http://pair-non-pair.monuments-nationaux.fr/
Come and discover one of the oldest decorated caves in the world at
Pair-non-Pair, right next to the Gironde estuary. The site is both
moving evidence of man's artistic awakening and a major locus of
scientific research.
Visiting the Pair-non-Pair cave
• Animal figures carved deep into the rock face. The walls of the
caves are decorated with engravings of horses, ibex, mammoths, and
bovines, and various types of deer. They date from the Upper
Palaeolithic, between 33,000 and 26,000 BC. They predate Lascaux
and Cosquer and are from the same period as Chauvet cave (Aurignac
culture).
Understanding the Pair-non-Pair cave
• The third decorated cave to be discovered in the world.
Pair-non-Pair was discovered in 1881 by an eminent archaeologist,
François Daleau. It was acquired by the French State in 1900 and was
the first cave to be listed as a historic monument.
• A key site for understanding prehistoric times. The work carried
out by François Daleau was one of the first scientific excavations of a
prehistoric cave with successive archaeological layers being unearthed
one after the other and records being kept of all finds. Pair-non-Pair
still plays an important role in modern-day prehistoric and
paleontological sciences.
