The Lazaret Cave

The Lazaret Cave was first reported in 1821 by François Emmanuel Fodéré in his book entitled "Voyage aux Alpes-Maritimes".

During the second half of the 19th century, Dr. Frédéric Le Fèvre, owner of the land, decided to dig a well at the entrance to the Lazaret cave, thus crossing all the archaeological depots.

Aware of the paleontological and prehistoric interest of his discoveries, he signalled them to the Paleontologist Emile Rivière who published a first scientific note in 1882.

During the 20th century, the deposit was the subject of various campaigns of methodical excavations carried out first in the 1950s by Major François Charles Ernest Octobon, then by Professor Henry de Lumley from 1962.

A prehistoric deposit of international scientific and cultural interest
The Lazaret Cave has been occupied on many occasions by prehistoric men, during a glacial period, between approximately - 190 000 and -120,000 years.

The prehistoric men did not occupy the cave continuously. Because of their livelihood, they were nomadic and occupied temporary habitats depending on the seasons and migration of animal species.

At any time, these populations used cavity entrances or rock shelters to protect themselves.

In the case of the Lazaret Cave, to date, 29 levels of human occupancy, representing a thickness of 2.5 to 3 metres of sediment, have been identified. Some human occupations have been short (a few days or weeks) and other longer (a season or more). Herbivorous bones with traces of rognage or digestion attest to the passage of large carnivores in the cave, in the absence of man.

For more than a century, the excavations in the cave have exhumed hundreds of thousands of archaeological objects that allow us to apprehend prehistoric societies at a pivotal time where the populations of Western Europe complete the slow process of evolution in Neandertal men and access a new mastery of the tooling. They gradually abandon the biface to the benefit of more standardized retouching tools (such as scrapers) and bursts with pre-determined form (Levallois type debiting). The development of these more complex techniques of stone size by prehistoric men is a major cultural evolution.

The men of the Lazaret have developed a subsistence strategy based on a specialized hunt targeted on the deer. They evolved in contrasting landscapes, alternating grassy steppes and wooded areas, in which there was abundant and very diverse fauna, including deer, bouquetins, deer, aurochs, bison, elephants or cave lions, bears and wolves.

To date, 28 human remains have been identified in the filling of the Lazaret cave, which highlights the importance of the site.