En visite à Pair-non-Pair 🦣 Dans les secrets de l'une des plus anciennes grottes ornées au monde.

Hello everyone, welcome to this new video of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux. We are very happy to welcome you in this special place. We are used to take you to castles, abbeys, the Panthéon, the Arc de Triomphe, etc. You have done all these tours of monuments, maybe Carnac to go back in time to 3000 BC, but here we are going to go back to way before those years. Yes, we are at the Père-Non-Père cave with its administrator Marc Martinez who is going to show us around. Hello Marc. My first question, Marc, is where are we here in Gironde, but where in particular? We are on the commune of Prignac and Marcan in the Gironde department, about 30 km north of Bordeaux, between Saint-André-de-Cubezac and Bourges-sur-Gironde. It is a very small village. We are in the wooded part that leads us to the entrance of the Père-Non-Père cave. Just for access, Bordeaux is about 30 minutes away? About 30 minutes from the Aquitaine bridge, so when it goes well, it goes very quickly to get to us. Perfect. We will come back to the wide choice offered to visitors from the region and from this area beyond the cave of Père-Non-Père. But without further ado, let's go see in front of the cave before entering and tell us a little bit about this period and the occupation of the cave. Let's go. So this is the entrance to the cave. Marc, can you tell us a little bit about the location of this cave, these rocks that surround us? So just to clarify, the occupation of this cave, the dates would be exactly? So here, the cave of Père-Non-Père, its particularity is to be an ornate cave, of engraving, of animals engraved on the walls. So there is no painting here, there is no colored pigment like Lascaux, but also like foam rubber. But the major interest of these engravings is of course their age, their dating, since we are located around 32,000 years before our time, of course. Okay, which makes it one of the oldest caves to visit. That's it, that's it. We are in the Aurignacian culture, so Père-Non-Père is one of these very first ornate caves, really compared to this dating. We are in the same culture as the Chauvet cave, so I repeat, more than 32,000 years before our time. Compared to Lascaux, we are practically twice as old as the painters and engravers of Lascaux. Yes, we took some subscribers to the Fond de Gomme cave, also managed by the National Monument Center. Here too, we are in the Magdalenien, and in the 12,000, 18,000 years before Jesus Christ, so we are well ahead here. Exactly, exactly. I repeat, Aurignacian culture. So what is important to say is that what we are going to see in a moment, these engravings are considered today as one of the very first forms of artistic expression of humanity. Okay. We can't wait, and I think our visitors too, to go inside. Do not hesitate to ask questions, we will answer them later, of course, and Marc will be pleased, and all his teams who work on the site, to answer you. I have a question about the place where we are, and in particular these rocks. Were we in the cave here before, or was it really the entrance that prehistoric men knew? So today, the cave is relatively small, since from the door that we see down there to its end, it is less than 20 meters, so it is an extremely small space. On the other hand, at the time of prehistory, when men were there, at least during the first period of occupation, this cave was much larger. And in fact, what we see on each side, clearly visible today, were the lateral walls of the cave. So what happened, it is a very classic phenomenon, the entire upper part collapsed. At the time of prehistory, it is an extremely ancient collapse, which explains the reduced, modest dimension of the cave today. But to be clear, we are walking here inside the cave, as it was during the first human visit. Okay, and this first visit goes back to before the visit that brought, in particular, the engravings that we will see inside. Absolutely. So the engravings, I repeat, less than 32,000 years before our era. But you should know here that the first visit of man, it was Neanderthal man who visited this place, was around 80,000 years ago. So less than 80,000 years, first period of visit, the engravings around 32,000 years, and the last level of human visit around 18,000 years. Okay. And do we know why, a question I ask myself, we were talking about the Magdalene era, especially in Lascaux, at the Fond du Gomme cave. Why here, this occupation stopped before this era, which we know more often in the visits we can make in caves, especially in the Age of Man? Absolutely. So here, as the occupation progressed, what we call an archaeological filling occurred. Let's not forget, 60,000 years of human visit, men left behind them tools, animal bones, etc. Then the cave was abandoned. We will see inside, there were still openings that made only the earth, the leaves, etc. This cavity was gradually filled. And so the last level of habitation is located about 60 cm from the mouth. So there was no more space for other men to come. This is why the Magdalene people did not visit the Père Lompère cave. Okay. Marc, you said too much. We can't wait to go into this cave. We're going to go there and maybe it will be the occasion when we go back to talk about what is always very close to prehistoric caves, the discovery and how we were able to preserve them. And maybe you will explain why it is an authentic cave, why some