La Souquette (Abri)
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The Abri de la Souquette is one of eleven archaeological sites between Montignac and Les Eyzies-de-Tayac in the Vézère valley , in the scattered community of Sergeac in the French Dordogne .
West of Sergeac, on the left bank of the Vézère, opens a small side valley called Vallon des Roches or Vallon de Castelmerle . In this valley there are a total of nine abrises belonging to the Castel-Merle complex, including Abri Reverdit , Roc d'Acier , Abri Labattut , Partie Vierge and Abri Castanet . The valley has the greatest density of such sites in Europe. In an area of 300 square meters there are eleven Paleolithic sites from the Moustérien to the Magdalenien .
Neanderthals lived in the valley around 85,000 years ago and Cro-Magnon people around 35,000 years ago . The Neanderthals left stone tools from the Moustérien under the Blanchard II and Merveile abrises as the only evidence of their presence. These abrises face the north and are sunnier than the others. The reasons for choosing a seat are unknown. The Cro-Magnons settled in the Vallon de Castelmerle about 35,000 years ago . They took possession of all abrises. However, the data does not make it possible to determine whether all were used at the same time. The Abri was still used in the Middle Ages .
The Abri de la Souquette is about 16.0 m long and 5.0 m deep. It was excavated by the Abbe Landesque in 1902 and by Marcel Castanet in 1903. Between 1911 and 1912 it was badly damaged by excavations carried out by Otto Hauser (1874–1932). Marcel Castanet bought it in 1918 and in 1938 F. Delage carried out further research. Here a workshop was discovered with an extraordinary number of pearls at various stages of manufacture. They were made of mammoth ivory and steatite . Animal teeth and perforated sea shells were also found. The abrises became known in 2012 when American researchers estimated the age of an engraved block to be 37,000 years.
literature
- Christine Dubourg, Jean-Marc Bouvier, René Castanet: Un bloc gravé de l'abri de la Souquette (Sergeac - Dordogne): une nouvelle figuration d'antilope Saïga . In: Paléo, Revue d'Archéologie Préhistorique , Vol. 1994, No. 6, pp. 247-259. ( Full text at Persée )
- John F. O'Hara, Randall White, Zenobie S. Garett, Tom Higham , Alain Roussot: Le site aurignacien de l'abri de la Souquette (commune de Sergeac, Dordogne): son histoire archéologique , in: Randall White, Raphaëlle Bourillon : Aurignacian Genius. Art, technology et société des premiers hommes modern en Europe. P @ lethnologie, vol. 2015, pp. 99–118, ( online )
Web links
- Description, sketches and pictures (French)
Coordinates: 45 ° 0 '2.2 " N , 1 ° 5' 56.8" E