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Grotte de la Mouthe

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Site type:
Cave
Site function:
Decor cave
Lat/Long:
44.92, 1.02
Country:
France
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The Grotte de la Mouthe is an ornate cave of the Upper Paleolithic located in the commune of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac.

It houses more than 200 engravings and paintings of bison, horses, reindeer, mammoths, and signs, including a large tectiform.

The site is part of the fifteen sites classified in 1979 as World Heritage by Unesco under the title "prehistoric sites and decorated caves of the Vézère Valley.

The discovery of the Mouthe cave contributed to the recognition of Upper Paleolithic art: it is the fourth Paleolithic decorated cave discovered and its parietal art is the third published, after that of the Chabot cave in the Gard (Chiron, 1878 but published in 1889) and Altamira in Spain (Sautuola, 1879). The parietal art of Pair-non-Pair in Gironde is suspected as early as 1883 but published only in 1896 (Daleau); the art of the Combarelles cave was published in 1901 (Capitan & Breuil).