In the heart of the Fagne, halfway between Chimay and Couvin, lies Lompret, one of the most beautiful villages in Wallonia. This peaceful village with its seemingly modest appearance, bordering the meanders of the 'Eau Blanche' source river, can nevertheless boast a very rich cultural and historical past. First of all, the discovery of numerous flint tools points to early human presence in the region dating back to the Neolithic period, but also its Roman camp and treasure which attest to its strategic importance in the third century BP. Yet, beyond its status as a landmark of the region's cultural and historical heritage, the subsoil of Lompret is also full of unsuspected geological and paleontological treasures.
To honour all the amazing and unique finds that have been unearthed over the past 20 years, a temporary exhibition was erected in collaboration with the Musée du marbre de Rance, entitled: Lompret-sur-Mer.
Let's be clear, this exhibit does not talk about a village near the Belgian coast, but rather deals with a coral reef in a tropical climate. To make sure we have the right setting, we have to go back in time, to approximatly 380 million years before the present, to a stage of the geological timescale we call the Frasnian. At that time, the sea was quite different and populated by strange animals with the most peculiar looks. Some of these animals have survived the ages and their descendants still inhabit our oceans to this day, while others have disappeared entirely from the surface of the earth as a result of major ecological crises.
During the Frasnian period, Western Europe was in fact a vast coastal region dotted with coral reefs hosting rich ecosystems. These reefs were populated by organisms such as corals and stromatopores who provided the necessary substrate for a very diverse fauna. Like all coral reefs, the one in Lompret was home to a multitude of animal such as bivalves, sea urchins, gastropods and trilobites. Primitive cephalopods and sharks swam freely, all the while avoiding large predators such as the fearsome Dunkleosteus ruling this aquatic world.
