TheMas d'Azil Cave (French:Grotte du Mas-d'Azil) is a cave located in the French commune ofMas-d'Azil, in the department ofAriège inOccitania.
The cave was occupied during various prehistoric periods and gave its name to aMesolithicindustry, theAzilian. It is also one of the few caves in the world through which cars can travel.[1]
The cave is located on the right bank of theArize river and is 1 km south of the village of Mas-d'Azil, in the western part of the Ariège department.Saint-Girons (the department's subprefecture) is 25 km to the south-west andFoix (the prefecture) is 30 km to the south-east.
Multiple prehistoric groups settled in the cave. The remains include theFaon aux oiseaux(Fawn with Birds), a spear thrower dated to the MiddleMagdalenian[2] (15,000 to 13,500 yearsBP), theCoco des roseaux, a Magdalenian hunting scene with a rudimentary human figure, engraved on a fragment of an animal shoulder blade,[3] as well as a young girl's skull, "Magda" (15,000 years old)[4] with two carved bone plates simulating eyes in the orbits.[5]
The cave also contains several decorated galleries, such as the Breuil gallery or the Reindeer gallery,[6] in which representations of bison, fish, horse hindquarters,ibex head, human face, etc. can be found.
In 1992, a total of nine human representations were recorded in the cave.[7]
The cave gave its name to theAzilian, a prehistoric culture of theEpipaleolithic (around 12,000 to 9,500 years BP) between theMagdalenian and theMesolithic. There is amicrolithic industry, with flat harpoons and many painted pebbles (with red ochre dating back 10,000 years).
In theNeolithic period (5,000 to 2,500 BP), manydolmens were erected in and around the village.[8] Pottery, included from theGauls, was also found in the cave.[9]
The road within the cave was constructed based on a 1857 plan. The excavation work caused the deplacement ofsediment, and archaeological remains then appear on the right bank in the area.[10]
For almost 40 years[11] (between the end of the 1840s and the 1880s[12]), geologistJean-Jacques Pouech [fr] studied the cave. He mainly looked for fossil bones andtopographed the area.[10] Doctor Félix Garrigou also visited the cave in 1862[10] and published an article in 1867.[13] After the flood of theArize in 1875,[14] new excavations were organized by Félix Régnault and Tibulle Ladevèze.[15] From 1887 to 1894, Édouard Piette explored the cave,[16] established a prehistoric chronology based on the evolution of artistic productions[17] and introduced the term ofAzilian.[18] One room bears his name today.[19] In 1901 and 1902, Henri Breuil studiedparietal art.[20]
Research resumed in the middle of the 20th century by Marthe andSaint-Just Péquart [fr]. In 1937, they explored the Silex gallery and discovered one of the most important Magdalenian habitats in thePyrenees. They discovered objects there such as theFaon aux oiseaux (in 1940[21]) and the pierced stick with a horse protome. From the mid-1930s to 1950s, Joseph Mandement and his wife explored the right bank of the cave by unblocking and clearing new galleries and cavities. They found, among others, the Bear gallery (Gallerie de l'ours) and the skull called "Magda" in 1948.[22]
André Alteirac conducted a series of excavations and studies during the 1960s and 1970s.[6] In 1977, he invited Denis Vialou, a member of theNational Museum of Natural History, to study the parietal art of the "Breuil Gallery".[6] He also created the Museum of Prehistory in 1981.[23]
In the 1980s, François Rouzaud, an archaeologist and speleologist, produced a plan of the cave for the Ministry of Culture, which was never published.[11]
From 2011 to 2013, new developments were carried out, including the construction of an interpretation centre to welcome the public.[24] During a preventive excavation carried out by the Inrap (French national Institute for Preventive Archeological Researsh [fr]), dwellings from 35,000 years BP, from theAurignacian period, were discovered.[25]
A team of researchers from theUniversity of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès has been working in the cave since 2013. They are carrying out a major general inventory of the cave and the entire massif. Several lines of research are being developed around cartography, geology and archaeology.[26]
