La Ferrassie

The sagittal section through the large rock shelter at La Ferrassie

La Ferrassie is an archaeological site in Savignac-de-Miremont, in the Dordogne department, France.^[1] The site, located in the Vézère valley,^[2] consists of a large and deep cave flanked by two rock shelters^[3] within a limestone cliff, under which there is a scree slope formation.^[1]

Age

Vulva engraving from the rock shelter

Artifacts found at the site are the productions of Mousterian (300-30,000 BP), Aurignacian (45–35,000 BP), and Périgordian (35–20,000 BP) cultures.^[4] The cave area contains Gravettian (32–22,000 BP) objects and the scree contains objects from all these ages as well as the Châtelperronian (35-29,000 PB). The site was abandoned during the Gravettian period (27 kya).^[3] Complex Mousterian burial structures found at La Ferrasie finally provided the evidence of Neanderthal burial practice.^[5]

Exploration history

A small area of the site was initially investigated by M. Tabanou in 1896,^[3] a teacher who died of a landslide at the Badegoule rock shelter shortly thereafter.^[6] Denis Peyrony and Louis Capitan explored the site in 1905, 1907 and 1912; Peyrony in 1934, Henri Delporte in 1969 and 1984, and Delporte with Tuffreau in 1984.^[4][1]

Fossils

Eight buried Neanderthals have been found in La Ferrassie, including infants and two fetuses.^[7]

Name	Geological age (Kya)	Develop- mental age	Note
La Ferrassie 1	68–74	45	The skeleton of an adult male, including the most complete Neanderthal skull ever found.[7] Discovered in 1909.[3]
La Ferrassie 2	68–74	25–30	An incomplete cranium and skeleton of a female Neanderthal found in 1910 and dated to 68-74,000 before present. This is now kept in the Musée de l'Homme.[3]
La Ferrassie 6	68–74	3–5	Nearly complete skeleton of a juvenile discovered in 1921.[3]
La Ferrassie 8		2,5	Another Neanderthal of approximately two and a half years of age, found in 1982.[8]

Notes

1. Peregrine & Ember 2001
2. Blades 1999, Abstract
3. Wood 2011
4. Blades 2009
5. Binford 1968
6. Peyrony 1934
7. Smithsonian 2010
8. Quam, Martínez & Arsuaga 2011

References

• Binford, SR (1968). "A Structural Comparison of Disposal of the Dead in the Mousterian and the Upper Paleolithic". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 24 (2): 139–154. JSTOR 3629419.
• Blades, BS (July 1999). "Aurignacian lithic economy and early modern human mobility: new perspectives from classic sites in the Vézère valley of France". J Hum Evol. 37 (1): 91–120. doi:10.1006/jhev.1999.0303. PMID 10375477.
• Blades, BS (2009). "Aurignacian Core Reduction and Landscape Utilization at La Ferrasie, France". In Blades, BS; Adams, B. Lithic Materials and Paleolithic Societies. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 186–95. ISBN 9781444311969.
• Peregrine, PN; Ember, M, eds. (2001). Encyclopedia of Prehistory. Volume 4: Europe. Kluwer Acad. ISBN 9780306462641.
• Peyrony, D (1934). La Ferrassie: Moustérien — Périgordien — Aurignacien (PDF) (in French). Reprinted by Kraus Reprint in 1976. En 1896, j'y fus amené par Tabanou, ce malheureux instituteur qui devait un peu plus tard périr sous un éboulement dans ses recherches à Badegoule.
• Quam, Rolf; Martínez, Ignacio; Arsuaga, Juan Luis (2011). "New Observations on the Human Fossils from Petit-Puymoyen (Charente)" (PDF). PaleoAnthropology. 2011: 102. doi:10.4207/PA.2011.ART44. ISSN 1545-0031.
• "La Ferrassie". Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program. 2010. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
• Wood, B, ed. (2011). Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444342475.

Coordinates: 44°57′07″N 0°56′17″E / 44.95194°N 0.93806°E