Rock of Solutré

During the Mesozoic era, warm seas covered the region, as evidenced by the plentiful fossils to be found there. The Rock of Solutré, like its neighbour the Rock of Vergisson, was created from fossilized coral plateaus that developed approximately 160 million years ago in these seas.

In the Cenozoic era, eastern Burgundy underwent the effects of the alpine rising; while the Alps grew higher, the Saône basin sank. At the same time, plateaus rose in the west of the plain, then tumbled towards the east.

As these processes brought together landforms of differing natural composition, erosion acted upon them differently. The surrounding landscape eroded to rounded hills, leaving the cliffs of Soulutré and Vergisson as monadnocks on the west side that contrast with gentle slopes on the east.

The Rock of Solutré (right) and the Rock of Vergisson (left)

Surrounded by vineyards, the rock hosts a varied and spectacular country, from the height of its rocky peak or its grassy slopes. The Saône plain extends to the east, with a view of Mâconnais in the foreground, then Ain and Dombes against the backdrop of the Alps and Mont Blanc in good visibility.

In the three other directions the countryside is less open and bounded by the lines and crests of surrounding hills, with vineyards, villages, and typical Mâconnais settlements, in particular:

• to the north among the hills and vineyards, the village of Vergisson and its own outcrop ;
• to the west, the Roman road, and beyond, a mixed area of vineyards, groves and forests ;
• to the south, the village of Solutré-Pouilly and the Mont de Pouilly.

Henry Testot-Ferry

Excavations at the foot of the rock started in 1866, in a place knowns as the "Cros du Charnier", on a protrusion of horse bones, which no one imagined at the time would date to prehistory, as archeology was just emerging as a scientific field at the time.

The zone of Upper Paleolithic homes was soon discovered by Henry Testot-Ferry, along with some tombs. In the homes, numerous flint tools were found, including spear-points, choppers and other scrapers, and also a large hoard of bones, mainly from reindeer, but also from horses, mammoths, wolves, and cave tigers.

Testot-Ferry and Adrien Arcelin decided to see if they could determine scientifically how large the deposit was that they had brought to light, and to examine with great care the remains that they had recovered. The challenge was to understand the arrangement of stratigraphic areas of the site, which would be the basis for establishing a chronology.

In 1868, the preferred scientific hypothesis viewed the site as a hunting station. The two discoverers called on specialists and presented their work at conferences. Solutré was revealed as one of the greatest prehistoric sites in France.

In 1872, Gabriel de Mortillet, one of the most important prehistorians of his time, decided to name prehistoric periods after sites where they were particularly well presented. Thus the term "Solutrean" was born.

Numerous excavations were conducted thereafter. The excavation site remains protected, and partially unexplored, to this day.

The height of the sites in relation to the flood plain was the most important factor for human habitation. Providing shelter and food for migrant groups, the foot of the rock, strewn with debris, afforded hunters the opportunity to develop traps.

The bone-laden magma can be explained by the fact that the site was used by four great paleolithic civilizations over the 25,000 years from 35,000 to 10,000 B.C, an extremely long time period.

The use of this site was therefore devoted to hunting activity, butchering and smoking meat, while the neighbouring Rock of Vergisson was a site for habitation. The material found at Solutré was therefore linked with hunting; many tools were found including the flints cut in the shape of bay leaves which are characteristic of Solutrean culture.

The Solutré horse hunt, from an illustration of "primitive man" by L. Figuier, 1876

Contrary to the legend of the "hunt into the abyss", prehistoric man of Solutré region never hunted horses by driving them off the rock. This theory, which was never brought by Testot-Ferry, in his scientific publications, in fact appeared in Arcelin's prehistory-based novel, "Solutré" (Paris 1872); it has never been other than a fiction which caught the popular imagination. The incongruity of this hypothesis was easily shown from the distance between the bones and the summit of the rock, among other considerations.

Another legend told that the dog's domestication was made in Solutré where wolves cooperated with humans during "hunt into the abyss". This was also falsified in as the first domestic dog has been found in the Altai Mountains and dated 33,000 B.C.

Testot-Ferry and Arcelin also brought to light some human remains at Cros du Charnier. In all, by the end of the period of excavations between about 1866 and 1925, almost 70 skeletons had been recovered. Although at the time of the first excavations the corpses were considered as prehistoric (Aurignacians and Neolithics), it has since become almost certain that some of the skeletons are historical. According to different datings, they appear to be Burgundians (from the high Middle Ages) or Merovingians.

Paradoxically, despite the length of time when the site was in use, the Solutrean era was the only period in the Upper Paleolithic from which there are no human remains. Ultimately, one year after the first excavations carried out at the rock, remains of Cro-magnon man were discovered at Eyzies by Louis Lartet. The Cro-magnons were contemporaries of the culture who had cut tools and hunted at Solutré.

The departmental history museum, a structure designed by the architect Guy Clapot from Strasbourg, is situated at the foot of the rock. The museum was encouraged by French President François Mitterrand, and was opened in 1987. Because of regulations in force at the site, the museum lies beneath a dome planted with vegetation, and is hardly visible from a distance. The places where the discoveries were made are presented in the museum along with a reconstructions of scenes from the hunt. The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions on subjects related to archeology, prehistory and ethnography.

Traces have been discovered of two important Gallo-Roman villas near the rock. One, Solustriacus, gave its name to the village of Solutré. The other would have been situated between the rock and the neighbouring village of Vergisson. A large flattened mound linking the foot of the rock with Vergisson is suggested to be an ancient Roman road, and is referred to as such by locals.

In the Middle Ages, the Rock of Solutré was a powerful high point, reputed to be the domain of bandits. After the truce signed in Mâcon on 4 December 1434 accepting the Burgundian presence in Mâconnais, this castle, the only remaining high place in the region not reduced by the Duke of Burgundy, was handed over to him. The following year the Duke, Philip the good, ordered the total destruction of the fortress by an act passed at Dijon on 22 December 1434. There was such popular jubilation at the pronouncement that bodies have been found of participants in the destruction, killed by the disorderly collapse of the walls. Recent research has shown that the castle had been a noble and wealthy dwelling, but few facts are known about its residents.

A high place for the French Resistance during World War II, the rock was ritually climbed each year by President François Mitterrand and certain of his friends.

• Sphinx aux griffes plantées dans les ceps (A Sphinx with claws planted in the vines)
• Deux navires pétrifiés surplombant une mer de vignes (Two petrified ships overlooking a sea of vineyards) Alphonse de Lamartine, speaking of the two rocks of Solutré Vergisson
• De là, j'observe ce qui va, ce qui vient, ce qui bouge et surtout ce qui ne bouge pas. (From there, I watch what comes and goes, what moves, and above all that which does not move.) François Mitterrand in La Paille et le Grain, 1978.