Mousterian (Neanderthal) Sites Mousterian (Neanderthal) Sites
Cette exceptionnelle sépulture exhumée en 1971 en Charente-Maritime associe pour la première fois un squelette néandertalien incomplet à une industrie du Castelperronien datée d'environ 36 000 ans.
L'individu, peut-être une jeune femme présentait les stigmates d'une grave blessure crânienne, d'origine traumatique, partiellement cicatrisée.
Le corps était circonscrit dans une espace circulaire de 70 cm de diamètre sans doute aménagé intentionnellement, mais aucune fosse n'a été détectée à la fouille.
This exceptional burial exhumed in 1971 (sic, should be 1979) in Charente-Maritime combines for the first time an incomplete skeleton of a Neanderthal and the Castelperronien tool industry dated at about 36 000 years.
The individual, perhaps a young woman, showed the scars of a severe cranial injury of traumatic origin, partially healed.
The body was completely within a circular area of 70 cm in diameter, probably built intentionally, but no pit has been detected in the search.
Text: Adapted and translated from the display at Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Artist:© Emmanuel Roudier, 2008
Superb watercolours were done for this exhibition by the French artist, Emmanuel Roudier.
Blog: http://roudier-neandertal.blogspot.com/ Contact: emmanuelroudier@gmail.com
Source: Display at Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies
Tools found at the Saint Césaire site. It consists of a Châtelperronian tool kit, which is normally associated with Homo sapiens sapiens, not Neanderthal. This is seen by some as coexistence in a particular area, and trading of techniques between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon.
Computer-tomographic imaging and computer-assisted reconstruction have also revealed a healed fracture of the skull.
At 36 000 years BP, the Saint Césaire neanderthal is the latest Neanderthal known in France, proof that Neanderthals survived into the early Upper Paleolithic, contrary to what had been believed up to the time of discovery.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Casts on display at Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies
Cast of the Saint Césaire skeleton in situ when it was first discovered.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Cast on display at Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies
Skull, clavicle and humerus of the Saint Césaire I skeleton. Only one half of the skull is complete.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies
Reconstruction of the Saint Césaire skull
Photo: http://www.mpg.de/bilderBerichteDokumente/dokumentation/pressemitteilungen/2004/pressemitteilung20040123/index.html
A radius and ulna, as well as a femur, patella and other leg bones were recovered.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Originals, display at Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies
Posterior view of the Saint-Césaire 1 right femoral proximal diaphysis. Scale in centimeters.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 May 12; 95(10): 5836–5840.
Copyright © 1998, The National Academy of Sciences
Photo: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=20466
In 1975, earthworks to facilitate the passage of trucks carrying mushrooms unearthed some flints and animal bones. The first to see these was an amateur prehistorian, Bernard Dubiny. He was on his way to fish for trout, and stopped to have a look at the road cutting. Although the area was not known as a prehistoric site, he persuaded the owner of the cutting, the mayor of Saint-Césaire, René Boucher, to stop work on the cutting immediately.
Quickly, a team of archaeologists formed around Francois Lévêque. Four years later, the work was rewarded by the discovery of human Neanderthal remains that the CNRS laboratories dated at only 36 000 years BP, which meant that it was possible that there had been several millenia of coexistence between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons.
The collapsed rock shelter, or abri, was called La Roche-à-Pierrot, since
the name given to the twenty year old Neanderthal was Pierrot. However it may be that the original Neanderthal was a woman. Local usage has now changed the name to Pierrette, in recognition of the uncertainty. A further interesting fact is that the skull shows signs of a healed injury, and locals speculate that Pierrette may have been a battered wife! Not very scientific, perhaps, but the skeleton has been very good for the local economy, bringing many tourists every year, and any spin publicists can make up is seized upon.
Photo: http://www.kterre.org/chronologie/info.php?id=919
Note: I have flipped the left hand, coloured image horizontally - it is amazing how many times images are wrongly shown in this way. It is only the right hand side of the skull which has been recovered. - Don
Text: translated and adapted from www.julien-labruyere.eu/media/2005__054460600_1615_13022008.pdf
Left, a recreation of the Abri Saint Césaire, also known as La Roche-à-Pierrot, where the Neanderthal skeleton was discovered, at the Paléosite at Saint Césaire (which opened on May 27 in 2005, and had 65 000 visitors in 2007).
The original is a collapsed rock shelter at the foot of a limestone cliff 5 to 6 metres high in a valley which runs north-south on a small river, the Coran, a tributary of the Charente.
