From the paleolithic age, after the climatic changes brought by the succession of ice ages, there are two important markers in the Minervois : the caves at Fauzan and at Bize.

The cave at Fauzan, in the commune of Cesseras is known as 'L'Aldène' or 'La Coquille'. It is in the valley of the river Cesse and contains some 1200 metres of galleries with a height which varies between 10m at the entrance to 20m inside.

In 1833 it was declared by M. H Reboul as being of archeological interest. Studies commenced in 1838 and in 1886 some twenty odd soundings were made and fossil bones were found from which were identified the remains of the cave bear, cave hyena, cave tiger and two horned rhinocerous.

The explorers including a M. Gauthier, acquired the cave and the the commune of Cesseras granted them exploitation rights for phosphates. Between 1888 and 1932, production of phosphates by excavation was carried out and used to fertilise the vines under the name of 'la Minervite'. Via a shaft dug from the surface and 44m deep, a layer varying from 1m to 11m thick was removed from the whole of the cave sytem. A large extent of the remains was thus lost forever to scientific investigation. A few relics were saved by the miners including cave bear remains, hyena excrement containing a human tooth.

Neverthless, certain scientific observations were made from time to time by indiviuals and although their collections do not exist, their observations were published in various journals. From which we know now that the Grotte d'Aldène was occupied from the lower paleolithic age, ie at least 100,000 years'ago.

In 1927, M. Gueret found prehistoric drawings on the walls of a passage recently uncovered by the phosphate mining; drawings of various aninimals - lionness, bear, two horned rhinocerous, tiger and mammouth. By studies carried out in 1931 and 1939, the drawing were dated from the magdalanian period but no efforts were made to protect them until recently and they are now much deteriorated and covered with modern graffiti. From a hole in the wall of this gallery, a whole new lower system was found which contained footprints and other marks of bears and an area where the females gave birth. Mixed in with these animal marks were human footprints and traces of thier lighted smoking torches on the walls.

The cave at Bize is situated on the left bank of the Cesse above the village of Bize. In 1827, M. Tournal of Narbonne inaugurated the science of prehistory by observing that mankind was older than 6000 yrs. Stratigraphic studies have shown that man inhabited this cave from the Mousterian-Aurignacian period, during the fourth ice-age at the time of the great cave bear. The upper layers date from the Magdelanian period and few animal remains other than the deer are present. This corresponds well with a climate which was at that time as cold as Lapland. There are also neolithic remains including pottery.