2- The arrival of the first humans in the mid-Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age)
Neanderthals were the first humans to cross the Vercors. They were hunters who exploited its animal, mineral and vegetable resources, cohabiting with a variety of animals, and knapping flint

3 - The arrival of the first modern humans in the Upper Palaeolithic     
Cro-Magnons, early modern humans, followed on from the Neanderthals. They established a new type of society, with technological innovations, the emergence of artistic thought and the appearance of funerary practices.

4 - The last Mesolithic hunters (Middle Stone Age)
This period marks the transition between the hunter-gatherers of the Palaeolithic and the first farmers of the Neolithic. The landscape was changing. New ways of life and types of hunting appeared.

5 - The first farmers and pastoralists in the Neolithic (New Stone Age)
In the Neolithic period people became farmers and cattle herders. They settled in one place, moving out from it to hunt and collect flint. Paintings and symbols show that they developed a new form of social and religious organisation.

Across Europe, groups of people begin to specialise in the knapping of flint. They produced long blades which they exported and exchanged, as happened at Vassieux-en-Vercors.

The museum is organised around this outstanding site, which was discovered in 1970 in the exact state in which it had been abandoned by prehistoric peoples. It offers 30 years of research on the area.