Un habitat en grotte : La grotte de Pégourié (Caniac-du-Causse, Lot) Périgordien - Badegoulien - Azilien - Age du Bronze

Abstract

Prehistoric dwelling in the Pégourié cave lasted for about 25.000 years (Perigordian, Initial Magdale- nian, Azilian, Early bronze Age). As the human occupations took place far enough in the cave, out of climatic change influences, sedimentation is restricted to very short periods of time and unconformities represent more than 80% of the time spent. Study of sedimentary structures contributes to the understanding of the filling history. 18 C14 analysis and lithic assemblages give a good time control of the sedimentary phases and of the gap extents. Unconformities involve the formation of condensation levels on which remains of several occupation phases may be sedimented together. Careful analysis have been carried out and special technics must be applied in prehistoric cave studies. La grotte de Pégourié se situe sur le Causse de Gramat (Lot), table calcaire karstifiée d'une altitude moyenne de 350 à 400 m. La cavité s'ouvre à la base de la paroi rocheuse d'une dolině asymétrique. Elle est creusée dans les calcaires massifs, mais fissurés, de l'Oxfordien supérieur. Ce réseau karstique est connu sur 80 mètres mais le gisement préhistorique que nous décrivons se trouve près du porche d'entrée. La fouille (1967-88) a porté sur 35 m2 (en moyenne 9 m de long sur 4 m de large). Les niveaux d'occupation s'échelonnent du Périgordien (- 24000 BP), au Badegoulien (- 17000 BP), à l'Azilien (- 1 1500 BP) et à l'Âge du Bronze Ancien/ Moyen (- 3650 BP). Des traces de passages plus récents peuvent être attribuées à la fin de l'Age du Bronze, au Gallo-Romain et au XVIe siècle.

THE ABRI CASSEROLE (DORDOGNE, FRANCE): REASSESSING THE14C CHRONOLOGY OF A KEY UPPER PALEOLITHIC SEQUENCE IN SOUTHWESTERN FRANCE

“…In the mid-1990s, results were remarkably coherent with the radiometric framework available for the few key dated Badegoulian sequences, most notably from Laugerie Haute Est (Dordogne; Evin et al 1976), Le Cuzoul de Vers (Lot; Clottes and Giraud 1989), Abri Fritsch (Indre; Delibrias and Evin 1980) and Grotte de Pégourié (Lot; Séronie-Vivien 1995) (Table 4). However, after 25 years of methodological improvements (e.g.…”

Eco-cultural niches of the Badegoulian: Unraveling links between cultural adaptation and ecology during the Last Glacial Maximum in France

“…This hypothesis of two phases, however, merits further attention as new radiocarbon ages are obtained and additional technological studies are conducted. Furthermore, the presence of Mediterranean-style shouldered points, observed initially at Pégourié Cave (Séronie-Vivien, 1995), is confirmed in levels containing raclettes at Cuzoul de Vers (Ducasse, 2010). In each case, their presence is difficult to explain with arguments of postdepositional mixing, and rather seems to be characteristic of sites along the southern limits of the Badegoulian distribution.…”

“…For example, Taborin (2007) identifies a lack of homogeneity among Badegoulian personal ornaments, suggesting a degree of social variability within the technocomplex that is not apparent with respect to the lithic industry. Likewise, there does appear to be a difference in the bone tool industry between the northern and southern territories in that the latter features antler sagaies decorated with sinuous, parallel, longitudinal grooves (termed pseudo-excisé; Séronie-Vivien, 1995. The presence of shouldered points in sites belonging to the southern territory, but not the northern one, is another indicator of culture-geographic structure.…”

Archaeological recontextualization and first direct 14C dating of a “pseudo-excise” decorated antler point from France (Pégourié Cave, Lot). Implications on the cultural geography of southwestern Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum

“…Calibration was carried out with the OxCal program (v4.3.2: Bronk Ramsey 2017) using the IntCal13 calibration curve (Reimer et al, 2013). -Vivien, 1995). *a doubt arises regarding the exact origin of the dated sample, since the same lab code refers to different information depending on the source used (Séronie-Vivien, 1995;Séronie-Vivien et al, 1981); **according to Séronie-Vivien et al, 1981, the dated sample initially came from Layer 9b and was reassigned to Layer 10, given the older 14C age.…”