Margot's cave

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Caves in the valley of the Erve
Femur from Margot's cave
Skull from Margot's cave

The cave of Margot ( French grotto or Cave à Margot ) is a much-visited, richly decorated archaeological site in a group of grottos (Grotte Mayenne-Sciences) in the Erve valley in Thorigné-en-Charnie , near Saulges in the Mayenne department in France .

description

The cave is about 319 m long and has a height difference of 14 m. The 0.5 m wide entrance to the difficult to access cave mentioned for the first time in 1701 has long been known because the legend of the fairy Margot already existed. It was necessary to crawl in several places. According to ancient texts, many tragic accidents seem to have occurred in the cave.

The cave suffered greatly from excavations in the 19th century. Raoul Daniel's explorations reveal the presence of human traces of the Moustérien , Aurignacien , Solutréen and Magdalenien as well as hyenas and bears . After several investigations, Romain Pigeaud discovered paleolithic rock art in 2005 .

The cave could only be explored crawling in several places (such as the caves of Combarelles, in Périgord or the caves of Pergouset in the Lot). The upright areas, separated by crawlways, are the “Salle du Chasseur”, “Salle d'Hiver”, the “Galerie du Chêne pétrifié”, the “Palais de Margot” and the “Salle du Gendarme”. Before the shortcut from the Palais de Margot to the “Tombeau des Troglodytes” was created, a partially flooded abyss blocked access to the “Salle des Squelettes”, which contained a lake. According to the current state of research, the Margot cave has 124 graphics, which are distributed as follows:

  • 95 figurative or abstract representations, including eight horses, eight woolly rhinos, five birds, three cattle, two deer animals, two people and two vulvae .
  • three red lines
  • eight digital tracks (three positive and five negative hands)

The significant cavity with Paleolithic art corresponds in its importance to the caves of Arcy-sur-Cure in Burgundy . Romain Pigeaud divides the inventory into groups. Images that can be ascribed to the 25,000 year old Gravettian and the 12,000 year old Magdalene. Important discoveries have been made since 2006 in the Margot Cave and in the nearby Rochefort Grotto in Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve . The cave was classified as a Monument historique in 1926 after probably medieval skeletons were discovered in 1924 .

context

Mont Croquelien lies between Loudéac and Gouray in the Côtes-d'Armor department in the center of Brittany in France . Legend has it that the mountain is the birthplace of the fairy Margot (also Margaux). Many megaliths and rocks, especially in Brittany and in Mayenne (Grotte à Margot), are the abode of the fairies or their furniture and tools: bathtub, wallet, crib, shoe, armchair, spindle or table. They were the subject of cults. By the end of the 19th century, this led to many people offering them animals as sacrifices and looking for their supposed treasures.

  • Mont Croquelien

  • Margot's purse

  • Margot's bathtub

  • Margots armchair

  • Granite rocks in Margot's Wonderland

The erosion cut up the pieces of the rock, creating the chaos that can be seen today.

literature

  • R. Pigeaud, J. Rodet, T. Deviese, J.-P. Betton, P. Bonic: Une nouvelle grotte ornée en Mayenne: la grotte Margot (Thorigné-en-Charnie, Mayenne). In: Journée Préhistorique et Protohistorique de Bretagne. Rennes, 2006, pp. 1-2.
  • R. Pigeaud, S. Hinguant, J.-R. Ladurée, H. Paitier, J.-P. Betton, P. Bonic: L'art préhistorique des grottes de Saulges. In: Maine découvertes. No 56, 2008 pp. 5-16.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Margot is a French variant of the name Margarete, which means "pearl"

Web links

Coordinates: 47 ° 59 ′ 34 ″  N , 0 ° 24 ′ 3 ″  E