Orgnac 3

44.320388888889 4.4020277777778Coordinates: 44 ° 19 ′ 13 ″ N , 4 ° 24 ′ 7 ″ E

Orgnac 3

Stone tools from the Orgnac site 3

Orgnac 3 is an archaeological site of around 600 square meters in the municipality of Orgnac-l'Aven ( Département Ardèche ) in southeast France , on a plateau above the Cèze .

In the early Paleolithic , Orgnac 3 was a cave , the ceiling of which partially collapsed as a result of soil erosion, so that the remaining covered area existed around 350,000 years ago and in the Middle Paleolithic as an abri . Later the rest of the cave roof collapsed and the depression was gradually filled in completely by various deposits. In 1956 stone tools were found near the former cave - on the site of a charcoal burner - that could be assigned to the Jung-Acheuléen . Excavations that then took place in 1959 and 1962 brought evidence of settlement in the Middle Paleolithic. Between 1964 and 1972, further excavations under the direction of Jean Combier revealed evidence of a total of at least eight layers of settlement . The oldest of these layers is also the oldest known in the Ardèche area.

Numerous animal bones were found in the lowest layers of the former 40 meter long karst cave - the remains of animals that presumably fell through a hole in the cave ceiling and perished inside the cave. Around 350,000 years ago ( oxygen isotope level MIS 9 / beginning of MIS 8) the collapsed cave - the canopy of the Abri - was also used as a shelter by Homo heidelbergensis for the first time . Around 300,000 years ago, the deepening of the former cave was then completely filled with sediment : a last layer of settlement was detected in the area of the top filling layer.

The stone tools found in the different levels of settlement allowed conclusions to be drawn about the development and refinement of the Levallois technique among the ancestors of the Neanderthals and their hunting prey, as the bones of horses and cattle were also found along with the stone tools.

literature

Samir Khatib: Le site d'Orgnac 3 (Ardèche, France). Étude sédimentologique et géochimique. Cadre chronologique et évolution paleoclimatique. Dissertation. Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris 1989, full text (PDF; 18.6 MB)

Web links

Orgnac 3 in the Museum of Prehistory Orgnac On: orgnac.com , accessed September 7, 2015

Individual evidence

↑ Marie-Hélène Moncel et al .: Pre-Neandertal behavior during isotopic stage 9 and the beginning of stage 8. New data concerning fauna and lithics in the different occupation levels of orgnac 3 (Ardèche, South-East France): occupation types. In: Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 32, No. 9, 2005, pp. 1283-1301, doi: 10.1016 / j.jas.2005.03.014
^ Marie-Hélène Moncel et al .: Towards the Middle Palaeolithic in Western Europe: the case of Orgnac 3 (southeastern France). In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 63, No. 5, 2012, pp. 653-666, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2012.08.001
↑ Véronique Michel et al .: Les derniers Homo heidelbergensis et leurs descendants les néandertaliens: datation des sites d'Orgnac 3, du Lazaret et de Zafarraya. In: Comptes Rendus Palevol. Volume 10, No. 7, 2011, pp. 577-587, abstract
↑ Samir Khatib: Datation des cendres volcaniques et analyzes geochimiques du remplissage d'Orgnac 3 (Ardèche, France). In: Quaternaire. Volume 5, No. 1, 1994, pp. 113-22, full text
^ Marie-Hélène Moncel et al .: The Emergence of Neanderthal Technical Behavior: New Evidence from Orgnac 3 (Level 1, MIS 8), Southeastern France. In: Current Anthropology Volume 52, No. 1, 2011, doi: 10.1086 / 658179 , full text
↑ Youcef Sam: Orgnac 3 (Ardèche, France): Mode d'exploitation des grands mammifères par les anténéanderthaliens durant les stades isotopiques 9 à 8. In: BoneCommons. Item # 1514, http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/bonecommons/items/show/1514 ( Memento from December 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) full text]

[1] Marie-Hélène Moncel et al .: Pre-Neandertal behavior during isotopic stage 9 and the beginning of stage 8. New data concerning fauna and lithics in the different occupation levels of orgnac 3 (Ardèche, South-East France): occupation types. In: Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 32, No. 9, 2005, pp. 1283-1301, doi: 10.1016 / j.jas.2005.03.014

[2] Marie-Hélène Moncel et al .: Towards the Middle Palaeolithic in Western Europe: the case of Orgnac 3 (southeastern France). In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 63, No. 5, 2012, pp. 653-666, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2012.08.001

[3] Véronique Michel et al .: Les derniers Homo heidelbergensis et leurs descendants les néandertaliens: datation des sites d'Orgnac 3, du Lazaret et de Zafarraya. In: Comptes Rendus Palevol. Volume 10, No. 7, 2011, pp. 577-587, abstract

[4] Samir Khatib: Datation des cendres volcaniques et analyzes geochimiques du remplissage d'Orgnac 3 (Ardèche, France). In: Quaternaire. Volume 5, No. 1, 1994, pp. 113-22, full text

[5] Marie-Hélène Moncel et al .: The Emergence of Neanderthal Technical Behavior: New Evidence from Orgnac 3 (Level 1, MIS 8), Southeastern France. In: Current Anthropology Volume 52, No. 1, 2011, doi: 10.1086 / 658179 , full text

[6] Youcef Sam: Orgnac 3 (Ardèche, France): Mode d'exploitation des grands mammifères par les anténéanderthaliens durant les stades isotopiques 9 à 8. In: BoneCommons. Item # 1514, http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/bonecommons/items/show/1514 ( Memento from December 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) full text]