Abri du Bois-du-Roc
| Abri du Bois-du-Roc
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 Wood of the Bois-du-Roc |
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| Location: | Charente department , France | |
| Height : | 120 m | |
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Geographic location: |
45 ° 41 '2 " N , 0 ° 25' 16" E | |
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| Geology: | Jurassic Limestone | |
| Discovery: | around 1870 | |
| Particularities: | Monument Historique | |
The Abri du Bois-du-Roc is an Abri of the Upper Paleolithic in the former French commune of Vilhonneur , 21 kilometers east of Angoulême ( Charente department , Nouvelle-Aquitaine region ).
Geography and description
The Abri du Bois-du-Roc, also known as Abri André Ragout or just Bois-du-Roc , is located on a wooded hill 300 meters north-northeast of the center of Vilhonneur. On the IGN map the abri appears on Roc Plat , a limestone hill isolated from the rest of the limestone plateau along the left side of the valley of the Tardoire . The sites of Grotte du Placard and Grotte du Visage are not far away. Right next to the Abri are the Grotte des Fades (numbers 1 and 2), and a little further away the Abri du Chasseur and the Grand Abri .
The roughly rectangular Abri du Bois-du-Roc measures 16 meters in length and 11 meters in width. Its former limestone roof collapsed during the Magdalenian era .
geology
Upcoming are Jurassic sediments of the northern Aquitaine basin on Roc Plat - flat limestones of the lower and middle Bajocian . Compared to the Holocene alluvium of the Tardoire meandering past a little further to the east, these form a steep wall, the abrupt end of the Borderon . The Bajocium shows strong karst phenomena ( karst of La Rochefoucauld ) with numerous cave formations in the vicinity of Vilhonneur.
history
The Abri du Bois-du-Roc has been known since 1870 at the latest. He was discovered by the two abbots Bourgeois and Delaunay. Excavations were then carried out by Fermond, Chauvet, de Mortillet and others. The site was forgotten in the 20th century and was only rediscovered in the 1930s by André Ragout along the east side of the Bois-du-Roc, hence the name Abri André Ragout. However, he died in 1940 without being able to start excavation work. The site was then devastated and looted. An examination of the rubble in 1956 could still distinguish three layers: Bronze Age , Solutréen and Périgordien with 99 Noailles burins .
By decree of April 22, 1991, the Abri du Bois-du-Roc and the Abri du Chasseur were inscribed as Monument Historique .
stratigraphy
The upper layer contains numerous reindeer bones in addition to Bronze Age artifacts , but it is strongly mixed with the underlying layer, which could be dated to the early Magdalenian . The remains of a fireplace from the late Solutréen were found in the location below. It is separated from the basal Périgordien by a yellow muddy intermediate layer (Périgordien IV and Périgordien V).
Artifacts
There were numerous ceramic shards characteristic of the Bronze Age in the Abri . After them, the Bronze Age ceramic style Bois-du-Roc was introduced into the specialist literature. Among the ceramics were a spindle whorl , shards with decorative incisions and a fragment of a vase. The ceramics are characterized by a notch cut and are likely to come mainly from the late phase of the Bronze Age, with echoes of the middle bronze but also to the Hallstatt period (Hallstatt I).
The Magdalenian location itself contained two hearths. This is an early Magdalenian marked by scratches (Protomagdalenian I and Magdalenian II).
Generally among the artefacts are: 151 burins (from the excavations of 1956), 6 thorns, 22 scrapers as well as scratches, blades with blunted backs and some bone objects, including a pendant.
The peaks found in the Solutréens layer are identical to the peaks in the Grotte du Placard cave, less than a kilometer away . Flint, quartz and jasper were used as raw materials. The oldest layer also contained gravette points , notch points, bay leaf points , blunt-back blades and 109 Noailles burins - with a length of 18 to 54 millimeters, the smallest tools of the Upper Paleolithic. Among the Noailles burins, 21 were made of flint or jasper. The burins can be typified as follows: 71 single burins on a knock-off basis , 47 double burins, double burins on a knock-off base, bilateral burins on a blade-base , adjacent two- ends on a blade, opposite two-ends on a blade and 9 triple-ends on a blade.
A pierced tooth, a conch shell, a needle and carved bones served as jewelry.
fauna
In addition to the reindeer mentioned above, there were bones of cattle, horses, deer, ibex and others.
Individual evidence
- ↑ G. Le Pochat and others: Montbron . In: Carte géologique de la France at 1/50 000 . BRGM, 1986.
- ^ G. Delaunay: Une station de l'âge du Bronze à Vilhonneur . In: Mat. P. l'hist. pr. d. l'h. 1878, p. 299-305 .
- ↑ J. Fermond: Notice sur les différents âges de la pierre et sur l'âge du bronze dans la vallée de la Tardoire . Impr. De la Charente, Angoulême 1873.
- ^ Gustave Chauvet: Poteries préhistoriques à ornements géometriques en creux (vallée de la Charente) . In: CR Congr. int. d'anthr. et d'arch. préh. XIIe session . Paris 1900.
- ↑ Gabriel de Mortillet: Habitations de l'âge du bronze . In: Rev. Ecole d'Anthrop. 1894, p. 34 .
- ↑ Lionel Balout: Un gisement martyr: L'Abri André stew, au Bois-du-Roc (Vilhonneur - Charente) . In: Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française . vol. 54, nos 1-2, 1957.
- ↑ Lionel Balout: Fouilles 1957 De . In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française . vol. 55, no 10, 1958, p. 599-627 .
- ↑ Etienne Patte: Quelques poteries de l'Age du Bronze venant du Bois du Roc (Charente) . In: Revue archéologique du Center de la France . 1974, p. 235-256 .
- ^ Jacques Tixier: Les burins de Noailles de l'abri André Ragout . In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française . vol. 55, no 10, 1958.