Article Dans Une Revue PALEO : Revue d'Archéologie Préhistorique Année : 2026

The Peyzie sites (Lisle, Dordogne): a history in building

Les sites de la Peyzie (Lisle, Dordogne). Une histoire en construction

Célia Fat Cheung
Anne-Marie Fourteau
  • Fonction : Auteur
Xavier Muth
  • Fonction : Auteur
Aurélien Royer

Résumé

The Dordogne department and, in particular the Vézère valley, played a key role in the development of prehistoric archaeology and the recognition of the authenticity of its artistic productions. Many of the sites in the area have been the focus of sustained and regular research for over 150 years, polarising scientific and economic interests. But other parts of the department, rich in prehistoric sites, appear to have been neglected. Located in the north-west of the Dordogne department, the mid-Dronne valley is one of these little-known areas, even though a number of sites excavated during the 20th century reveal recurrent settlement during the Upper and Late Palaeolithic periods. Located in the present-day commune of Lisle, La Peyzie is a steep slope with several small south-facing caves opening onto a small, flat valley, which may have functioned seasonally as a fluvio-polje. The site is a limestone ledge on the right bank of the Donzelle river, 300 m long and around ten meters high. It is a little-known site, both to the non-specialist public and to prehistorians themselves. Rarely mentioned in scientific literature, the site is best known for having yielded a number of singular objects that have now disappeared. This lack of knowledge of the site is due as much to a gap in the documentation surrounding the first excavations carried out in Peyzie I under the direction of Paul-Émile Jude in the 1930s, as to thedispersal of the artefacts unearthed. Nearly 90 years later, through the compilation of unpublished archives and a return to the field, we propose to redefine the geomorphological and historiographical framework of the Peyzie sites in order to see what contributions (and limitations) they have made to the construction of regional prehistoric archaeology. The archives relating to the early excavations at Peyzie I include a number of previously unpublished documents, such as manuscripts and letters from the main protagonists at the time, various illus- trations, as well as some of the archaeological material recovered. They enable us to reconstruct some of the events that took place on the site nearly a century ago, and to link them to the history of local prehistoric archaeology, which was still in its infancy at the time. First of all, they reveal that emblematic names in French prehistory, such as Henri Begouën and Denis Peyrony, visited the site and encouraged its excavation. But despite the support and advice of his contemporaries, Jude left behind very little usable data from his excavations at Peyzie I. The difficult excavation conditions in the cave (in particular the rising water table) probably partly explain this finding, at a time when the search for beautiful objects (rare at Peyzie I) was still a widespread practice. In addition, the compilation and revision of this data mean that, if not confirming the archaeo-sequence established by Jude (centered on the Upper Magdalenian and Azilian periods), we can at least complete it by recognising both earlier (during the early middle Magdalenian) and more recent passages (during the early Laborian). It is also surprising to note that Peyzie I is better known today for its contribution to the characterisation of the (beginning of the) MM – which P.-É. Jude did not recognise on excavation – than to that of the upper Magdalenian or Azilian. Finally, these archives confirm the paucity of usable data left by these early excavations. This deprives us today of a sequence that could have contributed to characterising the evolution of human societies during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition in the north-east of the Aquitaine Basin, and in particular to the debates surrounding the azilianisation process. It is on the strength of this desire to find and reconstruct the Peyzie I archaeosequence that we have begun a research program in the Donzelle valley in 2019. The aim of this return to the field was (1) to find the site excavated in the 1930s by P.-É. Jude and check whether any archaeological levels were still present and usable, (2) to test the archaeological potential of the rest of the calcareous escarpment, and (3) to characterise the geomorphological formation of the valley and its sedimentary evolution. The two excavation campaigns we carried out at Peyzie I call into question the archaeological potential of the site. Although the bone industry describes a possible Magdalenian level at the base of the fill, several elements argue in favour of sorted and mixed assemblages. Firstly, the absence of clearly individualised archaeo-stratigraphic units in the pit, the inconsistent stratigraphic position of the only dated faunal remain and the lack of "beautiful objects". This is also the case with the intrusion of elements from the modern period throughout the sequence (i.e. glass, plastic, wood, iron elements, etc.), as well as from the Ice Age in the first (supposedly Azilian) strippings. Lastly, this is supported by the archival documents to which we have had access, which describe the Jude excavations as having extended over the entire cave and reaching the rocky floor in places. In short, there is every reason to believe that the survey we began in 2019 intersects a series of backfills from the Jude excavations and flood deposits that would have redeposited in the cavity. Given the difficult excavation condi- tions (cramped conditions and rising water table), these elements no longer reassure us of the value of excavating this site, which does not present the conditions of archaeological integrity required as part of our research project. But if these initial results appear negative, they will at least have had the merit of drawing attention to this limestone ledge, whose archaeological potential is far from exhausted. Indeed, the discovery of Peyzie IV in 2019, a small cave about 70 metres northeast of Peyzie I, opens up new avenues of research in this sector. The excavations we have carried out over 12.5 m2 on the entrance porch have revealed not only surface levels disturbed by various taphonomic processes, but also a homogeneous deeper level attributed to a period of the recent Palaeolithic that is still little known in the region (the late Middle Magdalenian). Continued research in this area will enable us to check the homogeneity and extent of this level and to study its various components. Ultimately, this will enable us to reconstruct environmental variations in the northeastern Aquitaine Basin during the Heinrich stadial 1, a par- ticularly cold and dry episode during the last deglaciation whose effects on landscapes, animal and human communities have yet to be described. So, in addition to the sites of Rochereil and Pont d'Ambon, which represent the upper Magdalenian/Azilian/Laborian sequence (Célérier 1998; Paillet, Paillet 2022), this sector now offers, over an area of less than a square kilometer, unrivalled potential for documenting the adaptations and evolutions of human groups in Northern Aquitaine during the early Dryas (terrestrial equivalent of the Heinrich 1 event).

