Cave of the Cow

The cave of the Cow is a small cave located on the commune of Alliat in Ariège having delivered vestiges and works of movable Art of the Magdalénien.

History and discovered

It was opened with the public in 1979 because of the richness and the great interest of the archaeological layers discovered in the entry and the Monique Room. She delivered one of the richest collections of prehistoric objects of time Magdalénien (12 000 to 14.000 years), of which very many Harpon S and points of Sagaie S but also more than two hundred works of movable Art: bones, wood of reindeers and wood of stags decorated by engraving or even sculpture with representations of animals, sometimes the human ones, of which species seldom illustrated at that time: Panther S, Bear, Wolf S, Salmon S, antelopes saïgas, birds…

It was one of the first caves excavated in Ariège by Felix Garrigou, before 1867. A second layer was discovered in 1952 and was excavated by its inventor Romain Robert until 1964.

The exhumed material is the subject of a collective monograph published in 2003.

Etymology

The name of “cave of the Cow” would be related to a local anecdote: a cow was attached to a stake by farm which intended to cry his/her child with far. The farm one thus went to deal with the child, but when it returned, an open hole was then in the place of the cow, the ground being broken down under the poor animal.

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