During the first centuries of theCommon Era, persecuted Christians established a place of prayer in the cave.[28]
The place also served as a refuge for theCathars of the 13th century,[28] and then for theProtestants in the 17th century, who took refuge there during the unsuccessful siege led in 1625 by Marshal de Thémines against the Mas-d'Azil.[29][30] In retaliation, one clause[which?] of thePeace of Alès provided for the destruction of the cave's fortifications, done in 1632.[31]
During theSecond World War, the cave was requisitioned from 1 June 1940 for theSociété nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Midi, which planned to establish a factory for parts for its aircraft there. The work undertaken stopped in July of the same year following thedefeat of the French armies.[32] The German occupying troops considered installing workshops for their aircraft there but the project was abandoned and the cave served to stock and repair planes.[33]
Since 1997, the cave and its surroundings host a round of the European Championship of Prehistoric Weapons.[34]
Tourism in the cave was enhanced after the end of the Second World War, thanks to the influx of holidaymakers, prompted by the policies of thePopular Front. Major developments, included the installation of electricity, happened.[35]
Parts of the cave are now available to the public. A vestige of prehistoric habitat can be visited in the upper parts of the galleries. In addition to the cave, there is a museum relating the prehistoric history of the region, in the village of Mas-d'Azil.[38]
^Arize-Lèze, Communauté de communes (2009-02-19)."Galerie monumentale: Peter KOGLER".Communauté de communes Arize-Lèze (in French). Retrieved2025-01-29.
^Arize-Lèze, Communauté de communes (2008-04-28)."Le "Faon aux oiseaux"".Communauté de communes Arize-Lèze (in French). Retrieved2025-02-11.
^Gallois, Alice; Dubois, Sébastien; Péré-Noguès, Sandra (2020), Midi, Presses Universitaires du (ed.),"La grotte du Mas d'Azil: un objet patrimonial en (re)construction",Des patrimoines en action: Mise en mémoire des activités scientifiques (1880-2016), p. 4, retrieved2025-02-11
^Arize-Lèze, Communauté de communes (2008-04-28)."Le crâne humain".Communauté de communes Arize-Lèze (in French). Retrieved2025-02-11.
^abcArize-Lèze, Communauté de communes (2008-05-07)."Les fouilles au XXème siècle".Communauté de communes Arize-Lèze (in French). Retrieved2025-02-11.
^Delaguette, Stephanie."Céline PALLIER".TRACES: UMR 5608 (in French). Retrieved2025-02-11.
^The initial interpretation is of a fawn sculptedin the round at the end of the spear-thrower. It "turns its head to the right towards its hindquarters to observe two birds perched on something cylindrical protruding from its body (presumably a "sausage" offecal matter), the tail of one of them serving as a hook for the spear-thrower." Contrary to this interpretation, "the animal represented is not a fawn, but, according to the perceptible anatomical details, rather achamois or anibex, probably quite young. The "birds" themselves would be only simple striations decorating the spear-thrower (Magdalenian art being richer in signs than in animal figures). As for the "sausage," it would in reality be aplacental sac and the animal would thus be a female chamois in the process of giving birth."Azéma, Marc; Brasier, Laurent (19 October 2016).Le beau livre de la préhistoire. De Toumaï à Lascaux 4 [The beautiful book of prehistory. From Toumaï to Lascaux 4] (in French). Dunod. p. 232.ISBN978-2100730797.
^abArize-Lèze, Communauté de communes (2010-05-21)."La salle du Chaos".Communauté de communes Arize-Lèze (in French). Retrieved2025-02-11.
^Gallois, Alice; Dubois, Sébastien; Péré-Noguès, Sandra (2020), Midi, Presses Universitaires du (ed.),"La grotte du Mas d'Azil: un objet patrimonial en (re)construction",Des patrimoines en action: Mise en mémoire des activités scientifiques (1880-2016), p. 4, retrieved2025-02-11
![Part view of the spear-thrower[27]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aPropulseur_-_Faon_aux_oiseaux.jpg)
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