Bien qu’aujourd’hui largement méconnue, la cor- niche rocheuse de la Peyzie s’inscrit pourtant dans l’histoire de l’archéologie préhistorique locale. Localisée dans la moyenne vallée de la Dronne (Dordogne), à proximité de sites de renom comme Pont d’Ambon ou le Fourneau du Diable, elle a livré plusieurs grottes dont l’une (Peyzie I) fut fouillée dès les années 1930 par Paul-Émile Jude alors en quête d’une première expérience de fouille. Menées dans des conditions difficiles (liées aux remontées de la nappe phréatique), ces fouilles n’ont laissé que peu de données exploi- tables, parmi lesquelles figurent plusieurs objets remarquables, d’origine douteuse ou aujourd’hui disparus. À travers la compilation d’archives inédites, assortie d’un retour sur le terrain à des fins géo- morphologique et archéologique, cette contribution fait le point sur les apports et les limites des grottes de la Peyzie à la construction de l’archéologie préhistorique régionale. Si cette reprise d’étude invalide le potentiel archéologique de Peyzie I (dont l’archéo- séquence est plus étendue que ce que P.-É. Jude avait initialement perçu), la campagne de sondages à laquelle nous avons procédé le long de la corniche a permis de mettre au jour un nouveau site magdalénien, Peyzie IV, dont l’étude (en cours) s’avère prometteuse pour éclairer l’évolution des sociétés humaines au cours du Dryas ancien (équivalent terrestre de l’évènement d’Heinrich 1).

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hal-05530589 , version 1 (27-02-2026)

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Alexandre Lefebvre, Elena Paillet, Grégory Dandurand, Manon Bocquel, Peggy Bonnet-Jacquement, et al.. Les sites de la Peyzie (Lisle, Dordogne). Une histoire en construction. PALEO : Revue d'Archéologie Préhistorique, 2026, 35, pp.1-31. ⟨10.4000/15rja⟩. ⟨hal-05530589⟩
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