La Marche

La Marche is an archaeological cave in the commune of Lussac-les-Châteaux, in the Vienne department of southwestern France, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. This is not one of the several other French communes that share the name "La Marche," nor the medieval county of the same name — this entry covers the Magdalenian-era cave site, one of the world's richest sources of Upper Palaeolithic engraved art on stone.

What makes this cave site so important?

Unlike the painted cave walls that come to mind with sites such as Lascaux, La Marche is known for something different: thousands of small limestone slabs, or plaquettes, covered in fine engraved lines and buried in its Magdalenian-era sediment layer. More than 1,500 of these plaquettes have been catalogued, with additional engraved fragments bringing some estimates into the thousands. A striking share of the engravings depict human faces and figures, a rarity in Ice Age art, which is otherwise dominated almost entirely by animals. Animal figures appear on the plaquettes too, alongside the human ones, making the assemblage one of the largest collections of portable Magdalenian art in Europe — second in scale only to the Spanish site of El Parpalló.

Many of the engravings are extremely fine and layered, with multiple overlapping lines on a single stone, so individual figures can be difficult to make out without raking light or magnification. That difficulty is also why some of the proposed readings — particularly certain human faces identified by early researchers — have been debated among prehistorians ever since.

Who excavated the cave, and when?

Léon Péricard began exploring the cave in November 1937. Recognising how rich the flint and engraved material was, he brought in Stéphane Lwoff, and the two conducted excavation campaigns through the following years into the early 1940s. The plaquettes were later studied in detail by prehistorians Léon Pales and Marie Tassin de Saint-Péreuse, whose work on the engraving technique and the human depictions remains the reference study. The finds are attributed to the Magdalenian III phase, following Henri Breuil's classification system.

Where can visitors see the finds today?

The bulk of the original plaquettes is held at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. A selection is also displayed at the Musée de Préhistoire de Lussac-les-Châteaux, the local museum that also manages access to the cave itself.

Can you actually go inside the cave?

Not on your own. The cave is closed to unaccompanied visitors and can only be entered as part of a guided tour run by the Musée de Préhistoire de Lussac-les-Châteaux (21 route de Montmorillon). Guided visits run several times a week in high season and roughly once a month in the low season; a combined ticket covering the guided tour and museum entry costs around 5 euros. The cave sits about a ten-minute walk from the town centre, but the path is uneven and not suitable for visitors with reduced mobility. The same booking also covers the nearby Grotte des Fadets, often visited on the same trip.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same place as other towns called La Marche? No. This is the archaeological cave site in the commune of Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne), unrelated to other French communes sharing the name or to the historical county of La Marche.

What was found inside the cave? More than 1,500 engraved limestone plaquettes depicting human faces and figures alongside animals, dating to the Magdalenian period.

When was the site discovered? Léon Péricard began exploring it in November 1937, soon joined by Stéphane Lwoff for the excavation campaigns that followed.

Can visitors enter the cave itself? Only as part of a guided tour organised by the Musée de Préhistoire de Lussac-les-Châteaux; independent entry is not permitted.

Where are the original engraved plaquettes kept? Most are held at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, with a further selection on display at the local prehistory museum in Lussac-les-Châteaux.