Some basic benchmarks
The ages of mankind during prehistory are defined in different periods:
The Paleolithic, or Early Stone Age, from its origins to 12,000 BC, is itself divided into three periods. The Lower or Early Palaeolithic, which spans several million years and various ice ages; the Middle Palaeolithic, between -200,000 and -37,000; the Late or Upper Palaeolithic, which extends from the previous period to -12,000, and sees the appearance of art, paintings and engravings in caves or on objects.
The Mesolithic, Middle Stone Age, from -12,000 to -8,000, is a transitional phase, when hunting became more refined and a pre-domestication of the environment began.
The Neolithic, the New Stone Age, which began in the Near East and spread to Europe around 8,000 BC, is considered a revolutionary period, witnessing the advent of the agropastoral lifestyle, sedentarization, domestication, cultivation and animal husbandry that were to be the pillars of our way of life until the 19th century. Better studied, the Neolithic period is also divided into Old, Middle and Final, and concludes with the so-called Chalcolithic phase, the Age of Copper. Megalithism also developed during this period.
Protohistory, the Age of Metals - the Bronze Age in 3800 BC and 2700 BC, then the Iron Age until the Roman conquest, which was marked in Gaul in 52 BC by the capture of Alesia. The shift from prehistory to history does not occur at the same time on any continent or territory, and depends on a variety of factors.
It should be noted that improved archaeological research and dating tools, as well as more in-depth current research, tend to modify our perception and definitions of these periods.
Caves, caverns, caves: the first habitats
In the Gard region, straddling the Ardèche, the Aven d'Orgnac cave is home to the oldest traces of human presence, dating back 350,000 years. One of the oldest settlements in Europe, the original cave slowly filled in, becoming a rock shelter and then an open-air site. The Homo erectus of Orgnac is 50,000 years younger than the Man of Tautavel, but probably resembled him. Nearby, the Baume de Ronze was used as a sheepfold in the Neolithic era, and has been in use since the late Palaeolithic period. The Cité de la Préhistoire on this site features reconstructions, themed exhibitions and even workshops and demonstrations of prehistoric techniques.
Near the Pont du Gard, excavations have revealed signs of occupation (fossil fauna and flint tools) in the Balauzière cave. The Mousterian lithic industry is typical of Neanderthal man, whose signs (scrapers and points) can also be found around Sumène and Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort, a region rich in game. Hunters left their mark at the La Roquette cave, while the fauna was very different: bears, hyenas and even rhinoceroses roamed the Gard region at the time.
The Upper Palaeolithic is distinguished by the engravings on the cave walls. Few of these can be found in the Gard, especially given the territory's potential, but this may be due to the typical storms and floods that may have washed away the upper layers of the cave stratigraphy. La baume Latrone, in Sainte-Anastasie, where drawings of mammoths attacking a feline and positive hands, dated by carbon 14 to -37,464 years ago, have been found. These are essentially digital engravings and finger paintings, similar to those seen in the Chauvet cave in Ardèche. The representations of these two sites are among the oldest in Europe.
The department's best-known and most popular cave for tourists, and one of the most beautiful to visit for its geological wonders, La Cocalière, has revealed intense occupation from -45,000 to the Iron Age, thanks to bones, tools and pottery discovered. Near the end of your visit, an excavation site has been reconstructed with various objects and bones.
Also open to the public, but only for part of its 1 km length, the Bramabiau abyss has been a shelter for dinosaurs, who left their footprints there, and for humans from various periods of prehistory, who left a necropolis of some 30 bodies. After the Palaeolithic period, the caves became temples, essentially for sepulchral use.
Beginning of symbolic constructions: dolmens, menhirs and cromlechs
Although difficult to date, megalithic culture can be traced back to the end of the Neolithic, during the Chalcolithic period. This culture spread throughout Europe by region, best known in western France, popularly in Brittany, but also passing through the Midi and extending as far as Corsica on French territory. The spread of megaliths in the Gard was rather late, covering a region that includes Ardèche, Lozère and Hérault. They bear witness to a social organization, a collective effort to build monuments. The menhir at La Lèque near Lussan is 5.60 m high and weighs an estimated 8.5 tonnes. The top slabs of dolmens, meanwhile, can weigh several dozen tons.
