An Archaeological Study Tour
Caves & Castles
Northern Spain & France
September 2 – 15, 2012
14 Days
Led by Dr. Roy Larick, Cleveland State University

Book this tour before February 29, 2012 and save! Call us!

Caves and Castles explores the early depths of the human mind and the turbulent flow of medieval life. Our province is Atlantic Franco-Iberia, the beautiful and hospitable southwest of France and the north of Spain. In the stillness of subterranean caverns, the tour compares the humanity of Europe’s two hominid lines. Atapuerca’s 500,000-year-old cemetery cave begins our path toward the Neanderthal mind. We follow to its climax in elaborate funerary practices, 40,000 years ago. By 35,000 years ago, modern humans arrive and are decorating cave alcoves. In visiting prized architectural monuments, the “castle” portion of our tour dives into the climatic waves of European history. We relive the Medieval Warm Period (950-1300 CE), with its expansive new-towns, Viking invasions, Albigensian crusades, and Santiago pilgrimage. We then roll to the early Little Ice Age (1300-1460), with its contractive famines and plagues, Hundred Years War, political centralization and rising church schisms. Caves and Castles takes in Franco-Iberia’s incomparable deep history and brings in the latest science. By good fortune, these sites are found in an area renowned for fabulous food and wine.

Sunday, Monday, September 2 & 3: BURGOS: Independent departures from our home cities on Sunday. Monday the tour gathers in the Madrid airport for our drive to Burgos. Our hotel, Hotel Velada Burgos, is located within the walls of the medieval city. After a rest we will offer a short visit to the Archaeological Museum, which houses the finds from the region, and the Burgos Cathedral, the third largest in Spain, remarkable for its transformation of traditional Gothic into a typically Spanish style and for its outstanding art. This evening we will meet for our opening lecture. Dr. Larick will summarize our exciting itinerary and introduce his goals for the tour.
Meals: Dinner

Tueday, September 4: SANTILLANA DEL MAR: This morning touring begins at Atapuerca, one of the most important paleontological sites. Here the remains of hominids who lived around 800,000 years ago have been found, as well as an enormous number of fossils dating from the Middle Pleistocene age. After visiting the site and its museum, we continue north to Santillana del Mar. Here we will spend the next two nights at the Parador Gil Blas, a former manor house located on the main square of this ancient and well-preserved coastal village.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Wednesday, September 5: SANTILLANA DEL MAR: This morning we will continue our exploration of prehistoric Spain with a visit to Altamira II, an exact replica of the famous cave of Altamira, which is now closed to the public in order to preserve its 15,000-year-old depictions of bison, boar and deer. After visiting the Altamira Museum, we continue touring to the cave of El Castillo. Especially notable here are the elephants and abstract symbols that have sometimes been interpreted as representing male and female fertility. Our last stop today will be the cave of Las Monedas.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch

Thursday, September 6: SAN SEBASTIAN: Our touring begins at the cavern of Tito Bustillo. This cavern contains high-quality paintings in black and red of bison, horses and stags. We then drive along the Cantabrian coastline through many beautiful little Spanish towns to Bilbao, where we will visit the Guggenheim Museum, designed by Pritzker Prize winner Frank Gehry. Its collection focuses on art from the 1950s to the present and draws on the vast Guggenheim collections in New York and Venice. We then continue to the seaside Abba Londres y de Inglaterra Hotel in San Sebastián for the night.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch

Friday, September 7: ST- GIRONS: As we drive east into France, we begin our ascent into the foothills of the Pyrénées, where our first stops will be the Gargas Caves and the Pyrénées’ most renowned city, Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. This pretty little Gallo-Roman town is famous for its fabulous cathedral, its architectural treasures and steep, narrow streets crowded with medieval houses and artisans’ workshops. We then continue to St-Girons for two nights at the Hôtel Eychenne.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Saturday, September 8: ST- GIRONS: This very exciting day begins at the famous cave of Niaux. In a section known as the Black Salon, we see paintings and engravings of horses, ibex, bison and salmon. Touring continues at the Prehistoric Art Park of the Pyrénées, which displays replicas and photos of paintings and drawings from various caves, some of which are no longer open to the public. Lastly, at Le Mas-d’Azil on the River Arize, we explore caverns that once contained extraordinary prehistoric remains, including the famous sculptured horse head we will see at the museum in St-Germain-en-Laye.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Sunday, September 9: CAHORS: A lovely drive brings us into the Dordogne to visit the site of Pêche-Merle, an extensive series of adjoining caves with impressive rock formations and decorated with drawings and paintings of both human and animal figures. After our tour we continue to the lovely Hôtel Château Mercuès outside Cahors.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Monday, September 10: LES EYZIES-DE-TAYAC: As we wind our way to Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac, we will visit the former pilgrimage town of Rocamadour, where the body of St. Amadour was revered. This fortified town, with its castle towering above, clings to the face of a spectacular cliff that rises above Alzou Canyon. After lunch in Souillac, we continue to Beynac-et-Cazenac to visit its fortified castle. Its strategic position on the top of a rocky cliff overlooking the Dordogne Valley placed it on the front lines during the Hundred Years’ War. The interior is quite interesting for its architecture and Gothic frescoes in naive style. Our base for the next five nights will be the Hôtel Les Glycines in Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac. This pretty town straddles the Vézère River. Its historic buildings have been preserved, maintaining the atmosphere of a small market town with numerous small restaurants and shops, which we will have the opportunity to investigate during our stay.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, September 11, 12, 13 & 14: LES EYZIES-DE-TAYAC: This region is known as the “capital of prehistory.” Our touring will include the major caves in the area: Font-de-Gaume, Cap Blanc, Les Combarelles, La Mouthe and Rouffignac. We will also visit Cougnac, known for paintings of extinct Megaloceros (giant deer), and Lascaux II, whose galleries are often called the “Sistine Chapel of Prehistoric Art.” Between visits to these magnificent caves, we will have time to explore many of the wonderful towns in this area. Nearby is the lovely Belvès Abbey, known for its location on the cliffs overlooking the Dordogne River Valley. We will visit La Roque Saint-Christophe in Le Moustier and the Abri Pataud Museum in Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac. Every day will include breakfast and either lunch or dinner, depending on the itinerary.
Meals: Every day will include breakfast and either lunch or dinner, depending on the itinerary.

Saturday, September 15: There will be one group transfer to the Bordeaux airport for our departure flights.