Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T04:53:47.831Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Discoveries of quartzite artefacts on the highest terrace: Early or Middle Pleistocene occupation of the Rhône Valley?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2019

Marie-Hélène Moncel*
Affiliation:
CNRS, UMR 7194, National Museum of Natural History, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris 75005, France
Simon Puaud
Affiliation:
CNRS, UMR 7194, National Museum of Natural History, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris 75005, France
Ludovic Mocochain
Affiliation:
298 Route du Mas, 38250 Lans-en-Vercors, France
Evelyne Debard
Affiliation:
Département des Sciences de la Terre, University Claude Bernard, Lyon 1, France
Bernard Gely
Affiliation:
Service Régional de l'Archéologie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Quai Saint-Vincent, Lyon 69001, France
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: marie-helene.moncel@mnhn.fr)
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Artefacts in quartzite have been found in a unique topographical location on the highest terrace of the Rhône Valley in France. These discoveries offer new opportunities for dating early European occupations.

Type
Project Gallery
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019 

Heavy-duty tools have been found on high river terraces in the south of Europe over the past decades (Bourdier Reference Bourdier1958; Collina-Girard Reference Collina-Girard1975; Tavoso Reference Tavoso1978). Recently, beryllium-10 isotope and electron spin resonance dates yielded ages from one million years ago for terraces of the Eastern Pyrenees, highlighting the interest of such archaeological findings for dating and characterising the earliest occupation phases of Europe (Delmas et al. Reference Delmas, Calvet, Gunnell, Voinchet, Manel, Braucher, Tissoux, Bahain, Perrenoud and Saos2018).

The study area is located on the east flank of a limestone plateau above the middle part of the Rhône Valley, close to the terminal part of the Ardèche Gorges. The elevation is between 160 and 175m asl (Figures 1–3). Seven large flakes (0.15–0.20m long) and one core in quartzite were found in the alluvial deposits (Figure 4). Scars are centripetal or unipolar. The thick platforms are cortical or flat. The core is bi-pyramidal with percussion impacts.

Figure 1. Map of the middle part of the Rhône Valley, showing the right (north) bank of the river; the site is located on the interfluve at 160–175m asl (figure by Simon Puaud).

Figure 2. Detailed location of the Fv alluvial terrace; the star marks the location of artefacts (modified after Pascal et al. Reference Pascal, Elmi, Busnardo, Lafarge, Truc and Valleron1989).

Figure 3. Transverse section through the terraces of the lower Ardèche River (star marks the location of site) (figure by Ludovic Mocochain).

Figure 4. Quartzite large flakes and core (photographs by Marie-Hélène Moncel, illustrations by Angeliki Theodoropoulou).

The artefacts were found in the Ardèche alluvial terraces. Previous studies show four levels of terraces (Labrousse Reference Labrousse1977; Pascal et al. Reference Pascal, Elmi, Busnardo, Lafarge, Truc and Valleron1989), ranging from the present floodplain of the Ardèche River (level Fz) to the highest terrace where the artefacts were located (level Fv). A large plane surface corresponds to the Fv terrace and flanks the pediment.

The artefacts were found on a subhorizontal ledge partially cut by a palaeogully, which is extended by a present-day gully. The formation of this gully is probably polygenic. The upper part is totally dry and appears as a small infilled valley, while downstream it is steep-sided and crossed by episodic flows. Artefacts are not reworked, and show burial by colluviation and pedogenesis (slightly smoothed edges, thin and reddish glossy sheen without impact features of high-mobility processes). Regionally, the Fv terrace corresponds to the Pliocene abandonment surface with an age of two million years (Clauzon Reference Clauzon1982, Reference Clauzon1996), which is correlated with the youngest fossiliferous level of Saint-Vallier (MNQ17 biozone) (Guérin et al. Reference Guérin2004). In the study area, the age of this surface was estimated between 1.94 and 1.77 million years by combined absolute dating and palaeomagnetism (Tassy et al. Reference Tassy, Mocochain, Bellier, Braucher, Gattcceca and Bourlès2013).

