Institute For Ice Age Studies

Dark Caves Bright Vision
From the desk of the Director, Randall White

I've just returned from an extended research mission to Europe (France and Russia) where I have been engaged in a number of different research projects. In France, I have been continuing my long-term research into the beginnings of human body decoration. In particular, I worked on the 200 or so personal ornaments from the Aurignacian Levels (ca. 33,000 years old) of the site of Brassempouy in the département of Landes. This site, now being excavated by Dominique Gambier of the University of Bordeaux and François Bon of the University of Paris I, has yielded dozens of pierced marine shells, pierced teeth and carefully formed beads in wolly mammoth ivory and soapstone. One of the most extraordinary discoveries has been that of a series of pierced human teeth that Gambier, Bon and I are in the process of preparing for publication.

Just before leaving France in early March I began a collaborative study, with Yvette Taborin of the University of Paris, of the several dozen personal ornaments from the Chatelperronian (36-30,000 years ago) levels of the site of Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure. These ornaments, excavated by the late André Leroi-Gourhan, are from the same levels as some fragmentary Neandertal remains, implying that Neandertals made these ornaments. Since the Chatelperronians (almost certainly Neandertals) co-occupied western Europe with the anatomically modern Cro-Magnons, it has been proposed that the Neandertal occupants of the Grotte du Renne either obtained the ornaments from their Cro-Magnon contemporaries or at least got the idea of personal ornaments from them. There is also some suspicion that the Chatelperronian ornaments may result from a stratigraphic mixture of the Chatelperronian levels with an overlying Aurignacian (40-28,000 years ago) level.

My research with Yvette Taborin is a microscopic and technological analysis of these ornaments in an attempt to determine whether the techniques used were the same as those of the contemporary Cro-Magnons or whether they were distinctive and therefore probably reflect manufacture by Neandertals.

The results of this ongoing analysis speak to the very important evolutionary question of whether or not Neandertals were capable of symbolism. Stay tuned for updates on this research.

You will notice that we have posted a new article on a double statuette from the Gravettian (28-22,000 years old) site of Gagarino in the Don Valley of Russia. We have also posted a few of the other statuettes from Gagarino in our Ice Age Gallery section. All of this reflects the fact that I have been intensely engaged in an exhaustive analysis of the female statuettes from the European Ice Age. I have now studied nearly a hundred of these with a view to understanding the raw materials employed, the techniques of production and their contexts of use. To date I have taken more than 4,000 photographs and have syudied in great detail all of the statuettes from the sites of Avdeevo, Kostienki I, Gagarino, Brassempouy, Grimaldi, Lespugue, Trou-Magrite, Dolni Vestonice and Willendorf. The surfaces of these objects are, for the most part, amazingly well preserved and I will be describing the techniques of statuette production and evidence for statuette use in this newsletter in the near future.

Finally, I am about to head for France for the summer where the IIAS will continue its participation in the excavations of the site of Abri Castanet in the département of Dordogne. This will be the fourth year of this project, which is co-directed by myself and Jacques Pelegrin of the CNRS laboratory at Meudon outside of Paris. The work has also been financed by the LSB Leakey Foundation and the French Ministry of Culture.

Abri Castanet is a French National Historic Monument, and is among a handful of sites in Europe that have produced art obkects and items of personal adornment from about 35,000 years ago. It was first excavated at the beginning of this century by Denis Peyrony who left an enormous zone of intact deposits. Our goal is to undertake meticulous excavations at Castanet in order to recover this important artifactual record with as much contextual data as possible. To date, we have recovered large numbers of flint and antler artifacts, as well as substantial quantities of ivory and soapstone beads and related production debris. The sector that we are currently excavating has a number of combustion features that seem to be fireplaces that were placed in depressions dug into the bedrock floor of the rock shelter.

Frontal view of the southern sector of Abri Castanet as seen at the end of the 1996 season. The lowermost Aurignacian level (level 1) is exposed in the shallow section visible at left. At the left of photo and for 25 meters beyond, is the unexcavated central portion of the site.