are not. Because we are lucky, as you said, to be able to enter here in an authentic cave. Let's go. Absolutely. Let's go. So here, obviously, we find ourselves in the darkness. With the noise for the atmosphere. Exactly. So the first thing you're going to show us is, I was talking about darkness. We see here, in what you are lighting, a kind of hole filled with a stone. What could it be? Has it always been like this? So this hole is important for two reasons. The first, we will go back to prehistoric times, we think that this hole was already present before it was blocked by this big block. And we think that this is where the light of the day, the light of the sun, entered and lit a part of the cave. And we think of that because all the engraved figures are located in this first area, that is, around the place that was best lit by the natural light of the sun. On the other hand, this hole, the second extremely important function of this hole, if we can say, and here we go back to the time of the discovery, when this cave was discovered in 1881, the legend says that it is a cow, quite simply, who was in a field, so in the upper part, of course, who had the good idea to get stuck in the legs inside this hole. And that's how my father's cave would have been discovered. And then, of course, we put this big block of stone for obvious reasons of security and conservation. Okay, so a beautiful legend, obviously, for this finding and this discovery of this cave. Did it really, because compared to other caves, it was discovered even before, did it really change the approach we could have of parietal art? Absolutely. So we explained it very quickly outside, but when François Dallaud, the inventor of this cave, returned to Pernampère in 1881, he will not see any engraving. Why? The ground on which our feet rest today is not at this height, since we think that the cave was filled up to here, that is to say, 60 cm from the mouth. So when he came in here, François Dallaud, well, he was crawling in a thin gutter about 15 meters. But above all, he did not see any engraving, since these engravings were completely hidden by this archaeological filling. On the other hand, already at this height, he will find silex, tools that prehistoric men used, bones of animals, sometimes animals of prehistory. So they are very well preserved. So why are we on a major site of world prehistory? Well, this is where the official recognition of prehistoric art could be realized. Why? These engraved representations being under an archaeological deposit that was already prehistoric, since we know that it was prehistoric at the time, we know that it was prehistoric at the time, we know that it was prehistoric at the time, we know that it was prehistoric at the time, we know that it was prehistoric at the time, since the bones were covered by sediment. We found, I repeat, silex and bones of prehistoric animals. They were obviously only a work of men during prehistory. Something really monumental at the end of the 19th century ... Finally, finally we have proof that our distant ancestors were the first artists. Indeed. It is true that often we have made concepts. And that's right here we are I think there is one of the representations that you wanted to show us in particular because really even in the history of art in the representation which is really characteristic and quite exceptional. Absolutely, so we're going to stand in front of it to be able to illuminate it. You always have to be well placed, that's what's great enough to say it, of course, you have to come and visit because the video allows you to understand thanks to Marc why this place is exceptional, but when you come to visit, you have to place yourself, you don't see everything at the beginning, everything reveals itself, it's quite extraordinary. Absolutely, it is often said that prehistoric art is above all an art of lighting, so you have to be able to play with the light to be able to make what is not visible at first glance appear. So this major figure, it's a horse that has a particularity, it's a moving horse with its head turned and we're going to illuminate it with another lighting to be able to visualize it well. Here we go, really from a lighting for which we don't see much and there you will see. So here the dorsal line will appear and above all this head-back movement at the back with this very long and very thin head, characteristic of prehistoric equines, the crinera which is there and so here it is, it goes down completely here below. So that's a major figure because in fact it's exactly the movement. We are used to having, especially in paintings, in engravings, the head that goes into the extension and here it's really the opposite. And there is this very particular port and it is important to say that it is perhaps one of the very first times where this notion of movement will appear in the history of art. We also see that in Chauvet, I repeat, we are in the same period as the Grotte Chauvet here. Okay, so really one of the figures not to be missed. But when you come to visit the guide-conferencers, the guide-conferencers will offer you to linger and it's really extraordinary to find yourself in front of this engraving. Do you have any other engravings to offer us? There are many, but we will insist on the main engravings. We will see here in front of us two very beautiful horses that follow each other with this rather high and characteristic headwear. So the first one on the left here with, I described