Vercors Prehistory Museum

Around the flint-cutting archaeological site, listed as a Historic Monument, discover the conquest of the Vercors by our ancestors: minerals, bones, weapons, jewellery... and flint tools, fashioned by craftsmen based on the site of the current museum.

An archaeological site housing a flint knapping workshop found intact!

Flint knapping demonstration: out of season, hours adapted to the public and in July and August at 11 a.m., 14 p.m. and 30 p.m.

First steps in the museum: from mud to rock...

"This is the story of a stone that for 50,000 years was central to the lives of prehistoric men and women. It is the story of a tool they fashioned to hunt, cut, scrape, pierce, make fire, trade, and travel. It is the story of flint that holds the memory of the men and women who came before us."

Flint is gradually revealing itself: its geological formation, its incredible characteristics, and its value as a witness to humanity...


The Vercors: 50,000 years of Prehistory

The Vercors massif was traversed and inhabited for 50,000 years by the women and men of Prehistory: marmot hunting, flint knapping, mountain exploitation, shaping of ornaments and works of art, domestication of animals...

You travel back in time through the presentation of minerals, tools, bones, weapons, jewelry... unearthed during archaeological digs.


With a milder climate and the end of the ice age, Neanderthals made their first forays into the Vercors massif to hunt a variety of fauna such as ibex, chamois, wild boar, cave bears... and exploited an abundant raw material in the Vercors, flint.


Then Cro-Magnon succeeded Neanderthal: this is the Paleolithic era. Groups of mobile hunters settled for bivouacs in the open air or in cave shelters, such as at Presles, in the Prélétang cave (Isère). This was a new civilization marked by technological innovations, the emergence of artistic expression (the notched bone from the Thaïs cave in Saint-Nazaire-en-Royans is a fine example), and the appearance of funerary rites (such as the grave of a Paleolithic hunter discovered in the Joëlle cave in Saint-Agnan-en-Vercors). A focus on a phenomenon unique in Europe: sites specializing in marmot hunting.


Finally, following the Mesolithic hunters who developed new hunting weapons, including the bow, men and women domesticated animals (such as the "tamed" dog or bear of the Grande Rivoire in Sassenage), became herders and farmers, and settled down. This was the Neolithic period. It was during this time that artisans came to knap flint in Vassieux-en-Vercors, on the site of the present-day Museum of Prehistory.
After visiting the archaeological site classified as a Historic Monument, you will attend a demonstration of flint knapping by a facilitator.

Finally, experimental workshops allow you to master the techniques of fire production, hunting, art, adornment and archaeological excavations (by reservation, program on the museum's website).