Bugue-Périgord-Noir.info - Prehistory

1940, the year of the “Exode”. Alain Roussot remembers it as the year he arrived in Périgueux; mankind in general remembers it as the year Lascaux Cave was discovered in Montignac.

At the age of 15, Alain Roussot meets the authority on cave art and his spiritual father, Abbé Breuil, who takes him under his wing.

In his headquarters in Le Moustier, Alain Roussot keeps well abreast of the latest prehistoric news. He’s Mr Radio Vézère himself!

Alain Roussot was introduced to Abbé Glory by Abbé Breuil and from 1953 onwards he helped him to trace the images of about 1,200 engraved figures in Lascaux Cave.

An eminent expert on all the painted caves in the Périgord, Alain Roussot describes for us a sign that is peculiar to the area: the enigmatic tectiforme (roof-shape character) – a word coined by Abbé Breuil at Bernifal in 1903.

Especially for us Alain Roussot opened up the album of his childhood and teenage memories. We wish to thank him for these documents which tell a life story and the story of the science of Prehistory in the Périgord during the last century.

Chief curator at the Musée d’Aquitaine in Bordeaux, where he was in charge of the prehistoric collections, Alain Roussot has also spent a lifetime studying all the listed sites in the Périgord and recording every single piece of information site after site.

It was Abbé Breuil who, at the age of 33, gave a description of the Neanderthal man found in a sepulchral position at la Ferrassie in Savignac-de-Miremont in 1909. His beautiful note has been reproduced here in handwriting by Alain Roussot who can “read Breuil” and translate it.

Here you can listen to an exclusive document: Abbé Breuil’s voice recorded during an interview by Dr Sahly in September 1963 on the subject of the big divisions of the Upper Paleolithic determined by the Abbé.

Sur les chemins de la préhistoire, l'abbé Breuil du Périgord à l'Afrique du Sud

It was Abbé Breuil who divided what was still called “the Reindeer Age” into different periods so as to situate in time the different civilisations and art forms.
« Sur les chemins de la préhistoire » is the story of his life as a scientist and a priest – although maybe it should be the other way round...

Article | L'Homme de la Ferrassie | Vidéos | Sommaire