Cap Blanc rock shelter, Prehistoric art cave in Marquay, France

Cap Blanc is a limestone rock shelter whose back wall carries a 13-metre frieze of Magdalenian animal sculptures, about 15,000 years old. Ten horses, at least three bison and an ibex are cut in haut-relief up to 30 cm deep, with traces of red ochre. A tall wooden ladder leans against the rock face below the overhang.

Raymond Peyrille found the shelter in 1908 under Jean-Gaston Lalanne, and his 1909 dig revealed the sculpted frieze, published by Lalanne and Henri Breuil in 1911. While a protective wall was built in 1911, the floor was lowered and a workman's pick broke a skull; Denis Peyrony and Louis Capitan then examined the nearly complete female skeleton. The site was classified a historical monument on 28 November 1910 and acquired by the State on 14 April 2006.

The shelter's name, Cap Blanc, refers to the pale limestone cliff above the Beune. The carved animals were originally heightened with red ochre, traces of which remain on the wall. The site is one of the few Middle Magdalenian shelters where sculpture is directly associated with human occupation, showing that art was not confined to deep caves.

Visits are guided and numbers are limited to protect the carvings. The on-site museum explains the lives of the Cro-Magnon people who occupied and decorated the shelter, and displays a replica of the Magdalenian Girl skeleton made in 2001. The original is at the Field Museum in Chicago.

The near-complete skeleton found in 1911 under the horse frieze is known as the Magdalenian Girl; studies estimate she died between 25 and 35 years old. Large stone blocks lay over her head and feet, though no grave goods were recovered. Sold to the Field Museum in Chicago in 1926, she is represented at Cap Blanc by a replica made in 2001.