Limeuil (site)
The Upper Paleolithic site of Limeuil in the French Dordogne department is famous for its numerous engraved stone slabs from Magdalenian .
Geography, geology and description of the location
The Limeuil site is located in the middle of the medieval center of Limeuil, at the confluence of the Vézère and Dordogne rivers . The hunters of the late Upper Palaeolithic had settled here below a small limestone massif of flat coniacium that dominated the estuary .
The deposit extends around 30 meters along a slope below two Kallkausbisse. This is an outdoor settlement area, which later also included the immediate area of the partly overhanging rocks.
Research history
The level of the archaeological layer was accidentally unearthed during earthworks on Léo Bélanger's bakery . As a result, Jean Bouyssonie, a prehistoric from Brive , was commissioned by the then Ministry of Science with excavation work, which he carried out between 1909 and 1913. This work turned out to be very difficult because the existing building fabric had to be respected.
stratigraphy
The find layer comes from Magdalenian VI.
Finds
The stone artefacts are of Sticheln dominated, including some parrotbill ( double. Burins bec-de-perroquet ). Among the bone tools were two-tier harpoons . Engravings on bones and reindeer horn were characteristic of the epoch . Among the works of art, for example, a pierced rod decorated with reindeer and fish. On other pieces there were bison , wild horses and, as a very rare specialty, even a fox .
Like comparable works from the Teyjat cave, the engravings have very fine lines and an almost photographic nature. As in Teyjat, in Limeuil the images of deer and reindeer clearly predominate (50% of the images), followed by wild horses (around 30%), aurochs , bison and ibex . Also enter two bears and a fox.
meaning
The originality of Limeuil is based on almost two hundred engraved limestone slabs of various sizes. Jean Bouyssonie has published over a hundred of them. According to André Leroi-Gourhan, the sheer number of these records suggests the existence of a sacred area, a kind of “artist's workshop”, or even a kind of “academy”.
For the first time in Limeuil, the ground between the extremities of the animals depicted was shown with a thick line.
Age
The Limeuil deposit dates from Magdalenian VI and was therefore inhabited around 12,000 years ago .
literature
- Delluc, B. & G., Roussot, A. & Roussot-Larroque, J .: Connaître la préhistoire en Périgord . Éditions SUD-OUEST, 1990, ISBN 2-87901-048-9 .
Coordinates: 44 ° 53 ′ 0 ″ N , 0 ° 53 ′ 18 ″ E