock shelters (five of which are open to visitors), occupied by Neanderthal man 85,000 years ago, then by Cro-Magnon man 35,000 years ago.

It is one of the highest concentrations of deposits in Europe. Like the Madeleine troglodyte shelter and village, the Rouffignac cave, the Château de Commarque or the Neanderthal site of Regourdou, Castel-Merle is one of the private sites belonging to families, where generations have succeeded one another.

"The shelters began to be excavated in 1878 by Alain Reverdit," recalls Isabelle Castanet. Her great-grandfather, Marcel Castanet, was one of the peasant researchers who excavated the site from 1905 to 1960. "He used the technique of sieving the sediment with water," confides her great-granddaughter.

A process that allowed him to discover small objects, elements of adornment such as the so-called "basket" bead (because of its shape), made of mammoth ivory, or even marine shells and pierced animal teeth. Excavations that gradually brought to light - by mixing the archaeological levels, a heresy today - thousands of flint tools, remains of fires, decorated blocks "showing that these shelters were decorated: engravings, paintings and sculptures."

Several of these objects are exhibited in prestigious museums: the National Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies, the National Archaeology Museum in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and also in the United States, in New York and Chicago.

But beyond this everyday art, research has shown that "several shelters [had been] occupied during the same period," opening the way for interactions between groups of nomads. "At some point, they exchanged things," Isabelle Castanet emphasizes.

His grandfather René took over at Castel-Merle, nurturing a passion for flint knapping. "He was one of the pioneers to experiment with it, and then spread this expertise to schools," starting in the early 1970s.

Isabelle Castanet, who intends to pass the reins on to her children, has been developing outreach activities in the valley where the shelters are located for the past twenty years. Introductions to spear-throwing, fire-lighting workshops, wall painting, and jewelry-making are all part of the prehistoric experience for the whole family, while grasping "the highly intelligent side of prehistoric practices."

Not everything was explored after the last excavation campaign, which ended in 2012. Two shelters are now closed. "We're leaving them for future generations," continues the owner, who is also attentive to the immediate natural environment. On her site, small gaps will be created in the fall "to see the cliff without cutting into it."

Because, beyond the animation of the Castel-Merle shelters, Isabelle Castanet is also mayor of the commune of Sergeac (220 inhabitants) and vice-president of the Communauté de communes de la Vallée de l'Homme responsible for the environment and biodiversity and referent of the Grand Site de France, a label that the Vézère valley obtained in 2020.

Committed to "preserving the natural setting of these places with their rich flora and fauna", she led the design of a biodiversity atlas, one of the most comprehensive in France, developed in consultation with a multitude of stakeholders.

On the same subject

New revelations about the Lascaux cave

She hasn't finished revealing all her secrets. The research conducted reveals elements that will be unveiled during a conference on Saturday, November 18, at the National Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies.