LesEyzies in southwestern France bills itself as the Capital of Prehistory, whichis hardly surprising, given the extraordinary diversity of late Ice Age sitesin the Vezère river valley. But I would hardly describe the village itself asan attractive one, except for its setting, nestled under precipitous, riversidecliffs. The main street is a strip of restaurants, gift shops, and boasts ofpay parking (on weekdays). Of course, there’s the Les Eyzies Museum, which ismagnificent if you want an intensive education in Stone Age technology. There’salso a small store at the other end of the street where, if you are lucky, you’llfind a modern-day flintknapper in action and can buy a finely crafted Solutreanpoint, which the French describe elegantly as a laurel leaf, a feuille delaurier. Apart from the well-known caves like Font de Gaume and LesCombarelles, there’s also Abri Pataud, conveniently located on the main street.(And, by the way, you can always walk to the Cro-Magnon Hotel, enjoy a nicemeal, and visit the Cro-Magnon rockshelter behind the employees’ houses. Allyou’ll see is a plaque, but you will have paid homage at the shrine . . . .).

AbiPataud is named after the Pataud family, who owned it until the late HallamMovius of Harvard University purchased the site in 1948. From 1958 to 1964, heexcavated the rockshelter in a series of long field seasons that set newstandards for cave excavation, using the Pataud toolshed as a workshop.Fortunately, the excavations are still open for the inquisitive visitor,complete with the network of iron pipes used as a permanent site recordingsystem. A visit to the dig with its closely packed layers and large bouldersfrom the roof is a quick education in the intricacies of excavation onCro-Magnon sites. Hearths appear as compressed, dark layers of charcoal. Flinttools protrude from the walls of the trenches, varying in density from onelayer to the next. Abri Pataud is a magnificent record of Aurignacian andGravettian occupation, spanning a long period between about 32,000 and 20,500years ago. Pataud was one of the first late Ice Age rockshelters to beradiocarbon dated thoroughly. Students are still analyzing the huge quantitiesof animal bones and stone tools found in the excavations. A generation of PhDshave come from the Movius excavations.

AbriPataud is well worth a visit, not only to see the dense sequence of narrowlayers and the museum with its ibex in low relief on the low ceiling, but alsoto ponder the staggering difficulties involved in deciphering life during thelate Ice Age. All credit to the French Government for opening the site tovisitors in 1990. More than any other site near Les Eyzies, it offers a glimpseinto life in one of the most densely occupied areas of Ice Age Europe when Homo sapiens in the form of theCro-Magnons was still a relatively newcomer, and, for some time, handfuls ofNeanderthals still lurked in remote valleys nearby.