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<< Our Photo Pages >> Abri de la Madeleine - Cave or Rock Shelter in France in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24)

Submitted by TheCaptain on Saturday, 15 January 2011  Page Views: 12598

Natural PlacesSite Name: Abri de la Madeleine
Country: France Département: Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Sarlat-la-Canéda  Nearest Village: Tursac
Latitude: 44.967900N  Longitude: 1.028900E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
2 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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TheCaptain visited on 20th May 2005 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 2 You don’t actually really get to see the Abri de la Madeleine where all the prehistoric finds were made which gave their name to an epoch including the carved bison and the first harpoons. I guess to see this best you would need to canoe down the river but you can see the overhang and bits of it from the village and there is some display material in the visitor centre.

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Engraving of a Mammoth on a Mammoth tusk, from "Journal of British Archaeology" via archive.org (Vote or comment on this photo)
On a cliff face on the west side of the river Vézère near the village of Tursac is the Troglodytic village of La Madeleine, which has been inhabited since 50000 years ago and given its name to an epoch, the Madeleinian, which was about 12000 years ago.

Within a cave/shelter near the base of the cliff face, many prehistoric finds were made which gave their name to an epoch, including carved bison and the first harpoons.

On the public visit to the Madeleine site, you don’t actually really get to see the Abri de la Madeleine. I guess to see this cliff shelter best you would need to canoe down the river, but you can see the overhang and bits of it from the village and there is some display material in the visitor centre.


Note: The mammoth that trampled on the history of mankind
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Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : La Madeleine in relation to other sites, from "Prehistoric Art..." via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France (Vote or comment on this photo)

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Fishes and a horse on reindeer horn, from "Prehistoric Fishing" via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France (Vote or comment on this photo)

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : A fish on reindeer horn, from "Prehistoric Fishing" via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France (Vote or comment on this photo)

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Old photo, from "Der Mensch Aller Zeiten" via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France (Vote or comment on this photo)

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Pierced Reindeer antler carved with horses, from "Prehistoric Art" via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Drawing of a Glutton (Wolverine) from "Introduction to the Art of the Stone Age" via archive.org This animal is rarely depicted.

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Drawing from "Art of the Stone Age", Not a hind; the proportions are more like a Water Deer or Muntjac, which don't have antlers. Via archive.org

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Harpoon head with two flowers and a Fox pelt, from "La France Prehistorique" via archive.org

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Pierced Reindeer antler, from "La France Prehistorique" via archive.org

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Picture of the cave, from "La France Prehistorique" via archive.org

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Typical implements from the period, from "La France Prehistorique" via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Charging Mammoth engraving on ivory tusk, via archive.org Site in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) France

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by durhamnature : Engraving of a naked hunter, two horse heads, and an eel or snake, from "Journal of British Archaeology" via archive.org

Abri de la Madeleine
Abri de la Madeleine submitted by TheCaptain : Within a cave/shelter near the base of the cliff face at La Madeleine, many prehistoric finds were made which gave their name to an epoch, including carved bison and the first harpoons.

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 130m ENE 65° Source de la Madeleine* Holy Well or Sacred Spring
 260m ENE 75° Village de la Madeleine* Ancient Village or Settlement
 2.1km WSW 237° Gisement de la Micoque* Cave or Rock Shelter
 2.4km ENE 65° Grotte de La Forêt Cave or Rock Shelter
 2.6km SW 231° Abri de Laugerie-Haute* Cave or Rock Shelter
 2.6km WNW 292° Peyrelevade de Fleurac* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 2.9km SSE 159° Grotte des Combarelles II* Cave or Rock Shelter
 2.9km SSE 159° Grotte des Combarelles 1* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.1km SW 230° Abri de Laugerie-Basse* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.1km NE 35° Abri de Ruth* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.2km SW 229° Grotte de Grand Roc* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.4km SSW 207° Abri de Cro-Magnon* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.6km SSW 202° Gisement du Pataud* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.6km SW 222° Abri du Poisson* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.6km SW 219° Grotte de l'Oreille d'Enfer* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.6km S 180° Font-de-Gaume* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.6km SW 222° Abri de Lartet* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.7km SSW 199° Musée National de Préhistoire* Museum
 3.7km NE 51° La Roque-Saint-Christophe* Ancient Village or Settlement
 3.8km NE 39° Abri du Moustier* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.9km SSW 194° Grotte de la Croze* Cave or Rock Shelter
 3.9km SSW 194° Grotte d'Abzac Cave or Rock Shelter
 4.0km SE 138° Roc de Cazelle* Ancient Village or Settlement
 4.8km S 188° Grotte de la Mouthe* Cave or Rock Shelter
 5.1km SE 143° Grotte de Bernifal* Cave or Rock Shelter
View more nearby sites and additional images

