Location: Belgium Wallonia Dinant
Prehistoric cave above the River Lesse at Pont-à-Lesse (Dinant) – site of a 3.8-centimetre ivory figurine and of Neanderthal remains.
Interesting facts
- The ivory figurine from Trou Magrite is about 3.8 centimetres high.
- More than 50,000 animal bones come from the cave, mainly horse, reindeer and woolly rhinoceros.
- From 2015 remains of an adolescent and a baby Neanderthal were identified in the old collections.
Why visit
- An important Palaeolithic site
- Setting above the Lesse valley
Trou Magrite is a prehistoric site at Pont-à-Lesse in the Dinant area. The cave lies on a terrace about 26 metres above the Lesse, close to where it flows into the Meuse, and consists of a large chamber around 6 metres wide and 12 metres high with a small vestibule.
The geologist Édouard Dupont examined the cave in 1864 and in 1867 excavated it almost completely down to the bedrock. His stratigraphy later helped to define the cultural sequence of the late Ice Age in Western Europe. The cave was occupied in phases from the Mousterian (Middle Palaeolithic) through the Aurignacian and Gravettian to the Iron Age.
The best-known find is an ivory figurine about 3.8 centimetres high, often called the “Venus of Trou Magrite”. Other finds include an engraved reindeer antler, more than 50,000 animal bones and – identified when the old collections were re-examined from 2015 – the remains of two Neanderthals.
History
First examined by Édouard Dupont in 1864, almost completely excavated in 1867, several poorly documented investigations in the 20th century, control excavation at the terrace edge in 1991–1992, re-analysis of the collections from 2015 identifying two Neanderthals.
Special features
Cave on a terrace around 26 metres above the Lesse with a large chamber of about 6 × 12 metres. Finds from the Mousterian, Aurignacian and Gravettian up to the Iron Age.
Map
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