Néandertal in Poitou-Charentes

The men of Néandertal lived on the current territory of the area Poitou-Charentes, more particularly along the affluents of the Charente, of approximately 230.000 years BP with their extinction. The Excavation S carried out at the beginning of the 19th century, the number of the researchers and the relay of the learned societies made it possible to preserve the richness of the stations néandertaliennes.

Prénéandertaliens

the site of Montgaudier close to Montbron, excavated by L. Duport, delivered a mandible of child.
the site of the Chair is consisted of the Suard cave whose deposits date from the Glaciation of Riss and the cave Middle-class man-Delaunay, occupied during interglacial Riss-Würm. The Suard cave delivered 52 parts of which more half are bones of children and include a top of the skull and two mandibles. It is the study of two molars of this site which showed that the children néandertaliens had a time of growth identical to that of Homo sapiens .
Fontéchevade is a site workshop but delivered part of top of the skull which would be oldest ossement human of Charente.

Néandertaliens

In Charente

the valley of Water-Clear presents several sites announced since 1876 by the historical and archaeological Société of Charente . The shelter Commont contained human remainders, just like the shelter Simard .
the site of Quina , close to Villebois-Lavalette to Guards-the-Pontaroux on Right Bank of Voulton, was located and excavated by Chauvet since 1872 then by Henri-Martin and again these last years. It delivered each time an important material lithic. The discovery of the first skeleton of Quina goes back to 1912. The site of Quina delivered the fossil remainders of 27 néandertaliens, adults and children. The lithic Industrie of Quina gave its name to a particular facies, the Moustérien charentien of the Quina type.

the Wall cupboard on left bank of the Tardoire (nothing to see with Néandertal…) -->
the cave Chauvet , on the Antenna close to its confluence with Charente, delivered more than 100 tools and 200 objects, Biface S, points, Racloir S allotted to the Moustérien of tradition acheuléenne.
the cave in Melon close to Châteauneuf-on-Charente delivered vestiges lithic and bones of child néandertalien like later the shelter of very close Hauteroche.
the cave of Rochelot to Saint-Lover-with-Bonnieure is a den of Hyène S with remainders néandertaliens.
the site of Pradelles in Charente delivered the remainders of five individuals different on a site from treatment of carcasses of reindeers for their storage and their conservation, a very advanced behavior.

In Charente-Maritime

the Rock-with-Pierrot , close to Saint-Césaire, delivered in 1979 a skeleton néandertalien associated with a whole of tools Châtelperronien S; in this area, the néandertaliens were probably contemporary of the first Homo sapiens .

In the Two-Sevres is many workshops of tools of Moustérien of tradition acheuléenne.

In the Vienna

the site of Plumettes , on Right Bank of Vienna close to Lussac-the-Castles, delivered some tools and of many bones translating an important activity of butchery
the site of Fontmaure present of many tools, of which some in Jaspe.
the cave of Coppice of the slopes to Antigny was occupied from 30.000 to 15000 and delivers a score of levels, especially lihic industries, with some ornaments of shells and of the engraved bones. The higher level shows hundreds of human remainders of the recent Neolithic era, because the cave was then used as ossuary.

Research in progress

Excavations are in hand, on the old sites and of new. The state of research makes think that division prénéandertaliens/néandertaliens is rather artificial and must rather be understood like a chronological segmentation that like the translation of real physical or anthropological differences.

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