the crinera, a head there too, very, very long. Which looks to the right. Exactly, to the right and so I'll give you the outline since it's complete. It goes down here at the level of the anterior, ventral, schematically the rear leg here. We even have the tail and the dorsal line for this first horse. Maybe later with a lighting like before. Yes, we will show you two lightings. This is what we see thanks to your laser. Exactly, and the other horse which is just in front, which is perhaps a little less obvious, but which I think we can describe very well, the crinera. And you see the same type of head, a very profiled here. So this very fine head is perhaps characteristic of this type of horse that we found. Exactly, these are Przewalski type horses with very, very long and very sharp heads with very, very thick crinera. And there it really appears also on the paleolithic image. That's it, because for those who could say to themselves, but it doesn't look like the horse we know, of course it represents different species of animals. Absolutely, even if this type of horse still exists today in Eastern Europe, but it has this characteristic there, really very, very, very, very sharp. Small horses, quite small, very flabby, very strong. And so the paleolithic images transcribe them very, very well. Perfect. Can we test this other lighting that you were telling us about and that we want to discover? So here to see these horses. We're going to go into the dark, stay with us because it's going to reveal itself to us. The most total darkness. And so with a little stick to help, a little luminous stick, I'm going to light up gradually. And theoretically, the horse's head will appear much better with a lighting that will appear like this. You'll tell me, Baptiste, when... Yes, yes. So here we can see very well the shadows, in fact, which allow us to see well and to understand the contrast that appears like this on the rock. And so the other head that I'm going to light up, which will also appear like this, which is super, very, very beautiful, very, very fine. We saw it earlier, but here I think we can appreciate the depth of the line. We start with a permanent engraving, but we are sometimes at the limit of the sculpture, sometimes of the bas-relief. Yes, and you also explain a difference of lines in the engraving, compared to some that are really engraved at 10-15 mm. There is really also an importance. Absolutely. In fact, here we are really in the presence of an extremely significant material tear. For example, the Père-Nom-Père cave, the Gombarelles cave, where we really have very, very fine lines. Here we really see that there is a massive removal. These are very vigorous peaks of silex on the limestone to remove the material and create the engraved figuration. Perfect. We can see very, very well the revelation thanks to this different light. So, during your visit, you really have to come and visit Père-Nom-Père, because we discover its forms in a different way. With all the explanations, it's quite exciting. For its horses. Perfect. A little more light. Then we will perhaps… Would there be one last engraving? We will see one last panel, knowing that there are other figurations, of course. Yes, that's it. We don't reveal everything, you know. Each time, in our visits, we make you want to come and visit, even by yourself. Anyway, it has nothing to do with this video of discovering by yourself. The emotion is never the same. Never. There will be some missing engraving panels that you will be able to discover. So, here we are on the last panel, which is shown in the context of a traditional visit, with lines like this, which can appear intertwined, tangled and difficult to read. We will detail two major engraving figurations on this panel. One that is turned towards the entrance, here. So, would you have a little light to show us, because it's true that here… It's hard to see. Yes, absolutely. So, for this lighting, it may be a little different. I don't know if there are… We'll see better. You'll see better here. It's a beautiful bouquet. We see very beautiful horns that come all the way here. The head here. Yes, we see. We detail here, with the back leg and the small lowered body. Okay, we see well. That's it for this bouquet. And just then, turned towards the back, this is a major engraving. I have to do a little light play too. It's a prehistoric animal, which is relatively little represented in parietal art. It's a deer, Megaceros or Megaloceros. It was a giant deer, about the size of a horse, with gigantic bones. So, it's an animal species that is no longer found today. That's it. It has totally disappeared and is very often represented with a dorsal hump. So, I'm going to light it up gradually. It's going to look like this. We have the head here, very long and very profiled, with several bones. There are seven that are represented. To show the amplitude of this armor, the neck, and especially the hump. You see the huge dorsal hump here, which is well transcribed. The back. Then, it may be a little more complex, but very interesting nevertheless, because it will mix with the small bouquet that we saw earlier. So, a mixture of lines. Here is the anterior part, and we join the head, which is there, with a small hole for the eye. Megaceros, I repeat, very rarely represented. There may be a dozen, maybe a little more today, of Megaceros complete in all the caves known to this day. So, it's important to have one. In any case, visible in a real cave of