The Valley of Mankind...
Over 400
000 years the Valley of the Vezere was adopted land for our ancestors.
They found there natural shelters in the cliffs and the first examples
of Prehistoric art appeared in the caves which most are now listed in
the "Unesco world heritage". From Terrasson to Limeuil, the Valley
of the Vézère offers a protected landscape with both plains and cliffs,
steam and viewpoints.
Although the first australopithecus and cousins of Lucy did not come
from our shores, the Valley of the Vezere, amongst others, was the adopted
land for Homo sapiens, Neandertal or Cro-Magnon Man. Our ancestors
quickly learned how to appreciate a special environment with its myriad
caves and natural shelters with served as their first dwelling
places. Add favourable climatic conditions to this and you have excellent
reasons why they chose to settle here definitively.
If we consider
that, in addition, the region offered exceptional conditions for conservation
we can better understand the preeminence of prehistory in Perigord.
Lascaux cave immediatly springs to mind but there were innumerable sites
on a smaller scale which protected dwelling places from erosion : Font
de Gaume, Combarelles, 100 mammoths, Cap blanc... Favoured land of prehistoric
man, cradle of paleolithic archeology, the Perigord conjures up and
declines millenia of human presence to perfection, a perfection which
is yours to discover in its myriad details.
More
about Prehistory in Dordogne
For
the readers of Earth's Children by Jean Auel : the map of Zelendoni
territory
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