La Chapelle-aux-Saints (; oc, La Chapela daus Sents) is a commune in the

Corrèze Corrèze (; oc, Corresa) is a department in France, named after the river Corrèze which runs through it. Although its prefecture is Tulle, its most populated city is Brive-la-Gaillarde. Corrèze is located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine regio ...

department in central

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

History

Neanderthal skeleton

The La Chapelle-aux-Saints cave, bordering the Sourdoire valley, revealed many

archeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

artifacts belonging to the late

Mousterian The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an archaeological industry of stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and to the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and West Asia. The Mousterian largely defines the l ...

techno-complex,BINANT P., 1991 - ''Les sépultures du Paléolithique''. Paris : Errance including the first ever recognized

Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an Extinction, extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ag ...

burial discovered on August 3, 1908. Jean and Amédée Bouyssonie, as well as L. Bardon, led archaeological digs in the cave from 1905 to 1908, discovering over 1,000 pieces of stone industry (mainly flint), bones of different fauna including

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subs ...

bovid The Bovidae comprise the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes cattle, bison, buffalo, antelopes, and caprines. A member of this family is called a bovid. With 143 extant species and 300 known extinct species, t ...

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

, fox,

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

and even a

rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct specie ...

’ tooth. The most spectacular discovery was that of a very well preserved skeleton of an adult Neanderthal man who appears to have been intentionally buried in a rectangular pit deep, long and wide.NOUGIER L.-R., 1963, ''La préhistoire : essai de paléosociologie religieuse''. Paris :

Bloud & Gay Francisque Gay (2 May 1885 – 22 October 1963) was a French editor, politician and diplomat. He was committed to the Catholic Church and to Christian democracy. He ran the Bloud et Gay publishing house for many years, and edited the influential ...

: 43-44 This discovery led to a controversy for the existence of burials during the Mousterian. Arguments for the existence of a tomb were the sleeping position of the body, and the funeral "gifts" associated with the pit like stone tools and animal bones. Some archaeologists believe the Chapelle-aux-Saints cave wasn't used as a habitat, but a place for funeral feasts.

Modern period

During the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, the commune changed its name to ''La Chapelle-aux-Prés'' following a decree from the

National Convention The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year Nation ...

Population

References

Communes of Corrèze Neanderthal sites Archaeological sites in France {{Corrèze-geo-stub

History

Neanderthal skeleton

Modern period

Population

See also

References