prehistory. Very well. Well, thank you. It's quite magical to have been able to see these engravings. But, as you said, we are in a cave that also served as a residence. People often follow us in the castles. There are art galleries. Exactly. And then there are the rooms. So, we're going to do a little bit of the same thing. And there, penetrate the habitat area. I'm going to catch my lamp. We take the lamp, of course, to illuminate all this. And we leave the engraving area. So, the habitat area, that's very important too, since, in general, prehistoric ornate caves were not or very little frequented. That's why we may think more and more about the sanctuary side, perhaps mystical, religious, of this type of place. And so, we need exceptions. And Père-Nom-Père is part of it. So, ornate cave, but an extremely large habitat. So, how do we know that it was inhabited? So, thousands of tools, discovered here, which are preserved at the Faculty. Which we will find at the end of the video. Some. Absolutely. Exhibited at the small museum of the shelter. Here, at the shelter building. So, there are 15,000 tools discovered here, 6,000 animal bones, which correspond to the waste of what men consumed, quite simply. And the third very important element, are the traces of the home. And so, we found all the homes, let's say, concentrated here. So, a succession like that, of layers of ash, with carbonized animal bones. So, why this concentration? Can you light us up a little bit? Yes, here. Here, we are practically... At our feet. Here, we have no more traces, but we know that it was really here, the concentration. Exactly. And why did men choose to make the fire here and nowhere else? Just raise your head. And we see here, therefore, another hole. Of course, closed today with these rock blocks, for reasons of conservation, but which, at the time, were not, of course. And which allowed, in short, the extraction, the evacuation of the smoke to the outside. Okay. Do we know? I have a question. You said, can inhabit the number of people who could live? I guess it's complicated. Yeah, it's impossible to say. We can't. If I tell you, if I tell you 16, you're going to tell me, how do you know? I'm going to tell you, I don't know. So, scientifically, I wouldn't be credible. So, we're going to say that there was a certainly large group of humans who may not necessarily live all the time inside the cave. However, we can imagine a house concentrated outside the cave in a fairly immediate environment. Okay. And... Very good, very good. We were talking a little bit about the home, so there were other areas, right? So... The area we see, maybe. So, if you want the home here. So, what's interesting is that here, on my left, we see a small room that is lit. And if I light up this area, we see another one, a little bigger, a little deeper. It stops at about the laser point here. But here too, these are natural areas, of course. But what can we say? We can also imagine a social organization around the fire. That is to say, here too, imaginary room, once again, to eat, sleep, make tools. In any case, an extremely important habitat. I repeat, we are in Père-Montpère with 60,000 years of human history, which is not nothing. Yes, absolutely. It's true that many monuments can't say that much about it. A question, of course, that I think everyone is wondering about. We know that the temperatures were not the same at those times. Today, it's colder. Besides, it's a very good idea to come and visit when it's very hot. Obviously, this has been the case since recent times. But what temperature was it outside and in this cave? So here, right now, the temperature is 16 degrees. After that, it's difficult to say exactly at the time of prehistory, what the temperature was. What must be said is that we are in a glacial context during human habitation. To understand this period well, it must be said that François Dallaud, during the 19th century excavations, set fire to reindeer bones. So just see where the reindeers live today to imagine the temperatures they made here. A bit of the temperatures of the North, of Eastern Europe. It's not the North Pole, but in fact, very rigorous winters and, let's say, rather pleasant springs. So when there are negative temperatures outside, here, the temperature of the cave is always positive. So around between 9 and 11 degrees, you can imagine this temperature during prehistoric habitation. Very well. Thank you very much for this information. Do you have anything to add? Otherwise, we'll meet our visitors at the welcoming building to see, in particular, the tools you were talking about and then authentic objects. Absolutely. We remain in the authenticity, both in the works of art presented and in the tools that we will see in a moment at the welcoming building. Perfect. Stay with us and see you soon. So we are outside. This is where, when you come to visit, you will obviously pass. You will have to enjoy this place before entering the welcoming building in which we will go. So we are here, really, in the countryside, around the vineyards of the Côtes de Bourg that surround us. Indeed, we are in the vineyard of the Bourget. The exact name is the Côtes de Bourg. So it's quite interesting, quite strong. And so here we are in the prairie, which is not very far from the wooded part that leads to the Père-Non-Père cave, with, on my right, the welcoming building, a fairly original building, which, by the way, obtained the Contemporary Architecture Label remarkably