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The Mammoth that Trampled on the History of Mankind by bat400 on Thursday, 26 June 2014
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Scientists from across the globe gather in the town of Les Eyzies in the Dordogne to commemorate one of the most important – and fortuitous – events in the study of human origins. They congregate to mark the 150th anniversary of the discovery of the Madeleine mammoth, a small piece of ancient art that provided unequivocal proof of the deep antiquity of Homo sapiens.

The uncovering of the engraving, in 1864, was the handiwork of a joint British-French archaeological expedition and it provided the first, unambiguous evidence that human beings had once shared this planet with long-extinct animals such as the mammoth. Its discovery was also an act of extraordinary good fortune. "On the day the engraving was found, two of the world’s leading palaeontologists happened to be at the site," says Jill Cook, an ice age art expert at the British Museum. "The piece had been fragmented and workmen carrying out the excavations would never have realised this. They would have simply dumped the bits and forgotten about them."
But by extraordinary good fortune, Edouard Lartet, who was overall director of the dig, and Hugh Falconer, a Scot who was visiting him, were present that day and realised that the bits formed a single item.
"It could so easily have been missed," says Cook.

The pieces found at La Madeleine formed a solid, two-inch-thick chunk of mammoth ivory, about 9in x 4in. On one side, the ivory had been carefully engraved with lines that Lartet and Falconer realised formed a picture of a mammoth. The discovery was just what Lartet and Falconer had been looking for: proof that Homo sapiens had once shared the planet with these long-extinct creatures, and so must possess deep ancestry as a species.

Evidence had been mounting throughout the 18th century that our planet was incredibly old ... At several riverbank sites scientists had excavated human artefacts mixed with the bones of extinct animals such as the mammoth and the woolly rhino. The finds suggested that during the last ice age we might once have shared the landscape with these creatures.
But other scientists disagreed. They argued that the mixing of mammoth fossils and human tools had actually been caused by rivers and flood waters. The mammoth bones had actually been laid down aeons before the human artefacts, they argued, but they had been mixed together by natural forces. In other words, humans did not appear on the scene until long after the mammoth had gone.

The excavation at La Madeleine would demolish that notion. The site at Abri de la Madeleine, in the Dordogne, a prehistoric shelter that is made up of well-preserved, distinct layers of deposits that have since been found to contain rich amounts of ancient tools, carvings and fossils of mammoths, woolly rhinos, reindeer and wolverines.

You can see a fine example of Madeleine carving at the British Museum. At the Natural History Museum’s current Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story exhibition, two beautifully engraved bones, found at La Madeleine by Lartet and Christy, are also on display.

"The site has since lent its name to a period known as the Magdalenian era,(12,000 and 16,000 years ago) which we now appreciate was a time of incredible artistic creativity," says Professor Chris Stringer, curator of the Natural History Museum exhibition.

The site has certainly produced many wonders, but in terms of their sheer scientific importance none can match the splintered mammoth figurine (made of mammoth ivory.) "You couldn’t really top that in terms of proving that humans had lived at the same time as mammoths," says Stringer.
Within days, Christy and Lartet had prepared a paper announcing what their expedition had found - presented in Paris in June 1864, the event that will be celebrated by the scientists who gather at Les Eyzies.

Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more, see http://www.pasth

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