The Jean-Clottes database, Animal representations in Prehistory (BJC), was created following the publication of the book Bouquetins et Pyrénées, edited by Aline Averbouh, Valérie Feruglio, Frédéric Plassard & Georges Sauvet (Aix-en-Provence, PUP-PréMed) in 2021 and 2022.

This book, dedicated to Jean Clottes, Honorary General Curator of Heritage, brings together contributions from over a hundred authors from France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and Australia. It is divided into two volumes: the first, a general-interest book, deals with the ibex from prehistoric times to the present day (Volume I, published in 2021, was awarded the 2021 Pyrenean Book Prize for "Knowledge"); the second, more specialized volume is an inventory of Palaeolithic ibex depictions (Volume II, published in 2022). From the outset, this inventory was designed to be converted into a database that could be consulted and interrogated in digital format. This guided the choice of entries, themes and content.

Under the aegis of the CNRS and posted online in November 2022, the BJC has the same primary vocation as the ibex inventory, namely to be used as a research tool by specialists in prehistory, and to remain accessible to the general public. It thus pursues the initial objective of the publication by including representations of other animal species, as well as other ancient or recent prehistoric cultures, in geographical areas other than the Franco-Cantabrian zone. It has been structured with this in mind, based on the models established for the book.