Sortir de la grotte

The new study of Le Roc-aux-Sorciers rock shelter (Vienne), at the beginnings of the 1990s, played a leading role in the research dynamics of Upper Palaeolithic decorated shelters. Unlike most decorated caves, these sites give the opportunity to question the parietal images in association with habitat-like occupations, settled within the landscapes. This specific physical and archaeological context helps discussing diverse issues on these hunter-gatherers societies both from the social and cultural points of view: functions of decorated sites, social use of the images, groups mobility and territorial structuring. The study of sculpted friezes, such as that of Le Roc-aux-Sorciers or La Chaire-à-Calvin (Charente), has also seen the application of methodological and technical developments in Palaeolithic parietal art research, which were then efficiently applied to other sites such as Le Roc-de-Sers (Charente), Cap-Blanc (Dordogne) or Reverdit (Dordogne). In the framework of sets of large works in volume, new methods of data acquisition were sought and set up, like the 3D technologies since the 1990s. The aim of this article is to assess all of these contributions to research, preservation and heritage which attest to the important role of decorated shelters studies in Prehistoric research.