Last lecture LASCAUX in MONACO

Don’t miss the last lecture being presented in association with the Lascaux exhibition in Monaco! The French National Prehistory Museum (MNP) will be there, with a fantastic presentation by Ms Catherine Crétin. Learn all there is to know about the Lascaux site and furnishings in this exclusive lecture!

The quantity, quality and condition of the cave system and the history of its discovery have helped to make the Lascaux Cave famous. It has, since the outset, been seen as the "ambassador" of this remarkable manifestation of the Palaeolithic era. What is less well known is that this location has paid a high price in archaeological terms, to the extent that 84 years later, researchers are still trying to piece together the jigsaw pieces of archaeological information. The history of the National Prehistory Museum’s collections is an excellent example, both of their dispersal and of the painstaking investigation work, bringing together scientists from a range of backgrounds (archaeologists, archivists, materials experts, curators, etc.).

Presenter:  Catherine Cretin
Chief Curator of Heritage,
Manager of Upper Palaeolithic collections at the National Prehistory Museum, Les Eyzies
Museum Service of France
Ministry of Culture
UMR 5199–From Prehistory to the Current Era: Culture, Environment and Anthropology (PACEA)
University of Bordeaux, CNRS, Ministry of Culture

Experience and research:
As an expert in the study of the lithic equipment used by people in the Upper Palaeolithic era, C. Cretin’s academic work has helped to highlight the main features of an industry that is difficult to characterise – the Badegoulian – and to understand the reasons for its apparent variability. Behind this highly traditional approach to lithic remains, the challenges of characterising this pivotal period led her to reflect more extensively on the contribution of lithic remains to the definition of a cultural group and to our knowledge of a painted cave. She has applied it to the Roc-aux-Sorciers (Vienne), Castanet, Blanchard and Poisson (Dordogne) rock shelters, the Blanchard (Indre), Chabot (Gard), Font-de-Gaume, Bernifal and Saint-Front de Domme (Dordogne), caves, etc.

Her expertise in studying and conserving painted sites has been put to good use nationally (rock art in Cerdagne, cave art and archaeology of the Dordogne painted caves, etc.) and internationally (missions to study rock art in Russian and Mongolian Altai, from 2013 to 2017, with the Novosibirsk Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; involvement in the Cosmo-Art research project on rock art in South Africa).

Limited places – free admission / booking required 

To book, contact: map@gouv.mc or +377 98 98 80 06