Meeting with Philippe Galant

Who are you?!

How did you develop this passion for the Causse?

I am originally from Montpellier, I discovered speleology at 10 years old and archaeology at 12. My encounter with the Causses dates back to when I was 14, through speleology. I was immediately charmed by this territory which seemed wild to me at the time, because I did not know it.

When I studied archaeology, I wanted to work on a problem specific to the Grands-Causses region: the use of the underground environment by man during Prehistory, a socio-economic approach to this environment.
I had the good fortune to meet the ethnologist Adrienne Durand-Tullou, whom I had discovered through her books. She is a person who captivated me, and with whom I was able to share a great deal. She taught me a great deal; her work and writings drew me to the Causse region.

I was also very fortunate to meet the geomorphologists Paul and Martine Ambert, who convinced me of the importance of studying humankind within its environment. And above all, to understand humankind, to interpret the environment: what we now call geoarchaeology.

I thus acquired a very different vision of the Causse and of the human impact on this environment over time.

When did Man arrive on the Causse and what did he come to find there?

The Causse region has always been on the margins of the major population movements that developed in prehistory in areas with slightly more welcoming geographical and climatic conditions.

The Causses and the Cévennes are so-called extreme environments, which were occupied during periods of refuge, during demographic or economic crises.
It is in this sense that the Causses and the Cévennes have been a cradle of cultures that have always been very strong, marked and assertive because they have faced an extremely difficult environment.
 
In the Paleolithic era, hunting dictated population movements; people moved with their herds, according to the seasons and the movements of the game they hunted. They adapted to the environment by fleeing a territory when it became too hostile.

On the Causses and Cévennes plateaus, settlements are sporadic and small in terms of duration and waste. Archaeology therefore struggles to identify them. It was at the end of the Neolithic period that humans became producers. They settled down, adopting a completely different way of life because they gained total control over their environment and impacted it. This opened up the landscape for agricultural practices; it was the beginning of agropastoralism that shaped this territory.

What about today ?
 
The evolution of the environment is linked to the socio-economic context; it is the way people live that conditions the evolution of the environment around them.

Agriculture practiced today is not the same as that practiced 5,000 years ago, even if the objectives are the same: cereal crops and livestock. The open landscapes of the past provided raw materials in terms of wood and space; fallow land was never used. Today, agriculture is highly mechanized, sheep are replaced by cows, and the landscape is becoming more enclosed as traditional agropastoral practices decline.

It is not a wild environment but an artificial environment that has been abandoned, and in this abandonment, nature is taking over.

Can you tell us about your research and discoveries on the Causse de Blandas?
 
I worked on the economy of the underground environment, the relationship between humans and materials found only underground: water (essential for life), clay (for pottery), and calcite (used for ceramics and jewelry). This necessity of prior exploration of caves and sinkholes, and therefore of acquiring knowledge before using an underground site, is prehistoric speleology. I also worked on settlement patterns, a piece of information previously unavailable for the prehistory of the Causses region. Through the excavation I conducted at the Rouvière sinkhole site, I proposed a model of settlement at the end of the Neolithic period, validated by recent discoveries.

Megalithic monuments have always fascinated me—understanding these standing stones and the messages they convey across millennia. The challenges of extracting materials from actual quarries; transporting these multi-ton stones; shaping them; erecting them in specific locations—what a wealth of techniques! It's important to remember that between what we see of a menhir today and what it was 5000 years ago, time and erosion have taken their toll. Archaeology allows us to reconstruct what they once were, and that's where we truly appreciate human ingenuity.

All of this led me to become interested in the evolution of the Causse region over time. I've observed that the landscapes we see today are anything but natural; they reflect human activity. Everything is artificial; there isn't a single square meter that humans haven't altered! But anyway, I still have plenty to do, but there are only 24 hours in a day!

Have there been any major discoveries in the area? 

In terms of scientific discoveries, what has been very interesting over the last 30 years has been the focus on late Neolithic settlements. This was a crucial period for this region, as it was the time of the first farmers who settled there and impacted their environment. For example, the meandering of the river at the bottom of the Cirque de Navacelles is partly the result of the actions of late Neolithic farmers on the Causse plateau. We owe them the fabulous landscape we see from the Belvédère viewpoint!

We didn't know about the habitat of these populations; we knew about standing stones and the use of caves, but not their dwellings. And so, I had the chance to discover this habitat thanks to the speleologist Joël Halgand, who discovered the Aven de la Rouvière site, and then I became interested in this issue by asking myself the question: how is it that I found a 5000-year-old hut under a meter of earth?

We realized that the landscape as we know it today has been completely shaped over time. In some places, during the 16th and 17th centuries, we see evidence of massive development projects. Walls several hundred meters long structure the fields into terraces, and surface water was drained to supply the lavognes (traditional watering troughs). All of this is land development that began in the 16th century.

In modern times, the territory was taken over by nobles who relegated the secondary activities of the poor populations to the hillsides, and that is why we have hillside agriculture which developed, with terraces, because these were people who were convinced that there was nothing there, but man, through his genius, developed this agriculture and found an economic balance adapted to his environment.

So the discovery of the habitat is a very big discovery for the territory, when we have understood the impact of man on his environment, the erosion of the environment, the opening up of environments, the sedimentary changes, the key word in all this is water! It is the sea that made the Causses, it is water that eroded them and which is, of course, the main need of men.

The discovery of the Rouvière cave in 1989 and the Baumelle cave in 2010 are very powerful sites because they represent specific moments: people left 5,000 years ago and sealed these sites, and then we arrive 5,000 years later. In real museums, we realize how lucky we are to see this firsthand.

La Baumelle is a major heritage discovery, but we thought that the most important thing was to preserve it, which is why it became an archaeological reserve on which we have physically and administratively reinforced the protection of the site.
And today, a site like La Baumelle, in terms of heritage conservation, is the ideal to strive for everywhere. 

What can you tell us about local megalithism? 

Megalithism is complex. It serves several purposes: there isn't just one type of megalithism, but several. These include funerary megalithism, social megalithism (in the sense of coordinating a community), probably religious megalithism, and territorial megalithism…

We don't yet know how to fully explain them; we are far from having all the elements necessary to understand them. When I arrived in the area, I had an advantage on this issue: on the Causse de Blandas, people had been interested in megalithism for 160 years, so there was already data that had been collected, but it remains a fascinating subject, both scientifically and in terms of heritage.

Is there a place on the Causse where its entire history can be seen?

When you stand in front of the Trivalle menhir in Rogues and look north towards the Lingas massif, you have a view of Saint Guiral, a major pilgrimage site in the region. Facing you is the old Vis river, which used to flow here before joining the Larzac plateau. To the left of this large plain stretching to Montdardier, you find the mineral landscape, the "stones," this agro-pastoral land where people used to graze their sheep because there was a little grass. In fact, you regularly see piles of accumulated stones called "clapas."

When you look to the right and observe the contrast of the fields, especially in spring, you have abandoned nature on the left and managed nature on the right, and that is the identity of the Causse.

On one side there is karst, the limestone side, geochemical erosion and the digging of the subsoil, the evolution of the environment, and on the other side, what man has tamed, what he has observed, apprehended.

Throughout history, Man has used only one tool, and we no longer have that tool today: it is Time!

Visitors to the Cévenol Museum in Le Vigan can discover objects and stone tools dating from the Neolithic period, bearing witness to the daily life of the prehistoric populations of the Causses and Cévennes.