La Ferrassie
La Ferrassie is an archaeological archaeological site in the Dordogne in France and belongs to the vicinity of the Franco-Cantabrian cave art . Under the rock roof of the rock shelters were layers with artifacts of Micoquian , Mousterian , Aurignacian and Gravettian found. The very well-preserved fossil La Ferrassie 1 , the skeleton of a 50-year-old man who was buried here approximately 50,000 years ago, is of great importance for research into the Neanderthal , as well as references to burial rituals.
history
The site was discovered by chance towards the end of the 19th century when the D 32 was being expanded. It quickly attracted the attention of lovers of prehistory and early history, such as Denis Peyrony , who had been digging here with Louis Capitan since August 1896 . Between 1909 and 1921, Peyrony came across several tombs with Neanderthals. Capitan then acquired the site in 1923 to later bequeath it to the French state. To refine the stratigraphic sequence, Henri Delporte subjected La Ferrassie to a meticulous re-examination between 1968 and 1973.
Location description
La Ferrassie belongs to the municipality of Savignac-de-Miremont and is located in a small right-hand side valley of the Vézère about 5 kilometers north of Le Bugue . The site has three different sites, a cave, a small Abri and the large, famous Abri. The large Abri faces south and is right next to the D 32.
At the beginning of the excavations, the large abri was completely filled with a 10-meter-thick succession of sediments. By the end of the work, Peyrony had uncovered 100 square meters and reached the rock face. For later investigations he left two reference profiles, one perpendicular and one parallel to the wall.
stratigraphy
The approximately 10 meter thick sequence contains layers from the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic . It was of crucial importance for the definition of the individual stone tool industries of the Upper Paleolithic ( Châtelperronien , Aurignacien and Gravettien ).
The industries discovered at the base became the type locality for the Moustérien des Ferrassie type , a facies of the Middle Paleolithic, characterized by relatively thin levallois flakes , numerous scrapers and points, relatively rare serrated blades and the lack of hand axes . The Neanderthals were found in these areas of the Moustérie (see below).
The Mousterian are some documents that already the Châtelperronian be attributed covered by a significant level from the Aurignacian , which can be divided as follows (from top to bottom):
- Aurignacien II - diamond-shaped arrowheads, curved drills and the first appearance of incised drawings on stone blocks (with the primary representation of female genital organs).
- Aurignacien I - arrowheads with split base, keel-shaped scratches and pinched blades.
- Aurignacia 0.
The sequence is crowned by several layers from the Gravettia .
Finds
Originally seven skeletons of Neanderthals (1 man, 1 woman, 4 children and a fetus) in the stratum of the Moustérien form the prehistoric character of this place, as they represent the oldest Neanderthal burials in Europe. The adults - a 50-year-old man from the epoch 54,000 to 40,000 years ago and a 25 to 35-year-old woman - lay head to head in east-west oriented trenches at the west end. A little further to the right lay a ten-year-old child, a fetus and a newborn baby, perhaps 15 days old, also buried in trenches.
There were three empty trenches at the front edge of the grotto, and eight tumuli behind them . A toddler about seven months old was buried under one of these mounds. In the right part of the abyss six large depressions were discovered, in one of which there were the remains of a three-year-old child. The skull of this child had been cut off, deposited under a stone slab with indentations . It is therefore considered a possible evidence of human sacrifice among the Neanderthals.
Finally, while working behind the mounds of earth, Henri Delporte brought to light another two-year-old toddler.
In addition to the skeleton finds, the already mentioned engravings and remains of paintings were also discovered.
In the upper part of the sequence of layers one came across cultural legacies and human remains of the Cro-Magnon man . The stratigraphy of La Ferrassie was therefore important for the hierarchy of the Aurignacien .
In 1979 the latest burial find of a Neanderthal man was made at Roche à Pierrot near Saint-Césaire in southern France - with pearls made from mussels as an addition. Burials that have been known for a long time, all under Abris, come from La Chapelle-aux-Saints , Le Moustier and Le Régourdou .
geology
The sedimentary sequence at La Ferrassie provided new evidence for the continental environmental conditions prevailing in southwest France during the exit of marine isotope stage MIS3 and the onset of MIS2 . Cyclical sediment sequences interrupted by soil horizons can be recognized, which can possibly be assigned to Dansgaard-Oeschger climate cycles . In general, the soil horizons towards the hanging wall lose their thickness, but inorganic sedimentation and frost phenomena are becoming increasingly important. Between 38,129 and 32,322 years BC BC (35,000 to 30,000 radiocarbon years ) originated in the lying Cambisole , which can be associated with significant clay weathering processes and decalcification . The Cambisole are then in the period 32,322 to 30,524 BC. Chr. (30,000 to 28,000 radiocarbon years) replaced by simple, carbonate-rich humus layers . At the beginning of MIS2 around 25,600 B.C. There is a fundamental change in the formation of the slope debris : the previous debris accumulations, caused by intensive lessivation due to snowfall , are now giving way to solifluction lobes girded with rock debris , as they are characteristic of semi-desert-like, periglacial conditions.
literature
- Denis Peyrony: La Ferrassie: Moustérien-Périgordien-Aurignacien . In: Préhistoire . 1934, p. 1-143 .
- Le grand abri de la Ferrassie. Fouilles 1968-1973 . In: Henri Delporte u. a. (Ed.): Études quaternaires. Geology, paleontologie, préhistoire, 7 . Laboratoire de paleontologie humaine et de préhistoire, Paris 1984, ISBN 2-85399-034-6 .
- B. Maureille: Les premières sépultures . Le Pommier / Cité des sciences et de l'industrie, 2004, ISBN 2-7465-0203-8 .
- Michael M. Rind : Human sacrifice. From the cult of cruelty. 2nd edition . In: Culture and History . Universitäts-Verlag, Regensburg 1998, ISBN 3-930480-64-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
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^ Asier Gómez-Olivencia et al .: La Ferrassie 1: New perspectives on a “classic” Neandertal. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 117, 2018, pp. 13–32, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2017.12.004
New technology reveals secrets of famous Neandertal skeleton La Ferrassie 1. On: eurekalert.org of March 27, 2018 - ↑ P. Bertran u. a .: Continental palaeoenvironments during MIS 2 and 3 in southwestern France: the La Ferrassie rockshelter record . In: Quaternary Science Reviews . tape 27, 21-22 , 2008, pp. 2048-2063 .
Coordinates: 44 ° 57 ′ 6.5 ″ N , 0 ° 56 ′ 17 ″ E