Olivier Pasteur CC BY SA

Conference by Colas Guéret and Alexandre Cantin: “The Mesolithic site known as the Grotte à la Peinture in Larchant (77)” Musée de Préhistoire d’Île-de-France, Nemours, France.

The engravings discovered in the sandstone chaos of southern Île-de-France have been known since the late 19th century. Some, composed of abstract and rectilinear patterns, could date back to the Mesolithic period (10th-6th millennia BCE). However, their dating has long been debated, limiting interpretations of this symbolic phenomenon, which has no equivalent on a European scale for this period.

In recent years, new research programs have been launched in the Fontainebleau region, including the resumption of excavations at the Dégoutants site at Ratard 1 (also known as the “Grotte à la Peinture”) in Larchant. This work now sheds unprecedented light on the nomadic hunter-gatherer societies of the Mesolithic who left their mark on the sandstone walls.

This conference will be an opportunity to review the latest discoveries concerning prehistoric rock art practices in southern Île-de-France and to explore what they reveal about the still little-known lifestyle of Mesolithic populations.