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From Carnac to Callanish: Prehistoric Stone Rows, Aubrey Burl

From Carnac to Callanish: Prehistoric Stone Rows, Aubrey Burl

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<< Image Pages >> Abris-sous-roche de Combe-Capelle - Cave or Rock Shelter in France in Aquitaine:Dordogne (24)

Submitted by coldrum on Wednesday, 16 March 2011  Page Views: 6635

Natural PlacesSite Name: Abris-sous-roche de Combe-Capelle Alternative Name: Combe-Capelle Bas, le Haut de Combe-Capelle, Abri Peyrony, Pl
Country: France Département: Aquitaine:Dordogne (24) Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Bergerac  Nearest Village: Saint-Avit-Senieur
Latitude: 44.752740N  Longitude: 0.847920E
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
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data 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.
no data 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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Abris-sous-roche de Combe-Capelle
Abris-sous-roche de Combe-Capelle submitted by durhamnature : Old cross-section drawing, from "Antiquity of Man" via archive.org (Vote or comment on this photo)
Combe-Capelle consists of four prehistoric sites: Abri du Roc de Combe-Capelle, Combe-Capelle Bas, le Haut de Combe-Capelle (Abri Peyrony,) and the Plateau de Ruffet. Together they span the late Middle Paleolithic, the 'transitional period,' and the Upper Paleolithic. Henri-Marc Ami carried out excavations there from the late 1920s until his death in 1931.

Abri du Roc de Combe-Capelle was thought to be a Neanderthal site situated in the Couze valley in the Périgord region of Southern France. The famous Homo sapiens from Combe Capelle was for a long time considered to be a Paleolithic Cro-Magnon man and one of the oldest findings of modern humans in Europe. However, in 2011 collagen from a tooth of the skull in Berlin was dated with accelerator mass spectrometry to an age of only 7575 BC.

A team of scientists, comprising members from Berlin's Museum of Prehistory and Early History, Universität Greifswald, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the Leibniz Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Stable Isotope Research in Kiel, have managed to unlock the secrets surrounding the dating of the burial site of Combe Capelle that was discovered by the Swiss researcher Otto Hauser in 1909.

Since his sensational discovery, the site of Combe Capelle has long been considered one of the oldest finds of the remains of modern Homo sapiens anywhere in Europe. Due to the individual circumstances of the find, doubt was sometimes cast on its speculated age of more than 30,000 years and its connection with the transition to the Upper Palaeolithic (Châtelperronian). In spite of this, however, the remains (buried with a chain of mussel shells) were nevertheless thought to have originated in the Ice Age.

After an initial sample of the famous skull failed to yield results in radiocarbon dating, a second sample was taken from a molar in the lower jaw for testing in June 2009 in Kiel. In previous cases, compact tooth enamel had shown better preservation conditions of the collagen needed for radiocarbon dating. A sufficient amount of collagen was able to be extracted after preparation and intense cleaning of the tooth substance. Subsequent analysis using accelerator mass spectrometry at the laboratory in Kiel assigned a date of 7575 BCE to the remains of what had previously been assumed to be an early Homo sapiens specimen, meaning earlier assumptions had been out by several thousands of years.

The new dating for the site at Combe Capelle not only underscores the fact that finds of early anatomically modern humans, pre-dating 30,000 years ago, are extremely rare in Europe, but also confirms the trend that we have no evidence of burials from this era. At the same time, it has become clear that Châtelperronian culture in France was practised exclusively by the last Neanderthals. The new date places the crouched inhumation site from the rock shelter of Combe Capelle in the Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic), when humans lived in warm climatic conditions and survived by hunting, fishing and gathering nuts and berries, including hazelnuts. Inhumations from the later Middle Stone Age are exceptionally rare in Europe, and as such, the site of Combe Capelle remains an outstanding site of European prehistory.

Source: Art Daily and see also Wikipedia and Don's Maps.

Note: Burial Site at Combe Capelle in France many thousands of years younger than previously thought. Neandertals made the first specialized bone tools in Europe.
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Sainte-Croix.
Montferrand-du-Périgord.
Montferrand-du-Périgord.
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"Abris-sous-roche de Combe-Capelle" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Saint-Avit-Sénieur 24 Abri du Roc de Combe Capelle by lafemmedepierre on Wednesday, 05 July 2017
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Hello, I'm back !

Very interesting page of yours...

Bur I would suggest you to change the name of the place to :
"The four (4) Abris-sous-roche de Combe-Capelle",
which would be more coherent to the description below.

regards,
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Neandertals made the first specialized bone tools in Europe by bat400 on Thursday, 13 February 2014
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Modern humans replaced Neandertals in Europe about 40,000 years ago, but the Neandertals' capabilities are still greatly debated. Some argue that Neandertals had cultural capabilities similar to modern humans, while others argue that these similarities only appear once modern humans came into contact with Neandertals.

"For now the bone tools from these two sites are one of the better pieces of evidence we have for Neandertals developing on their own a technology previously associated only with modern humans," explains Dr. Shannon McPherron (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig.) He and Dr. Michel Lenoir (University of Bordeaux) have been excavating the site of Abri Peyrony where three of the bones were found.

"If Neandertals developed this type of bone tool on their own, it is possible that modern humans then acquired this technology from Neandertals. Modern humans seem to have entered Europe with pointed bone-tools only, and soon after started to make lissoir. This is the first possible evidence for transmission from Neandertals to our direct ancestors," says Dr. Soressi of Leiden University, Netherland. She and her team found the first of four bone-tools during her excavation at the classic Neandertal site of Pech-de-l'Azé I. However, we cannot eliminate the possibility that these tools instead indicate that modern humans entered Europe and impacted Neandertal behavior.

How widespread was this new Neandertal behavior? The first three found were fragments less than a few centimeters long. "However, when you put these small fragments together and compare them with finds from later sites, the pattern in them is clear," comments Dr. McPherron. "Then last summer we found a larger, more complete tool that is unmistakably a lissoir like those we find in later, modern human sites or even in leather workshops today."

Microwear analysis conducted by Dr. Yolaine Maigrot of the CNRS on of one of the bone tools shows traces compatible with use on soft material like hide. Modern leather workers still use similar tools today. "Lissoirs like these are a great tool for working leather, so much so that 50 thousand years after Neandertals made these, I was able to purchase a new one on the Internet from a site selling tools for traditional crafts," says Dr. Soressi. "It shows that this tool was so efficient that it had been maintained through time with almost no change. It might be ... the only heritage from Neandertal times that our society is still using today."

These are not the first Neandertal bone tools, but up to now their bone tools looked like stone tools and were made with stone knapping percussive techniques. "Neandertals sometimes made scrapers, notched tools and even handaxes from bone," says Dr. McPherron. "But here we have an example of Neandertals taking advantage of the pliability and flexibility of bone to shape it in new ways to do things stone could not do."

The bone tools were found in deposits containing typical Neandertal stone tools and the bones of hunted animals including horses, reindeer, red deer and bison. At both Abri Peyrony and Pech-de-l'Azé I, there is no evidence of later occupations by modern humans. Both sites have only evidence of Neandertals.

Dr. Sahra Talamo (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) applied radiocarbon dating to bones found near the bone tools themselves. At Pech-de-l'Azé I, Dr. Zenobia Jacobs (University of Wollongong) applied optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to sediments from the bone tool layer. The results place the Pech-de-l'Azé I bone tool to approximately 50,000 years ago, well before the best evidence of modern humans in Western Europe; older than other examples of sophisticated bone tool technologies.

Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more, see http://www.sciencedaily.com. The above story is based on materials provided by Max Planck Institute.
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