Grotte de Montgaudier
| Grotte de Montgaudier
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 Cave interior |
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| Location: | Charente department , France | |
| Height : | 100 m | |
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Geographic location: |
45 ° 40 ′ 3 " N , 0 ° 28 ′ 11" E | |
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| Geology: | Jurassic Limestone | |
| Discovery: | before 1850 | |
| Overall length: | > 20 metres | |
The cave Grotte de Montgaudier is located in the municipality of Montbron in the Charente department ( Nouvelle-Aquitaine region ). It was inhabited by people from the Old Paleolithic ( Moustérien ) to the Upper Palaeolithic ( Magdalenian ). In it, bones of wild animals, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens were discovered - accompanied by numerous stone and bone tools, as well as art objects and petroglyphs .
location
The Grotte de Montgaudier is located on the western border of the municipality of Montbron to the neighboring municipality of Vouthon , 27 kilometers east of Angoulême . It is only 5 kilometers from the border with the Dordogne (municipality of Varaignes ) and 13.5 kilometers to the Haute-Vienne (municipality of Maisonnais-sur-Tardoire ) in the northeast. The cave opening is located 100 meters above sea level in a steep wall on the left side of the Tardoire valley at the foot of the Château de Montgaudier .
geology
The cave was formed in flat-lying carbonate sediments of the Aquitaine Basin , which line the river valley of the Tardoire on both sides. Due to the extensive recrystallization of the rock, however, it is difficult to make a clear stratigraphic assignment, but it is very likely to be the lower Bajocian ( Dogger ). The river valley is filled with Holocene alluvium - mainly sands and brick-red clays with pebbles made of quartz, quartzite, granite and limestone fragments.
history
Several excavations were carried out in the cave. The oldest, under the direction of Édouard Lartet, go back to before 1850. It was followed by the Marquis de Vibraye, Tremeau de Rochebrune, the Abbot Bourgeois and the Abbot Delaunay, Fermond, Albert Gaudry from 1867 to 1886 and several others until 1959. At the request of the paleontologist Jean Piveteau , Louis Duport resumed the excavations in 1966. He took stock of examinations that had already been carried out, classified and rationalized existing findings and took care of the preservation of finds. But he also carried out new campaigns himself - either on his own or in collaboration with other researchers. In 1974 Louis Duport discovered the lower jaw of a young Neanderthal man whose age was probably between 12 and 14½ years.
The site has been registered as a protected object since 1942.
description
- Grotte de Montgaudier
Stephanorhinus
Plan of the grotto with the different positions; by Gaudry and Debenath.
Beveled burin
Drawing of the perforated rod
The Grotte de Montgaudier is made up of abrises and caves with a complex topographical arrangement. A 13 meter wide and 10 meter high entrance portal ( Grande Porche ) gives access to a cave opening that is more than 20 meters long.
The L'Etage is likely to be caused by the incurred excavation debris. It is dominated by Abri Lartet in the west and Abri Gaudry and Abri Paignon in the east on the Tardoire side .
Gaudry's plan drawing from 1880 shows a small wall at the portal height, which has now disappeared. The early excavations all ended at this wall. This is where position 12 is located, which was excavated by Louis Duport between 1983 and 1984 after explorations had found a location in the Magdalenian region. Position 11 is 3 meters in front of position 12 - in a meadow in front of the entrance portal. It hides a former river bed of the Tardoire and also makes it clear that the protruding part of the vault must have collapsed long after the Magdalenians were present.
Stratigraphy of the interior of the cave
In the entrance portal (positions 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6) up to 30 sedimentary layers can be distinguished. Their exact assignment is made difficult by the numerous excavations and their rubble, as well as by boulders that have fallen from the ceiling. The cave floor could be dated to 80,000 years ago. In the Abri Lartet (position 4) there are 6 layers above a stone floor, the Moustérien takes its correct position here. The Abri Gaudry on the Tardoire side is made up of 9 layers. Layers 1 and 2 consist of Upper Magdalenian. Location 5 is also still Upper Palaeolithic and possibly represents Aurignacia . A fireplace on the Tardoire side is assigned to the Moustérien des Quina type. Positions 8 and 9 also belong to the Abri Gaudry , but position 10 to the Abri Paignon . Position 12 in front of the entrance portal consists of 4 layers, where layer 2 is assigned to the Magdalenian and layer 4 to the Périgordian .
Fauna encountered
A sounding at position 12 under the entrance portal came across the bones of numerous wild animals, which were examined in 1985 by Jean-François Tournepiche. Among them were herbivores such as domestic horse ( Equus caballus ), European wild ass ( European Ass ), wild boar ( Sus scrofa ), deer ( Cervidae ), capreolinae ( Capreolinae ) and fallow deer ( Dama dama ) and the carnivores cave lion ( Panthera spelaea ), Eurasian wolf ( Canis lupus lupus ), spotted hyena ( Crocuta crocuta ), cave bear ( Ursus spelaeus ) and arctic fox ( Vulpes lagopus ).
Bone dating with the C-14 method showed 12,820 years ago, which corresponds to the Magdalenian or the outgoing Alleröd interstadial . Reindeer bone fragments can be found in the Abri Lartet . The Grotte de Montgaudier is one of the sites where the saiga antelope ( Saiga tatarica ) occurs. Location 13 in the entrance portal also featured an archaic fauna with the Deninger cave bear ( Ursus deningeri ), a precursor of the cave bear , as well as spotted hyena ( Crocuta crocuta intermedia ) and above all the steppe rhinoceros ( Stephanorhinus hemitoechus ).
