Understanding Prehistory at the museum

Traveling through prehistory 

The permanent exhibition begins with the sequence of the main periods of the Paleolithic, Middle, and Late eras, preserved in the sedimentary archives of Solutré. The prehistoric occupation of this Grand Site dates back to the last Neanderthals, who left behind the remains of the open-air campsite at Solutré Village and the rock shelters at Roche de Vergisson. It is from these remains that an exceptional series of Neanderthal human remains originates , presented here exclusively.

At Solutré, it all began with the discovery of laurel leaves, leaf-shaped points found in abundance at the site, which allowed scientists in the 19th century to establish the characteristics of the Solutrean culture and period of the Last Glacial Maximum. Admire the variations in the shape of the bone or flint points over time, highlighting the important role of this activity in hunting, a visible aspect of many practices including gathering, trapping small animals or birds… These bone points were used to arm spears , launched using spear-throwers.

Discover wildlife and environments

The walk then reveals the remains of animals found there, illustrating the rich biodiversity of the vanished landscapes and their array of glacial mammals. Discover reindeer, bison, red deer, horses, mammoths, and predators such as wolves, bears, and foxes, for whom this was their den. Next, stone and bone tools evoke daily life. Admire the stone and antler hammerstones used for flint knapping , tools used for working hides, tanning or cutting them, shaping hard materials (wood, bone, stone), and drilling needle eyes from bone or shells used as ornaments. Discover how, in response to climate variations, vegetation adapts and evolves.

Experience Prehistory

Educational models showcase the current state of knowledge about the site. The lives of prehistoric nomads seem to come alive before your eyes in a unique learning and sensory experience. Imagine… a hunting ground frequented during the seasonal migrations of herds of large herbivores between plains and mountains… hunters lying in ambush, driving them against the rock face during elaborately planned hunts . Experience the thrill of the hunt, listen to the roar of the horses' gallop and their neighing piercing the wind's lament, smell the dust kicked up by their swift hooves!

After the hunt, the processing of the carcasses occupies all members of the group : experienced elders, nursing mothers, men, and children. Skinning, butchering , and recovering useful soft tissues—skin, tongue, intestines, tendons—occupies everyone. The hide dries in the sun, stretched over wooden stakes driven into the ground, before being scraped and tanned. The cuts of meat are smoked near large fires where bones burn. The acrid smell and black smoke fill the tent camp . A short distance from the camp, a scavenging wolf awaits its turn…

Admire prehistoric art

The Solutré Prehistory Museum reveals many other treasures. Since 1866, excavators have discovered numerous bone artifacts decorated with notches and rhythmic markings. Admire pierced or grooved teeth, necklace elements , or elaborate clothing decorations, lost millennia ago. Sometimes there are ivory beads , bear teeth worked for suspension, or ivory plaques engraved with rounded geometric designs . For 40,000 years, human communities have displayed a universe of signs and symbols : headless reindeer figurines carved from chert pebbles, deer heads without bodies, and schist plaques engraved with horses or an abstract pattern of intersecting lines.

Two unique masterpieces will dazzle you: a small headless Solutrean mammoth figurine , discovered in 1973, and the reindeer in profile that appears to have been running since the Magdalenian period, more than 15,000 years ago, discovered in 1988 in excavation I11.

Let yourself be told the adventure of Prehistory

The Solutré site is among the first prehistoric sites explored in France, beginning in the 1860s. The discoveries, as well as the missteps and misinterpretations of the pioneers, contributed to shaping the history of prehistory . They established its chronological markers with the creation of the Solutrean period in 1869 and 1872. The site also bears witness to the evolution of research methods in prehistoric archaeology.

Initially focused on the discovery of objects for the collection and their emblematic value (master fossil), the recherches gradually took into account the importance of their stratigraphic position. The place of the objects within the stacking of sediment levels allows us to read the chronology occupations and to order the evolution of material witnesses abandoned by man (1872-1889). These stratigraphic data precise results led, in 1907, to the revision of the Paleolithic timeline during a scientific controversy called the battle of the Aurignacian (1906-1912).
In the same way, repeating an old error of interpretation of the first excavators, the research of the years 1923-1928 aimed to discover burials prehistoric. They will be invalidated in 1973 by the dating carbon 14 of a skeleton, dating from Late Antiquity.

The resumption of research from 1968 to 1998, under the direction of Jean Combier, then Jack Hofman and Anta Montet-White, contributed to a better understanding of the formation of the site within the slope scree. It clarified the chronological framework of the occupations through dating and provided precise paleoenvironmental data thanks, in particular, to palynological analysis and the study of micromammal remains.