Known as the "Lascaux of sculpture", Roc-aux-Sorciers is a rock shelter that was occupied at various points during the Magdalenian Period, some 15,000 years BP.
It is in the département of Vienne near Angles-sur-l’Anglin, one of the most beautiful villages in France. The shelter, which is located at the foot of tall limestone cliffs on the right bank of the Anglin, is famous for a series of outstanding wall sculptures that extend for more than fifty metres. They are part of a Magdalenian habitation site in which wall art and daily life were closely connected.
History
Lucien Rousseau discovered the site in 1927 and published his findings concerning the Magdalenian occupation he identified (Rousseau, 1933). In 1948, Suzanne Cassou de Saint-Mathurin reopened the site, excavating it intensively until 1957. Working with Dorothy Garrod, she discovered the sculpted frieze in 1950 and published several articles about it. The site was made a listed monument on 18 January 1955. At her death in 1991, de Saint-Mathurin donated the site and her collections to the French State. At her request, Geneviève Pinçon carried on the excavations, and in 1997 published – with Ludmila Iakovleva – the part of the sculpted frieze still in situ, carrying out the work with a multi-disciplinary team of young researcher.