We have assembled an international, multidisciplinary team of researchers to which we will add other collaborators as appropriate:

Randall White, Institute for Ice Age Studies and Department of Anthropology, New York University, USA (Codirector, Study of personal ornaments and other symbolic objects as well as micro-vestiges of technical activities)

Jacques Pelegrin, ERA 28 du CRA -- CNRS, Meudon, France (Codirector, Analysis of lithic technology)

Hélène Valladas, Radiocarbon Laboratory, Gif-sur-Yvette, France (Accelerator dating)

Jean-Pierre Texier, Institut du Quaternaire, Université de Bordeaux, France (Stratigraphy and sedimentology)

Françoise Delpech and Jean-Christophe Castel, Institut du Quaternaire, Université de Bordeaux, France (Taxonomic determination of mammalian remains and analysis of butchery patterns)

Thierry Gé, Institut du Quaternaire, Université de Bordeaux (Micromorphology of sediments and combustion features)

Anne Pike-Tay, Department of Anthropology, Vassar College, USA (Seasonality of mammalian remains and construction of age-profiles)

Isabelle Théry, CNRS, Montpellier (anthracological analysis of wood charcoal and other macrobotanical analyses)

Chantal Leroyer, Paleobotanist, Centre National de Préhistoire, Périgueux (pollen analysis)

Heidi Knecht, Department of Anthropology, University of Miami, USA (Analysis of bone and antler weapons and implements)

Brooke Blades, Department of Anthropology, New York University (Geochemical sourcing of Bergerac lithics)

Sophie A. de Beaune, Université de Paris I, France (Analysis of stone lamps and other non-flint stone implements)

Noah Thomas, New York University, USA (Microscopic analysis of sediments to determine spatial organization of technological activities)

Abri Castanet is one of the most promising sites in Europe for a biocultural understanding of the earliest modern humans in Europe. Our work at Castanet contributes to a modern quality data base that will take our understanding of the Upper Paleolithic side of the so-called Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition beyond generalized anecdote. Through a multi-disciplinary project anchored in fundamentals of stratigraphy, radiochronology and micromorphology, we aim to provide insight into faunal and floral exploitation, raw material procurement (local and exotic), seasonal organization, fabrication/use of implements and weapons, symbolic production, and shelter construction. The possibility exists for recovery of rare early Aurignacian human skeletal remains, which would contribute greatly to the debates surrounding the origins of modern humans in Europe. The rough contemporaneity of the lower level at Castanet with the Châtelperronian at Saint-Césaire, prevents presumptions as to who, biologically, produced the Castanet Aurignacian.

In 1997, we propose to continue our work at Castanet by completely excavating to bedrock the entire southern area of the site that we opened in 1995. We are confident that the excavation techniques, sampling strategies and stratigraphic techniques that we have adapted to the particular conditions of the site are both adequate and suitable to the various problem orientations outlined above. To this point we have been very prudent about taking and submitting radiocarbon samples. In 1997 we will descend to portions of the archaeological levels far from any potential surface pollution. Obtaining dating samples will be a priority.

The 1997 season will bring to a close our initial three year permit. The results will be critical to our future proposal to attack the totally intact central portion of the Castanet talus where the lower archaeological "level" reaches a thickness of more than 60 cm. There are strong indications that in this central portion the archaeological levels sit on the apron of a cave, the opening of which is now completely blocked by eboulis. In retrospect our decision to begin with the southern extremity was a good one, allowing us a clear and detailed understanding of the Castanet stratigraphy and of the dynamics of site formation. We have had the rare good fortune to begin excavations at the extreme limit of the site, and now to be able to work our way toward the central portion with confidence in the recovery techniques and stratigraphic controls that we have developed.

I will provide updates on all of these exciting projects and more in the months to come. If you are able to to help us financially in our various research and educational activities, please contact me through the e-mail button of this web-site. Your donations are tax deductible.