Pech-de-l'Azé Cave
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Pech-de-l'Azé Cave
OR:
Pech-de-l'Azé Cave on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

The Pech-de-l'Azé caves are a prehistoric site located in the French commune of
Carsac-Aillac Carsac-Aillac (; oc, Carsac e Alhac) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Population Notable people * Marius Rossillon, aka O'Galop (1867-1946), creator of the Bibendum Michelin, died in Car ...
, 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 named af ...
department, in the
Nouvelle-Aquitaine Nouvelle-Aquitaine (; oc, Nòva Aquitània or ; eu, Akitania Berria; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Novéle-Aguiéne'') is the largest administrative region in France, spanning the west and southwest of the mainland. The region was created by t ...
region of France. ''Pech-de-l'Azé I'' is a reference site for the regional
Middle Palaeolithic The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleoli ...


Description

The caves contain occupational debris from many millennia of intermittent
Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...
occupation of the cave. This sequence of cave deposits begins about 80,000 to 90,000 years ago, and ends about 35,000 years ago. There are four caves at the site labelled, Pech I to Pech IV. Pech I , was the first of the caves to be discovered sometime early in the 19th century. Most of its archaeological record was then destroyed by treasure hunters. It is however notable for being the place of discovery of the skull of a Neanderthal child in 1909. Pech II was discovered by the archaeologist
François Bordes François Bordes (December 30, 1919 – April 30, 1981), also known by the pen name of Francis Carsac, was a French scientist, geologist, archaeologist, and science fiction writer. Biography He was a professor of prehistory and quaternary g ...
, in 1948. Part of the site had been demolished by the construction of a railway line in the 19th century. An occupational sequence from the so-called Meridional
Acheulian Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French ''acheuléen'' after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated ...
, followed by a variety 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 latt ...
industries was discernable. Pech III was discovered in 1951. It is a very small empty cave that is thought once contained a sequence corresponding to the earlier part of the Pech II (Bordes and Bourgon, 1951). Pech IV is perhaps the most significant of the caves. It was discovered and explored by Bordes in the spring of 1952. It has a long sequence of occupations spanning a period of about 45,000 to 55,000 years during the last Ice Age (
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
epoch). Its bottom deposit layers contain numerous
hearth A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a lo ...
s, which are not commonly found in European archaeological sites from this time period. The Asinipodian lithic assemblages are found here. These are an unusual combination of very small and very large flakes and cores. This type of Neanderthal assemblage is known only from Pech IV.


See also

*
Pech Merle Pech Merle is a cave which opens onto a hillside at Cabrerets in the Lot département of the Occitania region in France, about 32 km by road east of Cahors. It is one of the few prehistoric cave painting sites in France that remain open to ...
- an unrelated cave complex at
Cabrerets Cabrerets (; Languedocien: ''Crabairet'') is a commune in the Lot department in southwestern France. The village of Cabrerets derives its name from ''cabre'', meaning goat in the Occitan language. Population Geography The village lies at t ...
in the Lot département of the
Occitania Occitania ( oc, Occitània , , or ) is the historical region in Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe where the Occitan language, Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes still used as a second language. This ...
region in
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 ...
which is famous for its cave art.


References

{{coord missing, France Prehistoric sites in France Neanderthal sites Stone Age sites in France Caves of Dordogne