Photo : LSL36 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
Musée de la Préhistoire de Solutré
The Solutré Prehistory Museum, created by the Saône-et-Loire département and opened in 1987, is at the foot of the famous Solutré rock, in the Mâconnais. Its displays were renewed in 2014.
It gathers the collections from the Solutré site, one of the richest prehistoric deposits in Europe, occupied for tens of millennia by hunters. The site gave its name to the Solutrean, an Upper Palaeolithic culture known for its laurel-leaf points. The holdings also come from Vergisson and the Mâconnais, and notably include the collection of Adrien Arcelin, who discovered the deposit in 1866 and excavated it with Henri Testot-Ferry.
The route presents the evolution of prehistoric cultures and returns to the legend of horses driven off the top of the rock, which archaeological discoveries have allowed to be qualified. The museum extends into an archaeological and botanical park, with a discovery path. It is aimed at families, school groups and hikers.
