La spéléo-archéologie ou la recherche d'aménagements historiques et préhistoriques dans les grottes du sud de la France.

The scientific study of the human frequentation clues in caves started with the work of François ROUZAUD (1978), entitled “La paléospéléologie”. Since that time, other archeologists have continued research, developing a real specialty, the speleoarcheology, defined as the study of human frequentation in caves prior to modern speleology. Clues of human incursions have already been examined by karst scientists or geomorphologists in well‐known prestigious caves, which access is regulated. However, many open‐access caves have not been yet studied through the point of view of speleo‐archeology. Only one example of caves containing anthropogenic constructions is presented here to illustrate speleo‐archeological research: the Mas‐d'Azil Cave (Ariège), which keeps old traces of a clay mining