The bison valley: Ormesson (Seine-et-Marne, France), a key open-air site for the study of Palaeolithic groups from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Badegoulian
Abstract
In the Paris Basin, open-air Palaeolithic sites generally belong to the final
Magdalenian with examples such as Pincevent, Etiolles and Verberie. It is on
these sites that the palethnographic approach of A. Leroi-Gourhan and his
disciples was elaborated. However, for a long time, periods prior to the end of
the Upper Palaeolithic did not focus a lot of attention, certainly because of the
absence of well-preserved sites, but also because of a relative lack of interest
on behalf of researchers who were working on this vast area. Thanks to a collective
research project developed in the early 2000’s at the French National
Center for Scientific research (CNRS), entitled “The Early Upper Palaeolithic of
the centre and the south of the Paris Basin”, new data were collected leading to
the development of an excavation program on the site of Ormesson (Seine-et-
Marne) that began in 2009. After seven years of functioning, this program,
initially focused on a Gravettian occupation dated 26500 uncal. BP and linked
to bison hunting, has permitted the identification of four others occupations
ranging from the end of the Middle Palaeolithic to the Badegoulian, and also
including the Châtelperronian and the Middle Solutrean periods. The excellent
state of preservation of these occupations leads us, besides the study of the
environmental context (topography, plant environment, fauna, availability of
raw materials, etc.), to a better understanding of subsistence economies and
settlements functioning developed during 30000 years of human presence at
this site.