Grotte d'Artenac
| Grotte d'Artenac
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 The quarry wall at Les Boissières , the site on the left |
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| Location: | Charente department , France | |
| Height : | 110 m | |
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Geographic location: |
45 ° 50 ′ 15 " N , 0 ° 19 ′ 49" E | |
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| Geology: | Jurassic Limestone | |
| Type: | Karst cave | |
| Discovery: | 1950 | |
The Grotte d'Artenac is a prehistoric site in southwest France , 20 kilometers northeast of Angoulême . It is located in the municipality of Saint-Mary in the Charente department ( Nouvelle-Aquitaine region ).
history
As early as 1921, the abbot Boreau-Lajanadie suspected the presence of a prehistoric site. The demolition wall was then converted into a quarry. In 1950 a cave was found near the D91, which was to fall victim to further mining. The first rescue excavations by G. Bailloud and C. Burnez in 1959 led to the discovery of an ancient Bronze Age necropolis . This find established the type locality of the Artenaciens - a cultural stage of the late Neolithic , which dates back to around 2400 BC. BC could be dated.
After the Sepulchral Cave had fallen victim to the progress of the mining work at the beginning of the seventies, another cave was approached, the actual Grotte d'Artenac with rich finds from the Middle and the Young Pleistocene .
Geography and description
The Grotte d'Artenac is located at Les Boissières, southwest of the village of Artenac , which belongs to the municipality of Saint-Mary. The Bonnieure , a right tributary of the Tardoire , passes just 200 meters further south. Not too far away there are other Paleolithic sites, such as the Grotte de Fontéchevade , the Grotte de Montgaudier , the Grotte du Placard and the Grotte de la Chaise , to name just a few.
The Grotte d'Artenac follows a north-northwest trending karst fissure. It is almost 50 meters long and 5 meters wide. Its entrance is about 20 meters above the Bonnieure floodplain. The front entrance area has collapsed.
geology
The demolition wall with the Grotte d'Artenac is built from flat Jura limestone from the north-eastern Aquitaine basin . Upcoming are almost 70 meters thick reef limestone of the middle and upper Oxfordium . The internal stratigraphy of the partly bio-thermic reef body is quite inhomogeneous, with several construction phases alternating with erosion (bioclastic, coarse-grained) and resting phases (fine-grained). Findings of ammonites in fine-grain, clayey intermediate layers reveal the following ammonite subzones: Antecedens, Parandieri, Schilli, Stenocycloides, Grossouvrei and Hypselum subzones.
archeology
In the Grotte d'Artenac more than 20 meters of sediments have accumulated, which have paleontologically and archaeologically relevant locations. Animals and then humans have visited the cave over a period of 500,000 years.
fauna
In two layers examined by Jean-François Tournepiche, various types of animal bones came to light. The older layer, dated 700,000 to 500,000 years ago, contained a very archaic fauna with Ursus deningeri , European jaguar ( Panthera gombaszoegensis ), Homotherium latidens and reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus ). Bones from bears, dogs, cattle and Mosbacher horses ( Equus mosbachensis ) appeared in the hanging wall .
The younger second layer can be assigned to the Mindel- up to the final Riss-Cold Age, as it contains bones of Ursus deningeri , Homotherium latidens , cave lion ( Panthera spelaea ), wolf ( Canis lupus ), red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ), cattle, elephants , Deer and especially Equus mosbachensis .
Another third layer already indicates moderate climatic conditions with the appearance of wild boar and deer .
Human presence
The beginning of the human presence could be dated back to 350,000 years. This makes the Grotte d'Artenac the oldest human remains in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Among the finds uncovered by Jean-François Tournepiche and Anne Delagnes, the lower jaw of an older Neanderthal man and a fragment of a skullcap ( frontal bone ) came to light.
Artifacts
A total of 1271 stone artifacts of the Moustérie were found , which belong to the Charente complex (type La Ferrassie ).
See also
literature
- B. Bourgeuil, P. Moreau and J. Vouvé: Angoulême XVII-32 . In: Carte géologique de la France at 1/50 000 . BRGM.
- Anne Delagnes, Jean-François Tournepiche, Dominique Armand, Emmanuel Desclaux, Marie-Françoise Diot and others: Le gisement Pléistocène moyen et supérieur d'Artenac (Saint-Mary, Charente): premier bilan interdisciplinaire . In: Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française, Société Préhistorique Française . tape 96 (4) , 1999, pp. 469-496 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ A. Boreau-Lajanadie: Gisement préhistorique aux Boissières . In: Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société Archéologique et Historique de Charente . 1921, p. LXIX .
- ↑ G. Bailloud and C. Burnez: Le Bronze ancien dans le Center-Ouest de la France . In: Bull. De la Soc. préhistorique française . tape 59 , 1962, pp. 515-524 .
- ↑ André Debénath: Néandertaliens et Cro-Magnons, les temps glaciaires dans le bassin de la Charente . Le Croit Vif, 2006, ISBN 2-916104-00-3 .
- ↑ Jean Airvaux, Louis Duport and Francis Leveque: Un siècle de recherches en préhistoriques Charente. La Charente Paléolithique in context of the region . Association pour la valorisation du patrimoine préhistorique de la Charente.
- ↑ Liliane Meignen, Mario Chech and Bernard Vandermeersch: Le gisement Moustérien d'Artenac à Saint-Mary (Charente). Étude préliminaire . In: Gallia Préhistoire . tape 20-1 , 1977, pp. 281-291 .