Many enigmas still surround this culture. Dolmens are collective burial chambers, the first not to use natural sites. No remains of villages have ever been found in the immediate vicinity of these monuments, and these large stone constructions stand in stark contrast to the much more perennial living structures of the time. Was it a desire to honor ancestors, to mark territory, or a political or sacred demonstration? Near Anduze at La Grande Pallières, at least fifteen dolmens within a 1.5 km radius are accessible by hiking, and five of them are presented on information panels. On dolmen sites, the remains of offerings have often been found at the edges of the mounds.
Menhirs can be found on the periphery of dolmens, but not always, as the correlation of their layout has yet to be revealed - were they part of a more complex whole? They can be found on high ground or in open valleys, sometimes alone, more rarely in small groups. Sometimes, they form a large circle around 90 m in diameter, usually with a larger central menhir: these are the cromlechs. Three of these can be found on the Causse de Blandas, not far from the Cirque de Navacelles. The stones often lie flat, but the one at Lacam de Peyrarines was straightened by a team of volunteers led by an archaeologist in the early 1970s. It can be seen from the road, or accessed through a small gate in the grid of the field on which it stands, with its 46 stones over a diameter of 120 m, with a 2.15 m high menhir at its center. Were cromlechs linked to the arrangement of the stars, or did they serve to symbolically protect flocks?
Menhirs have never ceased to fuel the imagination and legends. Near Blandas, the menhir de la Pierre Plantée, a 2.60 m monolith, was known locally as la pèira des mascas, the witches' stone, because it was said that witches came to dance around the stone every Saturday night. The Pèire Cabucelade dolmen, the stone with the lid, was called l'Ostalet de las Fadas, the little house of the fairies. This part of the Gard is one of the richest in megalithic terms, and the sites are accessible on foot, on circuits that can be made by car to go from site to site.
The sites on the Causses are mostly devoid of engravings, but in the Garrigues between Nîmes and Alès, downstream from Quissac, and in the Uzège, a few statue-menhirs were discovered between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At Saint-Théodorit, Saint-Bénézet or Bragassardes, these are small steles, with designs depicting a stylized human form. On the "owl heads", the eyes and nose are shaped like a "T", with either no mouth or the fold of a veil to conceal it, and a headband or tattoo on the forehead. The body may be wearing clothes or carrying tools, and researchers have been able to distinguish between male and female statues. A collection of some forty pieces from the Gard region can be admired at the Nîmes Natural History Museum, ranked 6th in France for the richness of its collections. The statue-menhirs disappeared around the Bronze Age.
Research that still amazes
The Gard is still revealing its secrets, making it an exciting area to study. Current excavations are still yielding finds that broaden our vision and knowledge of the department's past. In 2017, researchers discovered a magnificent ancient mosaic testifying to the Roman presence in Uzès, and in 2019, they came across a vast cromlech, rather surprising in this recessed rather than elevated site. It has the unusual feature of having its monoliths glued together in an uninterrupted fashion, forming a kind of enclosure. The megalithic complex, which dates back to the Late Neolithic and was intensively occupied again around 1000 BC, extends beyond the excavation site, which is gradually being revealed. Research findings are gradually being made available to the general public.
Much work remains to be done to highlight the department's ancient history. Magnificent sites from protohistory, such as the Castels oppidum in Nages, built by the Arécomiques Volks in the Iron Age, are among the little-known wonders of the Gard. The ghostly village offers an insight into life in Celtic Gaul, just before the arrival of the Romans. Petroglyphs, the enigmatic engraved stones so numerous in the Cévennes, were the subject of an exhibition at the Musée du Colombier in early 2024. Visitors to the Gard, if they can be discerning, will also be able to take part in the ongoing discoveries...
