Roc-de-Sers
| Roc-de-Sers
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 Access to the site |
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| Location: | Charente department , France | |
| Height : | 130 m | |
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Geographic location: |
45 ° 34 '30 " N , 0 ° 19' 46" E | |
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| Geology: | Turonium | |
| Type: | Two caves combined with a former abri | |
| Discovery: | 1907 | |
Roc-de-Sers is a site of the Upper Paleolithic in the French commune of Sers , Charente department . In addition to tools from Aurignaciens, it contains parietal art from the Solutréen .
Geography and geology
The prehistoric site is located in the Forêt d'Horte between the hamlets of Le Coussad (e) au and Charbontière in the immediate vicinity of Le Roc - just under 3 kilometers south of the center of Sers on the southern edge of the municipality. It is located between several abrises on the right side of a right side arm of the Échelle , about 200 meters from its mouth.
Access to the southeast-facing site is 130 meters above sea level . The rock is flat-lying Rudist limestone of the Angoumiens (the so-called Angoulême formation from the Upper Cretaceous - Turonium ), which forms steep walls in the area with demolitions and partly tree-covered breaks.
description
The site is made up of three sub-areas over a distance of 20 meters:
- The Grotte du Roc or site de l'habitat to the northwest.
- The Abri de l'atélier solutréen .
- The Grotte de la Vierge cave in the southeast.
Traces of settlement from the Solutréen were found in all three areas. The most important is undoubtedly the Abri, as the remains of the famous frieze lay on its floor.
Access
As access path leading through the Échelletal, from the south of used Rougnac coming D 87. About the running further to the north D 4, at Garat in the major route D 939 of Périgueux to Angoulême opens, there are a total of 15 km to Angoulême.
history
The site was discovered in 1907 by C. Bertranet, who carried out an initial exploration. In 1908 A. Favraud dug at the Grotte du Roc and came across the first, somewhat sparse remains from the Solutréen. He was followed in 1917 by Léon Henri-Martin . Between 1923 and 1932, Henri-Martin then concentrated on the area of the demolition, in which he found several broken, engraved limestone blocks in 1927. He assumed that these blocks formed part of a related frieze. A control dig in 1951 by his daughter Germaine Henri-Martin and Raymond Lantier confirmed this assumption; In addition to other relief finds, they were able to show that the rear wall and roof of the demolition had actually collapsed.
Finds
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In addition to the ubiquitous Solutréen, the site also contained stone tools from the Aurignacia , traces of settlement from the Magdalenian period, and a tomb that contained three Bronze Age human skeletons.
On the floor lay several hewn blocks that had once formed part of a frieze that belonged together on the rear wall of the demolition (a total of 13 groups of fragments were found, made up of 19 individual fragments). The blocks were between 30 and 50 centimeters high and up to 1.60 meters wide; they mostly lay with their processed side on. Some blocks were still found several meters below the rock in the rubble slope.
In a masterful execution are shown on a total of 13 lime blocks:
- 9 wild horses ,
- 5 bison (Bovide),
- 1 hybrid of a bison and a wild boar ,
- 8 ibexes ,
- 2 incomplete reindeer ,
- 2 humans (a single male and a human being pursued by a hybrid of musk ox and bison).
Another illustration shows the head of a bird. With 11 other animal depictions it cannot be decided which species they belong to. One block has red dots, there are also 4 ring representations.
The reconstructed frieze is now kept in the archaeological museum ( Musée d'Archéologie Nationale ) in Saint-Germain-en-Laye , a copy is in the cave. Opinions differ on the reconstruction shown in the museum, however; some authors prefer a different arrangement of the fragments.
stratigraphy
The settlement history of the two cave areas with the abri in between, recognizable by the stratigraphy of the deposits, can be divided into 6 phases (from young to old)
- Phase 6: Third collapse in the Abri, which is then finally abandoned and filled with sediments. The Magdalenian settlement in the Grotte de la Vierge is also coming to an end, normal sedimentation also sets in here.
- Phase 5: The Grotte de la Vierge may experience a settlement that already belongs to the Magdalenian era. At the beginning of phase 5, however, the last traces of the solutre can be found in the Abri.
- Phase 4: A second roof collapse takes place in the demolition, which prevents settlement. Towards the end of this phase, there is an initial settlement in the Grotte de la Vierge at the end of the Solutréen.
- Phase 3: Human settlement now ends in the Grotte du Roc as well . This cave is then slowly filled with ordinary sediments. The Abri is colonized again during this phase.
- Phase 2: The Grotte du Roc is still inhabited without interruption. In the demolition, however, the traces of human settlement tear off towards the end of this phase, as the Abridach had first collapsed. Furthermore, the frieze had come off the wall. The platform in front of the three sub-areas will be abandoned.
- The successive retreat of the back wall due to erosion begins.
- Phase 1: First settlement of the Grotte du Roc and the Abris during the Solutréen . Origin of the frieze.
Dating
Based on their execution, the representations can be assigned to Style III by André Leroi-Gourhan . This corresponds to the Younger Solutréen , ie the period from 20,000 to 15,000 years BP .
An absolute age for traces of settlement after the first wall collapse, obtained by means of radiocarbon dating , was 19230 ± 300 years BP.
visit
Access to the site is restricted, but an appointment can be made by phone (05 45 24 97 48). The visit costs 2 euros.
Monument historique
The Roc-de-Sers site has been a monument historique since 1979 .