La grotte du Figuier (Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche) : bilan des travaux récents sur un site du Paléolithique moyen et supérieur de la moyenne vallée du Rhône (Sud-Est de la France)

Abstract

Recent excavations conducted in the three chambers of Grotte du Figuier (Ardèche) attest to a common deposit within the whole karstic system and allow us to specify the types of human occupation. Middle Palaeolithic occupations took place in chambers 3 and 2, as well as in the main chamber, 1. Humans could reach these chambers either through the main chamber (1) or through another entrance located in chamber 3, now present as a narrow crack. The site is well known for the two Middle Palaeolithic levels found in chamber 1, one of which has been attributed to the Quinatype Mousterian. The recent data and comparisons between the archaeological series of the three chambers attest that the cave was inhabited by human groups using common processing systems, although no Quina tools have been found. Different activities or occupations have to be envisaged in each chamber. Humans and carnivores inhabited the chambers furthest away from the main entrance, during a cold climatic context (probably the last glacial period). Upper Palaeolithic humans also occupied the karstic system, but not in the same way as during the Middle Palaeolithic. The Gravettian facies is the only one clearly observable through the lithic materiel found in the new test pits of chambers 2 and 3. Grotte du Figuier is a major site, not only by its sequence including Middle and Upper Palaeolithic levels, but also by the Neanderthal occupations attested inside the karstic system, in small chambers far from the main entrance.