Font-de-Gaume

About this place

Font-de-Gaume is a cave near Les Eyzies in the Dordogne department of south-west France. The cave contains prehistoric polychrome cave paintings and engravings dating to the Magdalenian period. Discovered in 1901, more than 200 images have been identified in Font-de-Gaume. Along with other nearby prehistoric archeological sites, Font-de-Gaume was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 as the Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley. Read the surviving remains as parts of a larger setting rather than isolated objects. Their positions, scale and materials can help you picture the activities that once took place here and distinguish ancient fabric from later reconstruction.