Abri Reverdit

Main A-Z Index

CONTENTS

• Castel-Merle Rock Shelter
• Location
• Discovery & Excavation
• Dating
• Rock Art at Reverdit
• The Vézère Valley
• References

Castel-Merle Rock Shelter

Abri Reverdit is a collapsed rock shelter in the Vézère Valley of the French Dordogne, now part of UNESCO's World Heritage List.

It is one of ten or more paleolithic caves located at Castel-Merle, an archaeological site in the Vallon des Roches.

This small tributary valley was one of the most densely populated districts during the Ice Age, occupied first by the Neanderthals from around 160,000 BC, and then by Cro-Magnons, the species of modern Homo sapiens who colonized Europe, from around 54,000 BC.

A variety of hunter-gatherer art has been discovered at Abri Reverdit and other shelters at Castel-Merle, including cave paintings, stone friezes and petroglyphs, dating to the era of Upper Paleolithic art (40,000 to 10,000 BC).

A few kilometres to the northeast is the famous Lascaux Cave, which has one of the finest collections of prehistoric art in the whole of Europe.

Back to top

A Note About Chronology

Archaeologists commonly divide the Upper Paleolithic into the following periods.

• Mousterian: 160,000-40,000 BC
• Aurignacian: 40,000-30,000 BC
• Gravettian: 30,000-20,000 BC
• Solutrean: 20,000-15,000 BC
• Magdalenian 15,000-10,000 BC

Location

Abri Reverdit is located close to the town of Sergeac, a few kilometres northeast of three important archaeological sites: La Micoque (400,000-130,000 BC), Le Moustier (300,000 BC) and La Madeleine (13,000 BC).

It sits at the foot of a cliff facing east on the left bank of the Ruisseau des Roches, a stream which flows north into the Vézère river.

The stream is flanked on both sides by steep cliff faces whose interiors contain several other caves and rock shelters, the majority of which are decorated.

As far as we know, human occupation of these other shelters predates that of Reverdit by a considerabe margin. For example:

• Abri des Merveilles
  A hominid molar tooth discovered in the cave was dated to the Mousterian culture, around 160,000 BC.
• Abri Blanchard, Abri Castanet
  Decorated slabs from Abri Blanchard, and Abri Castanet rock shelters were dated by molecular filtration and Hydroxyproline 14C technology to the Aurignacian culture, about 36,000 BC.
• Abri de La Souquette
  Recent radiocarbon dates indicate La Souquette is a contemporary of Abri Castanet (c.36,000 BC).
• Abri Labattut
  Wall art from this shelter dates from around 32,000 BC.
• Roc de l'acier
  Materials found here, date to the Aurignacian and Périgordian periods: from about 32,000 BC.

Discovery & Excavation

Abri Reverdit was first discovered by Alain Reverdit, in 1875. Three years later he began excavations - during which he discovered the first frieze - and apparently emptied out much of the shelter.

He was followed by M. Féaux et M. Hardy, in 1879; by Marcel Castanet in 1909, and by Louis Didon and Denis Peyrony in 1910; and by Franck Delage between 1911 and 1914.

During the mid-1980s, a new study rexamined the archaeology of the shelter, and addressed both the lithics and the wall art.

Danielle Robin and Alain Roussot established a new stratigraphic cross-section in the southern part of the shelter; a new analysis of the shelter's stone tools was conducted by D. de Sonneville-Bordes; while C. Bourdier re-analyzed the stone friezes.

Unfortunately, the initial excavation by Reverdit was not done scientifically, and much valuable information and contextual material was lost.

A more rigorous excavation was conducted between 1911 and 1914 by Delage, who discovered 19 sculpted blocks of stone, but a significant amount of archaeological material became mixed together so as to obscure the details of the various human occupations.

Delage's research also neglected very small items. Indeed, no sieving of the collected material was carried out until the 1980s.

Then, in 1923 Castanet discovered the frieze on the ceiling at the back of the shelter, which featured a horse and a number of bison.

Unfortunately, achaeological procedures performed on it have also led to erosion problems, while the floor of the shelter has also been degraded, due to its removal during successive excavations.

All this, allied to 12,000 years of natural weathering and mould, has left the archaeology and stratigraphy of the site in a confused and incomplete state.

Back to top

Dating

Recent analysis of the stratigraphic data coupled with Carbon-14 dating results, show that Abri Reverdit was visited at several different times. These occupations started during the Badegoulian culture, which dates to between 17,000 and 15,000 BC.

