The Witches' Rock - Le Roc-Aux-Sorciers

Shame on me!
I hadn't been to The Centre of Interpretation of The Witches' Rock in my beautiful village of Angles-sur-l'Anglin since 2008!  Recently updated, it is more informative. It interprets and attempts to replicate in techno media, with video historical re-enactment, life as it was 15,000 and 14,000 years ago when Magdalenian peoples inhabited a rock shelter at the water's edge, about 1.5km out of the village, near a small hamlet, Douce.  When the rock shelter was discovered it was given the name, Le Roc-Aux-Sorciers, which is also the name of the rock on the opposite bank.  In the 1990's the public was prevented from entering the site and the owner willed that a copy of the sculptures should be made to the public.
The frieze, is about twenty metres in length and is an impressively monumental work of art.  The Prehistoric relief wall carvings dating from 15,000 years ago are the most important carvings of their type in Europe. They were discovered in 1950.  Subsequently, the site was purchased in order to conserve it. 
The interpretation centre which cost 2 million euros, named Le Roc-Aux-Sorciers is a modernistic, dull-looking angular building overlooking the River Anglin.  The description is my own!! I should try to appreciate why the architects designed such a structure!  It has weathered in six years but somehow needs a touch of brightness; something to say "COME and LOOK at HERITAGE!"  Maybe a flag with the symbol of the goat/lizard upon it? I like the new rusty symbol fixed to stone walls here and there in the village... make sure you don't catch your clothing or eyes on them!

The most wondrous thing is,  not 'the going back in time display', which to my mind is difficult to absorb, but a dark cubic entrance, where one edges forwards little by little in fascination, fear, fumbling with hands, clutching at the body of one's friend or friends, as in a cave without light, eyes become accustomed, see that there are places to sit, to view a landscape of light, fire, prehistoric people and animals whilst modern French language explains it all.

Computer and laser copy technology recreate everything at full size, returning the 21st century peoples to the end of the ice age, into the caves and rock shelters along with our ancestors.
Pretty dynamic it is!
Yes. I shall go again soon.
It is an EXPERIENCE not to be missed.
There are lessons in History, Geography, Science, Archaelogy and Media presentation that should not be missed. Not to mention French language to understand and mathematics counting past years to calculate,

The name 'Sorcerers' Rock' or 'Witches' Rock' applies to the original site which faces south and is opposite a huge outcrop on the opposite side of the river which has ritual and fertility stories dating back to pagan times connected with it. The Roc-aux-Sorciers was classed as a Monument Historique on 18 January 1955. It is an Upper Paleolithic rock shelter site dating to the mid-Magdalenian cultural stage, ca 14000.  It has two geologically distinct sections; below is the Abri Bourdois, a classic rock-shelter site beneath a slight overhang, and above is the Cave Taillebourg, a deeper vestibule. The two parts are separated by a zone that has not yet been excavated. Evidently, it is good archaeological practice to not excavate all but to leave some for future generations who will have better technology and knowledge.
In 1927, Lucien Rousseau discovered the Paleolithic habitation and identified it as mid-Magdalenian. He began excavations in the Cave Taillebourg, named after the property owner, and recovered an engraved stone in which Henri Breuil detected a representation of a mammoth.  Suzanne de Saint-Mathurin became aware of Rousseau's article and decided to explore, hoping to find some incised plaquettes like those from the cave at Lussac-les-Châteaux, also in Vienne. Assisted by her friend Dorothy Garrod, she worked between 1947 and 1957 and others continued until 1964.

The exploration teams discovered carved stone fragments which had fallen from the roof of the Cave Taillebourg.  Only a carved, painted figure of a bison had remained in place. The sculpted frieze was discovered about 1950 with incised figures, sometimes painted, of bison, horses, wild goats, sabre toothed tiger, torsos of man and woman sometimes called Venus figurines.  The frieze of the Abri Bourdois shows the technical skills of Magdalenian sculptors. The anatomical details giving an impression of power is displayed when in the play of firelight. Both animal and human figures show realism, a rarity in paleolithic art.  This reinforces the unique value of the site. The excavations revealed evidence of human occupation, of a culture who used jewelry, lamps, and tools in flint, bone, horn and ivory.
Here, at the footsteps of where I live and where those Magdalenian peoples lived is an incredible discovery, a joyful coup for the village, which repeatedly, I experience to compensate for opportunities I lost and never made!