Édouard Louis Stanislas Piette (11 March 1827, Aubigny-les-Pothées – 5 June 1906, Rumigny) was a French archaeologist and prehistorian.

Biography

A magistrate by vocation, at around the age of 28 he developed an interest in

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

. He studied the

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

formations of northeastern France and its fossils, and through this research he subsequently made the acquaintance of paleontologist

Édouard Lartet Édouard Lartet (15 April 180128 January 1871) was a French geologist and paleontologist, and a pioneer of Paleolithic archaeology. Biography Lartet was born near Castelnau-Barbarens, ' of Gers, France, where his family had lived for more than ...

and other scientists. During a stay at the

Bagnères-de-Luchon Bagnères-de-Luchon (; oc, Banhèras de Luishon), also referred to as just Luchon, is a commune and spa town in the Haute-Garonne department in the Occitanie region of south-western France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Lucho ...

spa in the central

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

, he became interested in the

glacial geology Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, clima ...

of the area and the contents of its numerous caves. During the 1880s and 1890s he performed archaeological work at various Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites in southwestern France. From his excavatory findings at Mas-d'Azil in 1887, he introduced the " Azilian culture" to bridge the space between the local Paleolithic and Mesolithic phases. Also, he proposed a subdivision of the French Paleolithic into the Amygdalithic, Niphetic and Glyptic phases, but the idea was not widely accepted by other archaeologists.Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
by Timothy Darvill From his excavations in southwestern France, he found numerous objects of prehistoric art. Among his discoveries at the cavern of Mas-d'Azil was a statuette of a female carved from the tooth of an equine. At ''Grotte du Pape'' near Brassempouy, fragments of seven statuettes were uncovered, including the so-called '' Dame de Brassempouy''. Piette was among the first to support the authenticity and antiquity of the Altamira cave art. He served as president of the Société historique de haute-Picardie and was a member of the Société d'Anthropologie de Paris and the

Société géologique de France Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...

.Piette, Louis Edouard Stanislas
at Sociétés savantes de France In the field of

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

he circumscribed ''

Cuphosolenus ''Cuphosolenus'' is a genus of extinct small to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Aporrhaidae and the superfamily Stromboidea, known from the Jurassic and lower Cretaceous periods. ''Cuphosolenus'' was named by Edo ...

'' (1876), a genus of extinct sea snails.

Selected works

* ''Le lias inférieur de l'est de la France comprenant la Meurthe, la Moselle, le grand-duché de Luxembourg, la Belgique et la Meuse'' (with Olry Terquem), 1868 – The Lower Lias of eastern France, including Meurthe, Moselle,

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...

. * ''Nomenclature des temps anthropiques primitifs'', 1879 – Classification of primitive human epochs. * ''Les subdivisions de l'époque magdalénienne et de l'époque néolithique'', 1889 – Subdivisions of the Magdalenian and

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

epochs. * ''L'époque éburnéenne et les races humaines de la période glyptique'', 1894 – The Eburnean era and the human race of the Glyptic period. * ''Une station sulistrienne à Gourdan'', 1894. * ''Les fouilles de Brassempouy en 1894'' – Excavations at Brassempouy in 1894. * ''Hiatus et lacune. Vestiges de la période de transition dans la grotte du Mas d'Azil'', 1894 – Hiatus and gap. Remains from the transition period associated with the Mas-d'Azil cave * ''La station de Brassempouy et les statuettes humaines de la période glyptique'', 1895 – The Brassempouy site and human statuettes from the Glyptic period. * ''Les galets coloriés du Mas d'Azil'', 1896 – The colored pebbles of Mas-d'Azil. * ''Gravure du Mas d'Azil et statuettes de Menton'', 1902 – Engravings from Mas-d'Azil and the statuettes of

Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...

. * ''Notions complémentaires sur l'Azilien'', 1904 – Additional ideas regarding the Azilian culture. * ''L'art pendant l'age du Renne. Album de cent planches'', 1907 – Art from the Reindeer Age. With

epigraphist Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

Julien Sacaze, he was co-author of ''La Montagne d'Espiaup'' (1877) and ''Les monuments de la montagne d'Espiaup (Pyrénées)'' (1878).Google Search
(published works)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piette, Edouard 1827 births 1906 deaths People from Ardennes (department) French archaeologists French paleontologists Prehistorians Azilian

External links

Matthew R. Goodrum, "Edouard Piette." Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum (2019) available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xBACqUtpEuevFEqcCcl_Yjh_W41PwS-I/view