Characteristic Badegoulian stone tools include shouldered projectile points, laurel leaf points, and small scraper tools called 'raclettes'.

The occupation became more continuous during the Magdelenian, with most activity dating to the lower Magadelenian about 15,000-14,000 BC.

Among the Magdalenian artifacts recovered were microliths, as well as a range of ivory, bone and antler tools, including implements needed to make symbolic items such as beads, figurines and abstract engravings, as well as utilitarian objects such as beveled bone points, needles, and spear throwers (atlatls).

Rock Art at Reverdit

• The main rock art found at Reverdit consists of a horizontal limestone frieze roughly 3.5 metres in length, which was found at the back of the shelter. Sadly, it has suffered major erosion which makes it extremely difficult to decipher.
• The frieze features four or more sculptures carved in bas-relief or haut-relief. They comprise a horse's front end, plus two bison, arranged in a line. In addition, Delage and Henri Breuil identified a horse's head superimposed on the first horse around its rump, plus, a third small bison between the two main bison.
• All the animals are shown facing towards the Vézère Valley.
• The frieze is unfinished. Also, the figures are only sculpted. There are no rock engravings present. The only other cultural markings are cupules - small cup-shaped holes in the surface of the stone. For more, see: Cupule Signs in French Caves.
• The stone frieze at Reverdit show significant similarities (in composition and highlighting technique) with the sculptures from Cap-Blanc (13,000 BC), a few kilometres to the southwest. Other connections have been made with the art at Roc-aux-Sorciers (13,000 BC, Vienne), to the north.
• In addition, at least one of the figures (a bison) was carefully positioned to exploit a natural bulge in the cave wall, similar to some of the bison on the ceiling of Altamira Cave in Spain.
• The frieze constitutes the main example of parietal art in the Reverdit shelter, but some nineteen sculpted and engraved blocks have also been found, depicting horses and bison, which are now preserved at the National Museum of Prehistory at Les Eyzies.
• In addition, numerous pieces of limestone containing traces of black and red paint, have been found, causing Delage and others to speculate that the sculptures may have been painted - a hypothesis reinforced by the detection of ochre pigments in the layers of sediment.

Back to top

Artifacts

A large number of stone and bone tools have been recovered from Reverdit over the years, as well as sandstone lamps and other examples of mobiliary art, including carvings on spear-throwers.

Archaeologist Randall White, an expert in microstratigraphic investigation, has had tremendous success recently at Abri Blanchard and Abri Castanet at Castel-Merle, as well as Abri Cellier, a few kilometres to the west.

His sieving methods have identified a large quantity of beads and other very small symbolic items. Such meticulous methodology could be highly effective at Reverdit.

The Vézère Valley

Vézère Valley is one of France's leading hotspots of Stone Age culture, which has yielded significant collections of paleolithic art from 40,000 BC to 10,000 BC.

Since 1979, the area has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. See Vézère Valley Caves for details.

In addition to the Castel-Merle shelters mentioned above, it is home to several famous Stone Age sites, including:

• Abri du Poisson: 23,000 BC
  Famous for its salmon relief carving
• La Mouthe: 20,000 BC
  One of the earliest finds in the Dordogne.
• Font de Gaume: 14,000 BC
  Famous for its engraved paintings.
• Les Combarelles: 11,700 BC
  Features one of the largest collections of engravings.
• Rouffignac Cave: 11,000 BC
  Famous for its painted mammoths.

References

(1) Bahn, P.G., 2007: Cave Art: A Guide to the Decorated Ice Age Caves of Europe Published by Frances Lincoln ltd, 2007 ISBN 0711226555, 9780711226555.
(2) Bourdier Camille., 2008: "La frise sculptée de l’abri Reverdit. Paleo, 20 | 2008, 23-46.
(3) Bourdier, C., 2011: Specifications and relatives of the rock system of protected Reverdit (Sergeac, Dordogne) Paleo 22 | 2011, 53-68.
(4) Nougier, Louis-René (January 1990). "Le vallon des Roches, à Sergeac". Les Grottes préhistoriques ornées de France, d'Espagne et d'Italie Balland. ISBN 9782402041638.
(5) Reverdit, Alain (1878). "Stations et traces des temps préhistoriques dans le canton de Montignac-sur-Vézère". Bulletin de la Société historique et archéologique du Périgord. 5: 385.
(6) Roussot, Alain (1991). "Les abris de Castelmerle". La Vézère des origines. Imprimerie Nationale. p. 62–65. ISBN 2-11-081110-2.