| Summary: | La grotte préhistorique d'Azé a livré des restes paléontologiques et préhistoriques importants. La découverte d'une nouvelle galerie (Galerie des Aiglons) dans les années 1990 nous permet de comprendre les différentes phases sédimentaires qui ont conduit au remplissage de l'ensemble du réseau. La Galerie des Aiglons a livré une faune importante et variée. Elle est composée en grande partie de carnivores mais on compte parmi les découvertes de nombreuses autres espèces. The prehistoric cave of Aze (Saône-et-Loire, France) is located in the Monts du Mâconnais, in south Burgundy (fig. 1). The upper part (Azé I), rich in paleontological and prehistorical materials, has been known for a long time (Argant, 1991 Argant, 2000, sous presse Combier, Gaillard, Moncel, 2000). But in the nineties a new part was discovered and excavated. This gallery (Galerie des Aiglons) is certainly the most important part of the network (fig. 2). Actually we only know the first 60 meters of this narrow part. We can draw a sedimentary transverse section (fig. 3). Thanks to this, we know most of the filling history of the Aze Prehistoric Caves. We can divide this history into 13 periods. From the first one we have just a small part on the west of the filling. At this time a roof separated the cave into 2 different parts. During the third step this roof caved in. Between the first and the seventh steps the river ran only in the lower part of the cave. During the eighth and ninth steps the river ran on the lower part of the lower cave and in a small filling (Boyau Ouest). During the last step the lower part of the Galerie des Aiglons was full. After this period the river ran in the upper part of the cave and in the Boyau Ouest. During the eleventh period the water was standing only in the upper part of the network. At the end, the upper part of the cave was closed by a stalagmite cap at about 100 meters from the today entrance. During the twelfth step the river came back and ran for the last time in the lower part (on the eastside) of the Galerie des Aiglons. The last step corresponds to the human occupation of the cave during the proto and historic periods. Animal life discovered in the Galerie des Aiglons is important and contains more than 20 species. The most numerous part are the carnivores. We mainly found Ursus deningeri-spelaeus, Ursus arctos and Ursus thi-betanus. For the felins we found Panthera spelaea, Panthera pardus and may be Panthera gombaszoegen-sis. We can also attest of the presence of Crocuta spe¬ laea, Canis lupus and may be of Hyeana prisca. The non carnivorous animals, that we found in a very small quantity in the other parts of the Aze Caves, are very present in the Galerie des Aiglons. We attest of the presence of Cervus elaphus, Bos primigenius, Capra ibex, Equus, Dicerorhinus mercki, Elephantidae, Lepus, Citellus removed by the river and may be of Capreolus sussenbornensis, Megaceros, Ovis sp. Most of the bones are mixed in the sediments. In the future we'll try to define their origin and the different prehistoric periods associated with them. As for their age, we think that the filling, from the fifth step on, dates back to the upper Paleolithic because we found in the associated sediments typical silex tools from this period. We think that most of the bones found are older than the filling and that they had been removed by the river. Barriquand Johan, Barriquand Lionel, Argant Alain. Histoire d'un remplissage : Grotte Préhistorique d'Azé (Saône-et-Loire, France). In: Cahiers scientifiques du Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Lyon. Hors-série, tome 2, 2004. Actes du 9e symposium international sur l'ours des cavernes.
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