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Le Moustier

Coordinates: 44°59′38″N 1°3′36″E / 44.99389°N 1.06000°E / 44.99389; 1.06000
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Le Moustier
Le Moustier
Le Moustier
Le Moustier 1 in 1909, before WWII bombing.
Le Moustier in France
Le Moustier in France
Location in France
Le Moustier in France
Le Moustier in France
Le Moustier (Aquitaine)
Le Moustier in France
Le Moustier in France
Le Moustier (Europe)
LocationPeyzac-le-Moustier
RegionDordogne, France
Coordinates44°59′38″N 1°3′36″E / 44.99389°N 1.06000°E / 44.99389; 1.06000
Site notes
Excavation dates1863
ArchaeologistsHenry Christy, Édouard Lartet.
Part ofPrehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley
CriteriaCultural: (i), (iii)
Reference85-014
Inscription1979 (3rd Session)
Area0.227 ha (24,400 sq ft)

Le Moustier is an archeological site consisting of two rock shelters in Peyzac-le-Moustier, a village in the Dordogne, France. It is known for a complete skeleton of the species Homo neanderthalensis that was discovered in 1908. The Mousterian tool culture is named after Le Moustier, which was first excavated from 1863 by the Englishman Henry Christy and the Frenchman Édouard Lartet. In 1979, Le Moustier was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List along with other nearby archeological sites as part of the Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley.[1]

Skeleton

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The skeleton known as "Le Moustier" is estimated to be approximately 45,000 years old.[2] The characteristics of its skull include a large nasal cavity and a somewhat less developed brow ridge and occipital bun, as might be expected in a juvenile.

After discovery, the skull was dismantled, cast and reconstructed at least four times. During this process, the skull received considerable amounts of damage; for example, after it was sold to the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, a dentist broke the alveolar bone to access the teeth. It was later damaged in the Allied bombing of Berlin during the Second World War, then looted by the USSR, which returned the remains of the skull to the German Democratic Republic in 1958.[3] The skull is now missing many parts, the teeth glued into the wrong position, and it has been dipped into glue, covered with varnish, and painted with plaster. Consequently, its scientific value is much reduced.[4]

  • Upper shelter
    Upper shelter
  • Lower shelter
    Lower shelter
  • Flint handaxe, excavated 1863, British Museum
    Flint handaxe, excavated 1863, British Museum
  • A box of side scrapers excavated by Lartet and Christy
    A box of side scrapers excavated by Lartet and Christy
  • Le Moustier 1 skull today in Neues Museum Berlin.
    Le Moustier 1 skull today in Neues Museum Berlin.
  • Le Moustier 1 Neanderthal facial reconstitution, Neues Museum Berlin[5]
    Le Moustier 1 Neanderthal facial reconstitution, Neues Museum Berlin[5]
  • Restoration of Neanderthal Flintworkers, Le Moustier Cavern, Dordogne, France by Charles R. Knight
    Restoration of Neanderthal Flintworkers, Le Moustier Cavern, Dordogne, France by Charles R. Knight

Stone tools

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A hand of a Neanderthal woman is holding a flint blade at the handle made of the ochre-bitumen mixture.
Reconstruction drawing of a flint blade from the Le Moustier site with the ochre-bitumen mixture as a handle and hypothetical handling.

Study of the artifacts found in Le Moustier reveals the use of glue made from a mixture of ocher and bitumen by Middle Paleolithic humans to make hand grips for cutting and scraping stone tools.[6] Experiments by archaeologists showed that the mass was sufficiently sticky so that a small stone tool could get stuck in it and the mass could serve as a handle, but the hands remained clean. This presupposes knowledge of both material characteristics and that a combination of these substances results in a new material. In addition, both components, bitumen and ochre, had to be gathered from different deposits far away from each other. This required planning and foresight in order to optimise the flint blades accordingly.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  2. ^ Australian Museum [Retrieved 2012-01-06]
  3. ^ Claudio, Tuniz; Manuela, Montagnari Kokelj; Marco, Budinich (2010). Science For Cultural Heritage: Technological Innovation And Case Studies In Marine And Land Archaeology In The Adriatic Region And Inland. World Scientific. p. 274. ISBN 9789814464925.
  4. ^ Weber, Gerhard (2011). Virtual anthropology : a guide to a new interdisciplinary field. Wien London: Springer. ISBN 978-3-211-48647-4.
  5. ^ Bekker, Henk (23 October 2017). "Neues Museum in Berlin 1175".
  6. ^ Patrick Schmidt, Radu Iovita, Armelle Charrié-Duhaut, Gunther Möller, Abay Namen, Ewa Dutkiewicz (21 February 2024). "Ochre-based compound adhesives at the Mousterian type-site document complex cognition and high investment". Science Advances. 10 (8). doi:10.1126/sciadv.adl0822. PMC 10881035.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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