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This work presents the results of more than ten years of prospection on the commune of Clugnat and its margins. About fifteen sites more or less rich in artefacts was thus listed on both sides of La Petite-Creuse. Lithic remains testify to an almost continuous occupation of the sector prospected since the Middle Paleolithic until the final Neolithic era. Raw materials exclusively came from the siliceous formations located at the north and the North-West of the sector of study. Closest are the tertiary flints of the area of Vicq-Exemplet and the hettangian flints of the sector of Saint-Jeanvrain. Most distant are turonian flints of the Cher valley and those of the surroundings of the Grand-Pressigny. The Middle Paleolithic is represented only by some artefacts, just like Aurignacian, Badegoulian or Azilian ones. A Gravettian industry is more important on the site of Les Tailles, just like the final Neolithic era. Final Neolithic is indeed omnipresent on the whole of the sites and is in particular marked by the importation of tools made from Berry and of Touraine flints.

The oldest traces of a continued occupation on the plateau of Gergovie date back to the Middle Neolithic period. The lithic finds come from casual collection points or from the excavations concentrated on more recent archaeological periods. The different techno-typological components identified document two periods from the Neolithic: the Chasseen recent and the Late Neolithic. The Chasseen is mainly characterized by the production of flakes debited by pressure, in tertiary flint, either local or imported from the Berry and the Rhone valley. The tools are represented by arrowheads and domestic tools (scrapers, burins, blades and retouched flakes, polished hand-axes). They indicate the presence of settlements and diversified activities on the plateau. The occupation seems less intense during the Late Neolithic, the stone objects are less abundant and are mainly represented by arrowheads.

The location of the ancient Gergovia and the Caesarian siege works has been known for several years, at least within the scientific community. An expert mission conducted in the mid-1990s has enabled the validation of the layout of some of the fortifications as were described in research at the end of the Second Empire.The proliferation of archaeological work in this area of the Clermont bassin has enabled us to specify the route of Caesar’s military configuration set up in front of Gergovia in 52 BC.The discovery of new property remains (ditches, human burials and horse burials, sections of track) and home furnishings (late-Republican militaria) makes it possible to better understand the influence of the battlefield and lead to the formulation of new hypotheses about the course of the siege of the oppidum.