Laugerie-Haute
The Abri von Laugerie-Haute is one of the most important archaeological sites in France for the classification of the Upper Upper Palaeolithic . It contains a sequence of layers of the Gravettian (Upper Périgordien ), Solutréens , Badegouliens and Magdalenian .
Geographical location
The abri, open to the southeast, is located about two kilometers upstream from Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil ( Dordogne department ) on the right bank of the Vézère . Compared to Laugerie-Basse it is a little further upstream, hence the differentiation in French. Basse (lower) and Haute (upper). The steep face consists of flat-lying limestone from the Coniacium . Immediately between the rock face and the river runs the D 47 coming from Périgueux , from which the site cannot be seen. The total length of the rock overhang is about 180 meters, with a depth of 10 meters. However, the investigation area is only 132 meters in length, since towards the end of Magdalenian III (around 14,000 BC) collapsing rock overhangs partially buried the settlement area. These tumbled rocks allow archaeologists today to divide them into Laugerie-Haute Est and Laugerie-Haute Ouest . The border marks a house built in the 17th century ("Castle" Chapoulie), which uses the rock as a back wall. At the southwest end of the rock face are the ruins of the Fournier house. With an estimated depth of 35 meters, Laugerie-Haute may have been one of the most impressive abysses in France before it collapsed.
The Stone Age settlement was not limited to the actual Abri, but extended under the current road to the river.
Research history
The research on the large Abri of Laugerie-Haute began in 1863 when Édouard Lartet and Henry Christy discovered laurel tips of the Solutréen here during their excavations in the Dordogne department . In 1892 E. Massenat and Paul Girot undertook further explorations, which were continued in 1895 by Louis Capitan . In 1901 Louis Capitan, Henri Breuil and Denis Peyrony managed to uncover a level from the Lower Magdalenian with raclette tips . Further excavations were carried out by Otto Hauser from 1907 . Some of the finds have been sold to the Prehistory and Protohistory Collection of the University of Erlangen and are available as a catalog.
Research was resumed between 1921 and 1925. At Peyrony's instigation, Laugerie-Haute became state property in 1921, with the exception of the area near the Fournier house, which remained privately owned. The excavations of Denis Peyrony and his son Elie during these years led to a first detailed publication.
Further excavations followed in the years 1955–1958 by François Bordes in Laugerie-Haute Est and 1959–1960 together with Philip Smith in Laugerie-Haute Ouest. From 1967 to 1988 Geneviève Guichard carried out excavations.
Stratigraphy and Age
For a knowledge of the Upper Paleolithic, Laugerie-Haute is of crucial importance. The cultural epochs represented range from the Upper Périgordia to the beginning of the Upper Magdalenian and span roughly the period from 22,000 years to 13,000 years BP . In terms of time, the Laugerie-Haute deposits follow those present in La Ferrassie and Abri Pataud .
A total of 42 locations could be distinguished in the eastern section - outgoing Périgordien, Solutréen , Badegoulien , as well as the first half from the Magdalenian. The old collections also include Upper Magdalenian V and VI documents. The western section contains 12 layers that encompass the entire Solutréen.
Denis Peyrony created the first stratigraphy of the site during his excavations in the 1920s. This basic sequence of layers was modified by François Bordes and Philipp Smith and thus made even more meaningful (from hanging to lying ):
- Magdalenian III: Layer 3-1 (Est)
- Magdalenian II: Layer 8-4 (Est)
- Magdalenian I: Layer 17-9 (Est)
- Magdalenian 0: Layer 20-18 (Est)
- End-Solutréen: Layer 23-21 (Est), 3-1 (Ouest)
- Upper Solutréen: Layer 28-25 (Est), 7-4 (Ouest)
- Middle Solutréen: Layer 30-29 (Est), 11-8 (Ouest)
- Lower Solutréen: Layer 32-31 (Est), 12 (Ouest)
- Aurignacien V: layers 35-33
- Proto-Magdalenian: Layer 37-36 (Est)
- Périgordien VI (= Gravettien ): Layer 42-38 (Est)
Finds from the younger Magdalenian as well as the Azilien in the uppermost layers are limited to short stays in the abri, which was destroyed by rockfalls. By correlating the lower layers with the Abri Pataud (where Aurignacien , Gravettien and Solutréen are present), the entire cultural sequence of the Upper Palaeolithic can be documented for the Dordogne on the basis of the two sites.
The "Laugerie-Intermédiaire" site
Otto Hauser only referred to the eastern part of the Abris (Laugerie-Haute Est) as Laugerie-Haute, the western part (Laugerie-Haute Ouest), however, as "Laugerie-Intermédiaire". He wanted to express that it is a separate settlement that lies between Laugerie-Haute and Laugerie-Basse .
Here in 1914 Hauser discovered a so-called “sacrificial site”, a 15-meter-long and 8-meter-wide oval square surrounded by large stone blocks. There was a fireplace in the center. Artifacts and jewelry point the findings to Magdalenian III-IV (Middle Magdalenian). Because of some parts of the skull with horns and the rich jewelry (including many stones with engraved animals), Hauser interpreted the square as a place of worship for a “priest of the primeval world”. He literally writes:
“There were dozens of pieces of jewelry in the immediate vicinity: dainty pierced teeth, pierced stones and bone pendants, rock crystal pearls, ... needles, ocher, cult sticks - a rich jewelry that a chief of the clan might have put down by the sacred fire. Or was it the parament, the priest's equipment? "
From today's point of view, this interpretation lacks the necessary distance, since a separation into cultic depositions and remains of human food seems to be made very arbitrarily. After all, the area is of outstanding importance due to the border with engraved boulders and slabs, and a conscious composition of the same as the delimitation of the area with the fireplace seems conceivable.
