Explore Prehistory at the museum
The Solutré Prehistory Museum brings together the collections of a prehistoric site located at the foot of the Roche de Solutré, occupied for at least 55 years. The first Neanderthal hunters and then communities of modern men came to hunt reindeer and horses by the thousands until the end of the Paleolithic. The deposit has become the reference for the Solutrean, a culture of south-western Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum, around 000 years before the present.
The museum provides access to archaeological park, designed by the architectural firm Frenak and Mosbach. Explore a landscape in 8 stations, discovering the local flora, the results of Archaeological excavations et the history of research. Cross paths preserving spontaneous flora and explore the stratified archaeological levels.
SOLUTRÉ: A JOURNEY INTO Prehistory
THE COLLECTIONS
The Prehistory Museum presents the collections of one of the largest prehistoric deposits of Europe, a hunting site occupied since 55 years by the nomads of the last glaciation. Hunter-gatherers Neanderthal et Homo sapiens followed one another to slaughter horses and reindeer by the thousands at the end of the last ice Age.
Discover the collections
A PREHISTORIC HUNTING SITE
Immerse yourself in the incredible history of Solutré Prehistory Museum, an archaeological site from the end of the Paleolithic and occupied by nomadic hunter-gatherers during thousands of years during the last glaciation, Würm.
Discover the heritage of Solutré, a hunting site frequented by Neanderthals and modern humans millennia ago. Explore the material cultures of Paleolithic, a journey through time, revealing a continuous human presence for more than 55 years in Solutré, in the shelters of Vergisson and the prehistoric sites of Mâconnais
Mecca of Prehistory
A REGION RICH IN PREHISTORY
The Solutré Prehistory Museum is anchored in its local context. His collections offer a unique insight into recherches in prehistoric archeology carried out in the region since the last third of the 19th century Solutré, in the Neanderthal shelters of Vergisson, to the caves ofAze frequented by men and bears, in the cave of Furtins, Magdalenian camp of mammoth hunters, Varennes-les-Macon occupied by the last glacial hunters, at the Senetriereor a Verchizeuilor a Coal mines school of stone cutting since time immemorial.
Explore these exceptional witnesses investigations in the Mâconnais and the department of Saône-et-Loire presented in its permanent route.
REMARKABLE ARCHITECTURE IN THE HEART OF A UNIQUE LANDSCAPE
THE PREHISTORY MUSEUM
Designed by the architectural firm Clapot and Dallery, the Prehistory Museum is housed in a concrete, blond stone and wood building with remarkable architecture. Buried, to respect the majesty of the landscape of Rocks of Solutré, Vergisson and Mont de Pouilly, classified site. The entrance evokes a fault in the strata of the rock, which we continue to discover the windows. The corridor, carried by a row of double columns, distributes the space: permanent exhibition et temporary exhibition hall until the revelation of the summit of the Roche, a natural obstacle participating in the hectic Paleolithic hunts, revealed by an opening to the north. Towards the east, a large bay reveals the Saône valley. The view extends more than 100 kilometers to the Jura mountains, topped on clear days by the angular peak of Mont-Blanc.
Outside, it is Archeological site, the place of slaughter of hundreds of thousands of horses and reindeer and control site of prehistoric history.
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK
In 2006, the archaeological site of Solutré was transformed into archaeological park, designed by the architectural firm Frenak and Mosbach. Explore a landscape in 8 stations, discovering the local flora, the results of Archaeological excavations et the history of research. Cross paths preserving spontaneous flora and explore the stratified archaeological levels.
Under the large shelter, admire castings revealing the depth of the deposit and the succession of archaeological layers. Two casts are particularly intriguing: the floor of the horse bone layer from sector J10, dating from the Gravettian, and the hearth structure of sector M12, witness to the Aurignacian, the oldest culture ofHomo sapiens in Europe.
