Arago cave
Arago Cave is a prehistoric site in the community of Tautavel, in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales. It is a large cavity overlooking a perennial stream called the Verdouble. Human remains attributed to the Tautavel Man and the lithic remnants of the Lower Paleolithic were discovered in the cave.
Arago Cave is located in the southern part of France, at the eastern end of the Pyrénées, in the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales, in the town of Tautavel. Included in a limestone cliff of the Corbières Massif, it overlooks from a height of several tens of metres (80 m today, less than 60 at the time of Tautavel Man) a wide valley where the Verdouble stream leaves a canyon to meander onto the plain. The cavern is thirty metres long, but could have measured up to a hundred and twenty metres during the prehistoric period. Its maximum width is 10 metres. It is currently open to the south but the opening faced east before the collapse. This advantageous position made it a perfect shelter for prehistoric Hunter-gatherers. The eastern opening on a south facing cliff allowed relatively high temperatures during winter. The highly contrasted relief of this environment produced several ecological niches that provided many types of prey: animals adapted to the river (beavers). Others adapted to the plain, which was, according to successive periods and climates, covered with forest (deer) or steppe (horses, bison, rhinos, elephants), living herbivores on craggy grounds (mouflons, ibex, tahrs, chamois), and still others on uplands with more harsh climates (musk oxen, reindeer). In addition, under the cave, there was a ford where herds of large herbivores passed, facilitating hunting. The elevated position of the cave made it an excellent observatory for spotting herds on the plain. The nearby river (which never ran dry) provided water as well as pebbles to cover the soil of the cave or serve as tools. The distant environment, less than a half-day walk (about 30 km), could provide other stones to make tools: flint (in Roquefort-des-Corbières), red jasper (in Corneilla-de-Conflent), cherts (in Rivesaltes), quartzites (in Soulatgé), volcanic rocks (Col de Couisse).
Cave data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).