How to interpret the discovery of heavy-duty tools on this high terrace

The lithic series is clearly flaked by humans. Their technological features are typical of early Lower Palaeolithic behaviours (Moncel & Ashton Reference Moncel, Ashton, Gallotti and Mussi2018). No similar discoveries have been reported on younger alluvial formations in the same area despite systematic surveys over the past two decades. The stratigraphic position of these artefacts on the side of this high terrace shows that they could not have been introduced by natural processes. Our findings only concern a deposit corresponding to the remains of an alluvial formation dated to before 1.7 million years ago. Evidence of human occupations is later than the first downcutting phase of the palaeogully, which caused the erosion of the Fv terrace. Human occupation was probably contemporaneous with or later than the filling of the palaeogully, as downcutting would probably have destroyed the artefacts along with the Fv terrace. The age of the artefacts presented here is clearly not as early as the formation in which they were found, but nonetheless their location raises questions. They could attest to sporadic traces of early hominid passage from 1.7 million years ago in this part of France, just below an alluvial formation bordering a large plain.

The unique topographical location and the technological features of this discovery highlight the difficulties in interpreting isolated artefacts on high alluvial formations, but also open new avenues of research for dating early European occupations.

Acknowledgements

Surveys were supported by the French Ministry of Culture and the Service Regional de l'Archéologie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

References

Bourdier, F. 1958. Le Bassin du Rhône au Quaternaire: géologie et préhistoire. Paris: Éditions CNRS.Google Scholar
Clauzon, G. 1982. Le canyon messinien du Rhône; une preuve décisive du ‘desiccated deep-basin model’. Bulletin Société Géolique France 24: 597610. https://doi.org/10.2113/gssgfbull.S7-XXIV.3.597Google Scholar
Clauzon, G. 1996. Limites de séquences et évolution géodynamique. Géomorphologie 2(1): 321.Google Scholar
Collina-Girard, J. 1975. Les industries archaïques sur galets des terrasses quaternaires de la Plaine du Roussillon (PO, France). Unpublished PhD dissertation, Université Aix-Marseille I.Google Scholar
Delmas, M., Calvet, M., Gunnell, T., Voinchet, P., Manel, C., Braucher, R., Tissoux, H., Bahain, J.-J., Perrenoud, C., Saos, T. & ASTER Team. 2018. Terrestrial 10Be and electron spin resonance dating of fluvial terraces quantifies Quaternary uplift gradients in the Eastern Pyrenees. Quaternary Sciences Review 193: 188211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.06.001Google Scholar
Guérin, C. et al. 2004. Le gisement pliocène supérieur de Saint-Vallier (Drôme, France): synthèse biostratigraphique et paléoécologique. Géobios 37: S34960. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-6995(04)80023-8Google Scholar
Labrousse, B. 1977. Altérations des terrasses anciennes de l'Ardèche. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Université Aix Marseille I.Google Scholar
Moncel, M.-H. & Ashton, N.. 2018. From 800 to 500ka in Europe. The oldest evidence of Acheuleans in their technological, chronological and geographical framework, in Gallotti, R. & Mussi, M. (ed.) The emergence of the Acheulean in East Africa: 215–35. Cham: Springer International. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75985-2_11Google Scholar
Pascal, M., Elmi, S., Busnardo, R., Lafarge, D., Truc, G., Valleron, M.-M.. 1989. Carte géologique de la France (1/50 000), feuille Bourg-Saint-Andéol (889). Orléans: Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières.Google Scholar
Tassy, A., Mocochain, L., Bellier, O., Braucher, R., Gattcceca, J. & Bourlès, D.. 2013. Coupling cosmogenic dating and magnetostratigraphy to constrain the chronological evolution of peri-Mediterranean karsts during the Messinian and Pliocene: example of Ardèche Valley, southern France. Geomorphology 189: 8192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2013.01.019Google Scholar
Tavoso, A. 1978. Le Paléolithique inférieur et moyen du Haut Languedoc: gisements des terrasses alluviales du Tarn, du Dadou, de l'Agout, du Sor et du Fresquel (Études Quaternaires 4). Marseille: Université de Provence.Google Scholar
Figure 0

Figure 1. Map of the middle part of the Rhône Valley, showing the right (north) bank of the river; the site is located on the interfluve at 160–175m asl (figure by Simon Puaud).

Figure 1

Figure 2. Detailed location of the Fv alluvial terrace; the star marks the location of artefacts (modified after Pascal et al.1989).

Figure 2

Figure 3. Transverse section through the terraces of the lower Ardèche River (star marks the location of site) (figure by Ludovic Mocochain).

Figure 3

Figure 4. Quartzite large flakes and core (photographs by Marie-Hélène Moncel, illustrations by Angeliki Theodoropoulou).