La grotte ornée de Pergouset (Saint-Géry, Lot)

Overview & Synopsis

The cave of Pergouset, a narrow cavity inundated by the floods of the River Lot, is an archetypal "secret sanctuary", decorated with 153 magdalenian engravings. Ten years of excavation and multidisciplinary studies have made it possible to analyse the traces of occupation left in the cave’s fill, and to investigate the parietal motifs which, in addition to naturalistic animal depictions, include a dozen "monsters" and some human figures, which pose the question of a mythology concerning the origins of the world.