Right, a cast at the Paléosite of the skeleton at the time of its discovery.
Photo:
http://www.paleosite.fr/pages/entrez.php#BATIMENT
Localisation : 17770 St Césaire (Charente-Maritime)
The Saint-Césaire stratigraphy.
From bottom to top:
EGPF corresponds to a Denticulate Mousterian occupation, EJOP sup to a Châtelperronian occupation, EJO sup to a Proto-Aurignacian occupation, EJF to an Early Aurignacian occupation, and EJM and EJJ to two Evolved Aurignacian occupations. EJOP inf and EJO inf are small occupations with unclear cultural attribution.
Diagram of stratigraphy from:
Lévêque, F; Backer, AM; Guilbaud, M. Context of a Late Neandertal: Implications of Multidisciplinary Research for the Transition to Upper Paleolithic Adaptations at Saint-Césaire, Charente-Maritime, France. Madison, WI: Prehistory Press; 1993.
|
Mousterian EGPF |
Châtelperronian? EJOP inf. | Châtelperronian EJOP sup. | Proto-Aurignacian EJO sup. | Aurignacian I EJF | Evolved Aurignacian EJM | Evolved Aurignacian EJJ | |
| Large species | (n = 866) | (n = 285) | (n = 803) | (n = 411) | (n = 3432) | (n = 829) | (n = 327) |
| Reindeer | 24.7 | 33.0 | 20.2 | 84.9 | 82.3 | 72.4 | 69.1 |
| Steppe bison | 38.0 | 35.8 | 48.7 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 9.4 | 11.9 |
| Red deer | 1.0 | 2.5 | 5.1 | 0.5 | 40.3 | 0.2 | 0.6 |
| Megaceros | 0.8 | 0.4 | - | - | 0.2 | - | - |
| Roe deer | - | - | 0.5 | - | - | - | - |
| Wild boar | - | 0.4 | 0.5 | - | 0.0 | - | - |
| Horse | 34.1 | 26.3 | 17.4 | 5.4 | 11.2 | 13.6 | 17.4 |
| Wooly rhino | 0.2 | 0.4 | 3.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.1 | - |
| Wild ass | - | - | 0.2 | - | - | - | - |
| Mammoth | 0.8 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 1.9 | 0.5 | 4.0 | 0.3 |
| Spotted hyena | 0.2 | - | 0.4 | - | 0.0 | - | 0.3 |
| Wolf | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| Arctic fox | - | - | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | - | - |
| Polecat | - | - | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | - | - |
| Pine marten | - | - | - | 0.5 | - | - | - |
| Lynx | - | - | - | - | 0.0 | - | - |
| Badger | - | - | - | - | 0.0 | 0.1 | - |
| Cave lion | - | - | 0.2 | - | 0.1 | - | - |
| Hare | - | - | - | 0.2 | - | - | - |
| Total | 99.9 | 100.2 | 99.8 | 99.8 | 100.0 | 99.9 | 99.9 |
| Micromammals | (n = 9) | (n = 2) | (n = 38) | (n = 84) | (n = 69) | (n = 100) | (n = 109) |
| Narrow-skulled vole | 55.6 | 50.0 | 76.3 | 95.2 | 85.5 | 93.0 | 89.0 |
| Common vole | 22.2 | - | 10.5 | 1.2 | 1.4 | - | 6.4 |
| Ground squirrel | - | - | - | - | 1.4 | 1.0 | 0.9 |
| Snow vole | 11.1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Water vole | 11.1 | 50.0 | 13.2 | 3.6 | 11.6 | 4.0 | 0.9 |
| Pine vole | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0.9 |
| Garden dormouse | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | - |
| Root/Male vole | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0.9 |
| Collared lemming | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0.9 |
| Total | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 99.9 | 100.0 | 99.9 |
Fig. 4
Faunal diversity at Saint-Césaire and its presumed impact on human densities. (A) Large mammal versus micromammal species diversity, as measured by the reciprocal of Simpson's index, in the Saint-Césaire levels. Data are from Table 2 (EJOP inf and EJO inf assemblages excluded because of small sample size). (B) Hypothetical reconstruction of fluctuations of hunter–gatherer densities in western Europe during the Late Pleistocene. The reconstruction is based on an extrapolation of the presumed effects of mammal diversity on human population densities. The shaded area shows the transition between the Châtelperronian and the Early Aurignacian.
Diagram of faunal diversity from:
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 January 8; 105(1): 48–53.
Published online 2008 January 2. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0709372104.
Copyright © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA