Grotte des Fées (Châtelperron): History of Research, Stratigraphy, Dating, and Archaeology of the Châtelperronian Type-Site
Résumé
After the demonstration that no Châtelperronian/Aurignacian interstratifications existed at Roc-de-Combe, Le Piage, and El Pendo, the Grotte des Fées remained the single instance conceivably documenting the putative longterm regional contemporaneity of the two technocomplexes which is required by the “acculturation” and “imitation” models of the innovations (ornaments, decorated bone tools) that characterize the Châtelperronian. Based on our own inspection and study of the lithic and faunal collections and of the site itself, on consideration of the published and unpublished literature, and on the available dating evidence, we show that the putative interstratified deposits reported by Henri Delporte, who last excavated at the Grotte des Fées in 1951–54 and 1962, are in fact 19th-century backfill. In situ remnants may have been found in 1962, but, in the part of the site excavated at that time, Delporte failed to recognize the previously described interstratification. The stratigraphic consistency of 10 (out of the 13) radiocarbon dates available relates to the fact that those 10 dates are on samples from the conceivably in situ remnants excavated in 1962. Three samples from Level B5 date the Châtelperronian occupation to ca 39–40,000 14C BP, while seven samples from Level B1–3 relate to carnivore denning at the site throughout the ca 36,500–34,500 14C BP interval. Subsequent sporadic incursions by bearers of an Aurignacian I tool-kit are documented by diagnostic material scattered from top to bottom of the backfill deposits excavated by Delporte between 1951 and 1954. Originally, that Aurignacian material must have been contained in a surficial occupation lens capping the site's Mousterian-to-Châtelperronian stratigraphic succession.
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