Manuscripts - Dordogne - Montignac - Lascaux - Prehistory - Lot 255

Manuscripts - Dordogne - Montignac - Lascaux - Prehistory [TERRIER - MARQUIS de HAUTEFORT - TERRES de MONTIGNAC en DORDOGNE] Terrier des rentes de la Comté de Montignac (Dordogne) dated 1767-69, grouping together some of the acquisitions and possessions of the Marquis de Hautefort, Count of Montignac in the commune. A large part is devoted to the town of Montignac, and the sites of Lascaux and Regourdou are mentioned several times. 2 strong in-4 volumes (volumes I and III - volume II missing), each around 380 pages, in fine, legible handwriting in black ink (some disgorgements). Volume I begins on page 24 (?!), but no pages appear to be missing or cut out. Each volume contains a table of recognitions of parcels and pieces of land or forest. Volumes in stiff antique vellum, well bound, one interior hinge weak. Le Regourdou is a French prehistoric site corresponding to an ancient cave whose ceiling has collapsed. It is located near the Lascaux cave, in Montignac-Lascaux, Dordogne. The Regourdou site was discovered by chance in 1954 by its owner, Roger Constant. He decided to enlarge the cave entrance in the hope of finding the natural entrance to the Lascaux cave. The cave had been discovered in 1940 after a storm uprooted a tree above it, causing part of the vault to collapse and opening up the artificial entrance. Roger Constant saw the same collapse in front of his house, and considered it a link to the Lascaux cave. He then set about excavating the site without official authorization. On September 22, 1957, he discovered a Neanderthal mandible. Excavations were carried out under the direction of Eugène Bonifay, who uncovered what he considered to be a Neanderthal burial site and a brown bear burial site. Two Neanderthal individuals were unearthed, including a partial skeleton and an isolated calcaneus. Emmanuel Dieudonné de Hautefort (1700-1777), Marquis de Hautefort, French officer and diplomat. He bore the titles Marquis d'Hautefort, de Surville et de Sarcelles, comte de Montignac, vicomte de Ségur, baron de Julliac, de La Flotte, de Béhéricourt, seigneur de la Borie, Bellegarde, Savignac, Rethonvillers, Le Mesnil Saint Firmin and others. On August 9, 1700, he was made a Knight Minor of the Order of Malta. After a brilliant military career, King Louis XV appointed him ambassador to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in Vienna from 1749 to 1753.