Presence of people
The cave was inhabited from Moustérien to Magdalenian. In the outgoing Solutréen people stayed in the Abri Paignon , but otherwise only used the cave as a stage. In 1974 a fragment of a lower jaw from a young Neanderthal man was discovered. His age should have been between 12 and 14½ years. He probably lived towards the end of the last ice age. But it is also conceivable that the lower jaw fell down from the Abri Lartet above - and should therefore have been placed in the Moustérien.
In 1988, Louis Duport discovered an unworn molar tooth at position 12 that belonged to an eight-year-old child. As is still common today, it has five humps. However, its crown is much more voluminous and should therefore come from the Middle Magdalenian.
Two skulls of Homo sapiens were found in the Abri Gaudry in 1968 , dated to Magdalenian V or VI. They were very well preserved and belonged to a young adult and a child between the ages of 8 and 12. Another skull fragment came from the Magdalenian layer in the Abri Paignon .
Tools and Artifacts
Neolithic
An ax blade and a bowl have survived from the Neolithic . The occurrence of a vase of the bell-beaker culture made of black clay, decorated with striped ribbons, has been described in detail in a scientific publication.
Magdalenian
The Magdalenian stone artifacts included scrapers and knives. The Abri Paignon yielded blades and a thorn and also contained a 1.35 x 1.15 meter fireplace, underlaid by several layers of gravel in which scratched platelets were found. Tools also served as burins and needles made from bone, a piece of ivory for polishing and as a weapon an ivory spearhead with a conical shaft. Layer 2 at position 12 was very rich in stone and bone artifacts, including again spearheads and a full harpoon with two rows of barbs.
Solutréen
So far only very poor finds have been made from the Solutréen , which do not justify permanent habitation of the cave in this epoch. A fragment of a notch tip and a notch tip of the Placard type were found, but the willow leaf tips characteristic of Solutréen were missing .
Gravettias
Layer 4 in front of the Abri Paignon at position 6 delivered 650 artifacts from the Gravettia . These included 72 tools, 2 simple scrapers, 3 more scrapers (one associated with a burin), 4 drills and 42 burins. Half of the burins consisted of beveled and the other half of shortened, retouched burins; there were also a multiple burin and a Noailles burin . There was also a fragment of a bone spearhead and an engraved bone. The middle Gravettia in the facies Noaillien or Rayssien is indicated by Noailles graver
Périgordia
Only a few objects came from the Périgordia . They were all found in layer 4 of position 12. They are either of autochthonous origin or were brought in from the Abri Paignon .
Aurignacia
The aurignacia is represented only by a notched curved stylus and a few other objects that come from layer 5 on the Tardoire side.
Moustérien
Quite a number of artifacts have survived from the Moustérien . In the Abri Lartet, 3,144 items were collected, including 402 tools. The tools are 80% scrapers - including transverse scrapers, common right-handed scrapers, tapered base scrapers, tapered back scrapers, simple convex scrapers, and discarded scrapers. They are typical of the Charente Moustérien with the facies Ferrassie and La Quina. Two tools had been made from the ribs of a large animal. The 30 square meter floor in the Abri Lartet had been laid out with small stones and had a fireplace. On the Tardoire side there was another fireplace where a Quina-type Moustérien was found.
Acheuleans
Layer 13 in the entrance portal contained rubble devices with flint residues that were related to the chopper . It is older than the Riss glaciation and can therefore be placed on the Acheuléen .
Cave art
In 1978, a block that had fallen from the ceiling was uncovered, on which a cow surrounded by several characters was engraved. This points to Style III of Magdalenian.
Works of art
Middle Magdalenian
From the Abri Paignon comes a sandstone block of Magdalenian engraved on both sides. On one side you can see reindeer, a bison and the head of a big cat, while the other side is decorated with a salmon. Pieces of jewelery are a hanger made of worked bones - dated 13,320 years before today - as well as the pierced incisor of a horse, on the inside of which triangles are incised.
Outgoing Magdalenian
In 1886 an engraved perforated stick ( command stick ) of the Magdalenian was discovered in the Grotte de Montgaudier . It consists of the antlers of a reindeer, is 30 centimeters long, has a circular hole and finely worked incised drawings. According to Gaudry, two seals and a fish are depicted on one side. The seals' hair, mustache and eyes are easy to spot. The fish is either a salmon or a trout. The other side is decorated with eels.
The perforated rod was accompanied by carved pieces of ivory. At position 12, Louis Duport found a pierced bone adorned with a frieze of three horses. The discovery of a pierced reindeer antler with two ibex heads is also worth mentioning. A geometric pattern on bones could be classified in the outgoing Magdalenian. Pierced shells and a piece of a reindeer antler bone pierced in the center served as jewelry.
literature
- G. Le Pochat et al .: Montbron . In: Carte géologique de la France at 1/50 000 . BRGM, 1986.
Individual evidence
- ↑ André Debénath: Néandertaliens et Cro-Magnons, les temps glaciaires dans le bassin de la Charente . Le Croît Vif, 2006, ISBN 2-916104-00-3 .
- ^ Étienne Patte: Le vase campaniforme de la grotte de Montgaudier à Montbron (Charente) . In: Bulletin de la société préhistorique française . V 74, n ° 6, 1977, p. 190-192 .
- ^ Albert de Nadaillac: La Grotte de Mongaudier . In: CR Académie des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres . Vol 31, n ° 1, 1887, p. 42-49 .
- ↑ Jean Airvaux: L'art préhistorique du Poitou-Charentes . ed la maison des roches, 2002, ISBN 2-912691-13-3 .
