Called in 2015 to a future waste burial site at the foot of the foothills of Costières de Nîmes (Gard), specialists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) quickly concluded that the site had been occupied by man from about 20,000 years before our era until the sixteenth century of it, explained Inrap officials at a press conference.

The site of Bellegarde, slightly high, was probably chosen as a staging point by nomadic populations because it had a spring and it offered a good view of the herds of wild horses crossing the great plain of Camargue, below, they said.

In eleven months of excavations, in 2016, archaeologists uncovered 100,000 carved flint objects (weapons and tools), animal bones, shells that served as adornments, some dating back to the beginning of the Magdalenian, more than 22,000 years ago.

But the most moving moment came later, when they realized while sorting and cleaning the collected objects that two small limestone tablets were decorated with engravings of horse profiles whose eyes, mane or mouth can be distinguished.

An imagery "particularly rare in the south-east of the France and totally unexpected at the gates of the Camargue," said one of the prehistorians responsible for the site, Vincent Mourre.

These engravings "are among the oldest works known for this Paleolithic culture, as well as the paintings and wall engravings of the cave of Lascaux (Dordogne)", located in the southwest of the France, he added.

In a more recent level (-16,000 years), they unearthed on a small tablet an engraving interpreted as a vulva framed by the upper legs, as well as, on a large slab of about fifty centimeters, "fine incisions, difficult to interpret".

"While the decorated walls of the caves were difficult to access, Bellegarde's works were on the contrary easily transportable by these nomadic peoples, or, in the case of the slab, were part of the decoration of the place where they gathered regularly, which makes them their originality," Mourre also noted.

Objects dating from the very beginning of the Magdelanian (- 20,000 years ago), March 30, 2023, discovered during excavations at the site of Bellegarde, in the south of the France © Pascal GUYOT / AFP

Archaeologists hope the finest pieces will be exhibited or shown in a museum, but no decision has yet been made on this, they said.

© 2023 AFP