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 the archaeological park , designed by the architectural firm Frenak and Mosbach . Explore a landscape divided into eight stations, discovering local flora, the results of archaeological excavations , and the history of the research . Walk along paths that preserve native vegetation and explore the stratified archaeological layers.
SOLUTRÉ: A JOURNEY INTO Prehistory
THE COLLECTIONS
The Museum of Prehistory presents the collections from one of the largest prehistoric sites in Europe, a hunting ground occupied for 55,000 years by the nomads of the last Ice Age. Neanderthal hunter-gatherers and Homo sapiens succeeded one another there, slaughtering thousands of horses and reindeer at the end of the last Ice Age.
Discover the collections
A PREHISTORIC HUNTING SITE
Immerse yourself in the incredible history of the Solutré Prehistory Museum , an archaeological site from the late Paleolithic period, occupied by nomadic hunter-gatherers for thousands of years during the last ice age, Würm.
Discover the legacy of Solutré, a hunting ground frequented by Neanderthals and modern humans millennia ago. Explore the Paleolithic material cultures , a journey through time revealing a continuous human presence for over 55,000 years in Solutré, the Vergisson rock shelters, and prehistoric sites in the Mâconnais region.
Mecca of Prehistory
A REGION RICH IN PREHISTORY
The Solutré Prehistory Museum is rooted in its local context . Its collections offer a unique insight into prehistoric archaeological research carried out in the region since the last third of the 19th century at Solutré , in the Neanderthal shelters of Vergisson , at the Azé caves frequented by men and bears, in the Grotte des Furtins , a Magdalenian camp of mammoth hunters, at Varennes-lès-Mâcon occupied by the last ice hunters, at La Sénétrière , at Verchizeuil , at Charbonnières, a school of stone cutting since time immemorial.
Explore these exceptional witnesses to the investigations in the Mâconnais and the department of Saône-et-Loire presented in its permanent exhibition.
REMARKABLE ARCHITECTURE IN THE HEART OF A UNIQUE LANDSCAPE
THE PREHISTORY MUSEUM
Designed by the architectural firm Clapot and Dallery , the Museum of Prehistory is housed in a striking building of concrete, blond stone, and wood. Buried underground to respect the majestic landscape of the Roches de Solutré , Vergisson, and Mont de Pouilly, a protected site, the entrance evokes a fissure in the rock strata, a path that leads to the display cases. A corridor, supported by a row of double columns, distributes the space: permanent exhibition and temporary exhibition hall, culminating in the revelation of the summit of the Roche, a natural obstacle that played a part in the thrilling Paleolithic hunts , revealed through an opening to the north. To the east, a wide bay window overlooks the Saône Valley . The view extends over 100 kilometers to the Jura Mountains, surmounted on a clear day by the angular peak of Mont Blanc.
Outside, it is the archaeological site , the place where hundreds of thousands of horses and reindeer were slaughtered and a witness site to the history of Prehistory.
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK
In 2006, the archaeological site of Solutré was transformed into an archaeological park , designed by the architectural firm Frenak and Mosbach . Explore a landscape divided into eight stations, discovering local flora, the results of archaeological excavations , and the history of the research . Walk along paths that preserve native vegetation and explore the stratified archaeological layers.
Under the large shelter, admire casts revealing the depth of the deposit and the succession of archaeological layers . Two casts are particularly intriguing: the floor of the horse bone layer in sector J10, dating from the Gravettian , and the hearth structure in sector M12, evidence of the Aurignacian , the oldest culture of Homo sapiens in Europe.
