when he found traces bronze age settlements there in 1960, gaston etienne (1923-2010) recognized that the case was important for archaeology. etienne was a councillor in malaverne. since 1993, there have been excavations each year. since 2006, ludovic slimak - a research associate from the university of toulouse and the cnrs is overseeing these excavations. there are twelve cultural layers at the site, in 2014, seven layers had been excavated. the layers date from 42.000 bp (called early aurigacien) to 56,000 bp (la quina-mousterian).