Prof. Dr. Leo Gerlach , founder of the Erlangen “Anthropological-Prehistoric University Collection”, acquired a large part of the finds from the so-called “sacrificial site” in 1914. When Otto Hauser had to leave his residence in Les Eyzies in 1914, the stone blocks and all the excavation documentation were left behind. They have since been considered lost.
Climate history
Due to the relatively long period of around 10,000 years, the deposits in Laugerie-Haute reflect several climatic oscillations that were examined more closely by H. Laville . The beginning of the deposits falls in the ending Würm glacial period , interrupted by the warmer, more humid Laugerie-Interstadial , named after Laugerie-Haute . With the beginning of the Magdalenian period there was renewed warming (Lascaux-Interstadial) , which was then followed by the cooling of the Older Dryas . The Elder Dryas was interrupted by two warmer sections (Pre-Bölling-Interstadial and Bölling-Interstadial ).
Cabaret
In Laugerie-Haute Est, a large number of small works of art from central Magdalenian were found in all the excavation campaigns . Most of these are kept in the National Prehistoric Museum ( Musée national de Préhistoire ) in Les Eyzies . The Prehistory and Early History Collection of the University of Erlangen shows some of the organic artifacts with cabaret sold by Otto Hauser on his homepage. These include a perforated stick with three horse engravings made of reindeer antlers, a reindeer antler stick depicting a wolf and a hybrid being (snake and / or phallus ) as well as various bone artifacts with geometric patterns. Complex scenes are typical of minor art of the middle and younger Magdalenian period.
Finds
Overall, the finds in Laugerie-Haute are not as rich as in Laugerie-Basse or La Madeleine . In addition to the examples already mentioned above, the following are worth mentioning:
- A 30 centimeter deeply engraved gneiss rubble from Périgordien VII. The motif is not visible.
- A pierced rod made from reindeer bones , also from Périgordien VII. Two pairs of mammoths facing each other can be seen in a rather shallow relief work . This motif is also present in Rouffignac .
- An outline made from reindeer bones from the Solutréen is said to represent a big cat according to F. Bordes , a unique find for this epoch.
- A skeleton find from the Magdalenian at the southwest end near the House of Fournier.
- A block of limestone from Otto Hauser's excavation rubble, in which the head of a musk ox was engraved - also very unusual.
UNESCO world heritage
Since 1979, Laugerie-Haute has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with other important sites in the Vézère Valley .
literature
- François Bordes: Le Protomagdalénien de Laugerie-Haute-Est . In: Bulletin de la Societe Prehistorique Francaise 75 . ISSN 0037-9514 , p. 501-521 .
- François Bordes: Nouvelles fouilles à Laugerie-Haute Est: premiers résultats . In: L'Anthropologie . tape 62 (3-4) , 1958, pp. 205-244 .
- Denis and Elie Peyrony: Laugerie-Haute près des Eyzies (Dordogne) (= Mémoire des archives de l'Institut de Paléontologie . Volume 19 ). Masson, 1938, ISSN 0373-6180 .
- Hans Geer: Unpublished complexes of finds from Otto Hauser's excavations in the Prehistory and Early History Collection of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. A contribution to the study of classical stations of the Paleolithic in south-west France. Dissertation Erlangen, 1972, PDF download (330 MB).
- Otto Hauser: Man 100,000 years ago. Leipzig 1917, pp. 86-91.
- Karin Kurz: Complex representations on small works of art of the Magdalenian. In: People of the Ice Age: Hunters - Craftsmen - Artists. Edited by Leif Steguweit, Fürth (Praehistorika) 2008, pp. 83–91, ISBN 978-3-937852-01-0 , ( PDF download ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Geer: Unpublished complexes of finds from Otto Hauser's excavations in the Prehistory and Early History Collection of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. A contribution to the study of classical stations of the Paleolithic in south-west France. Dissertation Erlangen, 1972, PDF download (330 MB).
- ^ Peyrony, D. & E. Peyrony: Laugerie-Haute près des Eyzies (Dordogne). AIPH, mémoire 19, 1938, 86 pp.
- ^ François Bordes: Nouvelles fouilles à Laugerie-Haute. Premier results. In: L'Anthropologie, 1958, pp. 205-244.
- ^ Laugerie-Intermédiaire - A place of sacrifice of the Magdalenian? . University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Archived from the original on June 11, 2007. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
- ↑ Otto Hauser: Man 100,000 years ago. Leipzig 1917, pp. 86-91.
- ↑ Laugerie-Haute Collection, University of Erlangen
- ↑ Karin Kurz: Complex representations on small works of art of the Magdalenian. In: People of the Ice Age: Hunters - Craftsmen - Artists. Edited by Leif Steguweit, Fürth (Praehistorika) 2008, pp. 83–91, ISBN 978-3-937852-01-0 ( PDF download ).
Coordinates: 44 ° 57 ′ 11.5 ″ N , 1 ° 0 ′ 12 ″ E