recently. And so it may seem like that, quite austere, a bit blockhouse, but still very, very interesting. So in oak, in massive oak, which has not been treated, so it ages by oxidation. A mixture of concrete too. The concrete has been boxed with oak planks. We don't really see the difference. Green. We will see the windows inside. There is also a copper roof and a building that fits perfectly in the landscape, in the surrounding landscape. It's interesting because it's true that we often show, for our subscribers, castles, monuments on which the welcoming space is directly integrated. Caves also offer this complexity, necessarily, to integrate a building that must respect nature and at the same time that cannot be in the cave. Absolutely. It was a real bet when the building was created, which was built, inaugurated in 2007. It's very, very recent. And so sometimes one of the best rewards, in quotes, is when visitors can't find the building, that is to say, the road that is just behind. It means that the building is so well integrated in the landscape that they don't see it. So they go a little bit in the dead end and then they realize that the building is there. So you hear, you have to look if you ever get lost. Take the time to represent the landscape around you, to take the time to look at it. But here it is, let's not lose it. It integrates completely, the welcoming building integrates completely. And we're going to go there because there is an interest, obviously, in this welcoming building that had been made, in particular, by the Ministry of Culture and by the DRAC. That's the DRAC of the region. And so, of course, there is also an interest in the mediation of the discovery of objects. Let's go there right now. So, Marc, here we are in this welcoming building that we just talked about. We also talked about it when we were in the cave, the interest for visitors to really take the time to go through this building, especially because we see the objects here. You were talking about the tools of the human species. I imagine that these are elements that also allow to understand. Absolutely, it's a tool that allows to understand what's going on in the cave. So, these showcases are visible on both sides, inside and outside. And so, what we see here in a very schematic way is the two periods of habitat, in any case, the two human species that followed each other here, with here a skull of a Neanderthal man, so the first occupation of Pearl Ampere, and the lithic industry, that is, the tools, the silex, which correspond to this occupation. So, superb bifaces, among other things, and all that, these are original objects found in the cavity and which come from Pearl Ampere and are of course preserved today at the Aquitaine Museum in Bordeaux. So, it's a deposit of the city of Bordeaux near the Centre des Monuments Nationaux. And on this side, the presence of Cro-Magnon, Homo sapiens, so, he's the first artist, he's the one who came here to Pearl Ampere with, likewise, the tools that correspond to this culture. So, Homo sapiens is the same species of man who lived during the Orignacin and during, after, Afongom. Absolutely. It's the same man at the same time. Absolutely. And we are the direct descendants of these Homo sapiens. It's what we commonly call Cro-Magnon. So, it's our direct ancestor, what we call the anatomically modern men. No major difference between those populations and us today. Very good. You wanted to show us a second showcase on art, perhaps, also. So, it's rather a showcase that is focused on bone remains, the remains of animals that were discovered in Pearl Ampere. It's extremely important because it allows to see a fauna that has completely disappeared. Here, we see a scapula, in fact, a homoplate of rhinoceros the hyena, obviously, a bone ankle of a bison, that is, the base of the horn of this bovine. And then, also, the prehistoric harp in Pearl Ampere. We talked about engravings. We know that they were originally painted. And so, what we see here in number one, are ochre balls. And so, this ochre that could be mixed, diluted, heated, etc., and that served as pigments to color the engraved figures. All right. You were telling us, well, I don't know if we had the opportunity, but there are, in particular, shells that are also present in the cave and that date millions of years. So, these are fossils, indeed. We haven't seen them, but I hope you'll come and see them. There is a superb representation of a mammoth. And so, it's a fossil shell that served as a starting point for the engraved figure and so, it represents the eye of this mammoth. So, there is a mammoth molar here, which is also present. A wolf skull, so it really indicates a foundation. It's hard to believe that it was present here. Of course, imagination plays a big role. Yes. When you come to visit, you have to leave room for imagination. It's also beautiful not to know everything about this period. We already know a lot about periods that are so far away, but the imagination has to leave room for, in particular, perhaps, for children. By the way, a question about families. Is the cave really accessible as a family for children? Is there a minimum age, perhaps? Well, we really advise that the minimum age is 27 years. Approximately, from the age of 7 years. Really, below that, it's a bit complicated because the cave is relatively small. We will remain static for a long time. Visits can last up to an hour. So really, from the age of 7 years, it's the ideal age. OK, perfect.