Laugerie-Basse
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Laugerie-Basse is an important
Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories ...
archaeological site within the territory of the
French commune A () is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in Canada and the United States; ' in Germany; ' in Italy; ' in Spain; or civil parishes in the Uni ...
Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil (; ) is a former commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It was created in 1973 by the merger of two former communes: Les Eyzies-de-Tayac and Sireuil. On 1 January 2019, it wa ...
in
Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...
. It is known for several works of art from the
Magdalenian Magdalenian cultures (also Madelenian; ) are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years before present. It is named after the type site of Abri de la Madeleine, a ro ...
. In 1979, Laugerie-Basse, along with other nearby
Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...
sites, was inscribed on the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...
as ''
Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley The Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in France since 1979. It specifically lists 15 prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley in the Dordogne department, mostly in and around Les Eyzies-d ...
''.


Geography, geology and location

The impressive
abri A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long or wide, rock shelters are alm ...
of Laugerie-Basse, named after the village, is located on the right side of the
Vézère The Vézère (; ) is a 211-km-long river in southwestern France. It is an important tributary to the Dordogne (river), Dordogne. Its source is in the northwestern part of the elevated plateau known as the Massif Central. It flows into the Dordog ...
valley, about 2 kilometers upstream from Les Eyzies. It was formed at the bottom of a 45 meters high and 500 meters long scarp slope of flat-lying
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
s from the
Coniacian The Coniacian is an age or stage in the geologic timescale. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series and spans the time between 89.8 ± 1 Ma and 86.3 ± 0.7 Ma (million years ago). The Coniacian is preceded by ...
. The 15-meter-deep Abri is located 15 meters above river level. Taking advantage of the natural conditions, the houses of Laugerie-Basse were built directly into the rocks so that building a back wall and the back half of the roof was dispensable. The prehistoric site consists of two abris: the ''main abri'' and 50 meters upstream the ''Abri of Marseilles''. Between the abris and the Vézère the D 47 runs from
Périgueux Périgueux (, ; or ) is a commune in the Dordogne department, in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Périgueux is the prefecture of Dordogne, and the capital city of Périgord. It is also the seat of ...
to Les Eyzies.


History

In 1863
Édouard Lartet Édouard Lartet (15 April 180128 January 1871) was a French geologist and paleontologist, and a pioneer of Paleolithic archaeology. He is also known for coining the prehistoric taxon '' Amphicyon'', making it one of the earliest-described fossil ...
and
Henry Christy Henry Christy (26 July 1810 – 4 May 1865) was an English banker and collector, who left his substantial collections to the British Museum. Early life Christy was born at Kingston upon Thames, the second son of William Miller Christy of Woodb ...
began for the first time with excavations on the main abri. At that time a small farm with a barn and a stable was standing on the excavation area. Lartet and Christy were succeeded by the
Marquis de Vibraye Marquis de Vibraye is the name of the title held by the Hurault family. This title was created by letters patent in 1625 and is still held by the family. Their family seat is Château de Cheverny in the Loire Valley in France and Château de Semu ...
and his assistant Franchet and shortly thereafter by Massénat. The excavations on the main abri were rather chaotic for the next five decades. Only between 1912 and 1913
Denis Peyrony Denis may refer to: People * Saint Denis of Paris, 3rd-century Christian martyr and first bishop of Paris * Denis the Areopagite, Biblical figure * Denis, Bishop of Győr (13th century), Hungarian prelate * Denis, son of Ampud (died 1236), baro ...
and Maury were able to proceed more systematically and make the first
stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...
of the main abri. Maury then moved on to the hitherto disregarded Abri des Marseilles where he was active until 1920.


Stratigraphy

The stratigraphy in the main abri comprises archaeological material mainly from Magdalenian III and Magdalenian IV. There is also some marginal evidence of the
Azilian The Azilian is a Mesolithic archaeological industry, industry of the Franco-Cantabrian region of northern Spain and Southern France. It dates approximately 10,000–12,500 years ago. Diagnostic Cultural artifact, artifacts from the culture includ ...
. In the slope waste in front of the scarp slope remains from the
Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
and the late
Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
were also discovered. The Abri de Marseilles offers a more detailed stratigraphic sequence: the original profile is still existing. From it one can conclude that the Magdalenians settled approximately 14,000 years ago directly on the existing bottom of the abri. They lived at the abri until the Magdalenian VI. Then a catastrophic collapse of the roof occurred and the settlement site was partly strewn with some huge slabs of rock and debris. Afterwards the people returned to this place, which is clearly evident from traces of settlement on and between the boulders. Thereafter the Abri des Marseilles sank completely into oblivion until the late Neolithic . Around 2000 BC members of the Artenac culture arrived who left an enormous, and in this magnitude inexplicable, ash and charcoal layer that covered the whole abri. Further slides of the roof later occurred bringing about a spectacular collapse with up to 10 meter high boulders. By now the main abri has been cleaned up completely, whereas the Abri des Marseilles has only been partially explored.


Found artifacts

Apart from stone artefacts and other tools, all in all approximately 600 art objects from the Magdalenian were recovered in Laugerie-Basse. In Laugerie-Basse
Paul Hurault, 8th Marquis de Vibraye Paul Hurault, 8th Marquis de Vibraye (1809–1878) was an amateur archaeologist from France. He was born Guillaume-Paul Louis Maximilien Hurault, son of a notable politician and military officer . He discovered the very first Paleolithic sculpt ...
discovered in 1864 the " Immodest Venus" (
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
: ''Vénus impudique'') which gave its name to the genre of Paleolithic
Venus figurines A Venus figurine is any Upper Palaeolithic statue portraying a woman, usually carved in the round.Fagan, Brian M., Beck, Charlotte, "Venus Figurines", beliefs '' The Oxford Companion to Archaeology'', 1996, Oxford University Press, pp. 740– ...
. Shortly after that, around 1867-68, the ''Woman under the reindeer'' (''la femme au renne'') was discovered by Abbé Landesque. Many of these early art pieces are now scattered in museums all over the world. Pierced bone rondels picturing
chamois The chamois (; ) (''Rupicapra rupicapra'') or Alpine chamois is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope native to the mountains in Southern Europe, from the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Apennines, the Dinarides, the Tatra Mountains, Tatra to the Carpa ...
es and
deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...
have been discovered from the middle Magdalenian (stage IV).


Age

The main abri was inhabited in the middle and upper Magdalenian as well as in the Azilian, which roughly corresponds to the time segment from 14,000 until 10,000 years BP. The Abri des Marseilles has had a longer settlement period, it had been inhabited during the entire Magdalenian and into the Neolithic which corresponds to the time segment from 17,000 until 7,000 years BP.


References


Literature

*


External links


The Abri von Laugerie-Basse
on the website of the Pôle International de la Préhistoire {{Authority control 1863 archaeological discoveries Monuments historiques of Dordogne Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley Prehistoric sites in France Magdalenian Rock shelters