Grotto de Gouy
The Grotte de Gouy (also Grotte du Cheval - German "Grotto of the Horse" ) is located in the Seine valley , at the foot of a slope, in the municipality of Gouy , on the D6015 departmental road , around 10.0 kilometers from the airport of Rouen in the Seine department -Maritime in France . It has been classified as a Monument historique since 1959 .
It was discovered in 1881 by two Gouy residents who did not speak about it (an inscription was found after the 2nd discovery). A passage in the cave of unknown length was destroyed during road construction in 1934/35 without the rest of the cave being noticed. This was done in 1956 by two young people.
After the destruction of the Grotte de Gouy, there was an approximately 12 m long gallery, divided into three rooms, which is of inestimable value due to the number, complexity and quality of the chalk carvings there. There are 37 carvings from the Paleolithic Age ( Magdalenian ): 18 animals, seven of which are horned and seven horses, eight vulvae , a bird (probably a falcon), a feather-shaped and a club-shaped mark, a kind of shield and seven indefinable marks (one can be a face), as well as traces of red spots.
An absolute dating was obtained from the collagen of bone fragments (H. Valladas 12,050 ± 130 years BC). With the caves of Arcy-sur-Cure and the caves of La Dérouine, two other newly discovered caves, these are the northernmost caves with rock art to date.
The Dolmen Tombe du Druide (also called Boos Dolmen or Dolmen of Ymare) is about 4.0 km away at Ymare and Alizay.
Others near caves
The "cave of the monks" in Port-Saint-Ouen (one kilometer from Gouy) was destroyed by work on the junction of the RN 15 and the D7. A stone with an engraved mammoth was discovered there. Another, little-explored cave, is Orival on the other side of the Seine, 11 km from Gouy.
literature
- François Bordes , Maurice-Jacques Graindor, Yves Martin, Pierre Martin: L'industrie de la grotte ornée de Gouy (Seine-Maritime). In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française. Comptes rendus des séances mensuelles. Vol. 71, No. 4, 1974, pp. 115-118, JSTOR 23209141 .
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 21 ′ 40 " N , 1 ° 7 ′ 49" E