Grand abri de la Ferrassie - Savignac-de-Miremont - 20090924

La Ferrassie is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...

in Savignac-de-Miremont, in the

Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; oc, Dordonha ) is a large rural department in Southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, it is name ...

department, France. The site, located in the

Vézère The Vézère (; oc, Vesera) is a 211-km-long river in southwestern France. It is an important tributary to the Dordogne. Its source is in the northwestern part of the elevated plateau known as the Massif Central. It flows into the Dordogne near ...

valley, consists of a large and deep cave flanked by two rock shelters within a limestone cliff, under which there is a

scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically ...

slope formation.

Age

Artifacts found at the site are the productions of

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 ...

(300,000-30,000 BP), Aurignacian (45,000–35,000 BP), and

Périgordian Périgordian is a term for several distinct but related Upper Palaeolithic cultures which are thought by some archaeologists to represent a contiguous tradition. Thought to have existed between c.35,000 BP and c.20,000 BP the Perigordian was th ...

(35,000–20,000 BP) cultures. The cave area contains

Gravettian The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years BP. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified, and had mostly disappeared by ...

(32,000–22,000 BP) objects and the scree contains objects from all these ages as well as the

Châtelperronian The Châtelperronian is a proposed industry of the Upper Palaeolithic, the existence of which is debated. It represents both the only Upper Palaeolithic industry made by Neanderthals and the earliest Upper Palaeolithic industry in central and sou ...

(35,000-29,000 PB). The site was abandoned during the Gravettian period (27 kya). Complex Mousterian burial structures found at La Ferrasie finally provided the evidence of Neanderthal burial practice.

Exploration history

A small area of the site was initially investigated by M. Tabanou in 1896, a teacher who died of a landslide at the Badegoule rock shelter shortly thereafter. Denis Peyrony and Louis Capitan explored the site in 1905, 1907 and 1912; Peyrony in 1934, Henri Delporte in 1969 and 1984, and Delporte with Tuffreau in 1984.

Fossils

At least seven Neanderthals have been found in La Ferrassie, including infants and one fetus. All specimens were found in a thin 60 cm archaeological layer dated to 74-68 thousand years ago.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrassie, La 1896 archaeological discoveries Archaeological sites in France Mousterian Neanderthal sites