Tautavel

We (Thibaut and Tom) spent two days in the south of France in Tautavel. The name of Tautavel is inextricably linked with the site of Caune d’Arago and the excavations of Henry de Lumley. We were there for two reasons. The first was to examine and sample material from the site of Hortus, near Montpellier. The second was to discuss the samples from Lazaret Cave that Thibaut is analyzing for organic residues.

The Hortus site is important due to the potentially late presence of the Mousterian there and the discoveries of many tens of Neanderthal bone and teeth remains. The establishment of a proper chronology, however, has remained elusive. Several dates were obtained in the 1980-90s but were significantly in error and not published. We are attempting to screen bone at the site using %N testing, and also trying to date some of the charcoal material which is derived from hearth features. The site will be a challenging one to date, however, due to the likely low preservation of collagen in the warm southern French littoral margin.

As well as working on this material we also had the opportunity to visit the Musée, the laboratories and the Arago site itself. It is more than 50 years ago that de Lumley began excavations. In 1969 the team enjoyed the discovery of the Arago 2 specimen, female, and in 1971 the Arago 21 cranium, both identified as Homo erectus. More than 160 hominin remains have been recovered, including several mandibles and many teeth, cranial bones and post-cranial remains. The site is still being excavated. More than 7 metres remains beneath the current level. It is incredibly rich in fauna and lithics. A glance down from the scaffolding reveals articulated horse jaws, vertebra, a bear skull still in site, bifaces, broken horse teeth and other faunal remains (see picture of a smashed horse mandible). Arago sits in command of the wide Tautavel valley and above a river. It must have been a key spot for early hominins to gaze for game 300,000 years ago.

Like Lazaret the excavation team consists of a cast of literally thousands. Since the start of the excavation, more than 4000 people have excavated at the site. Henri claims to remember every one, and even which squares they worked in. The Musée and laboratories are a hive of post-ex activity. A casting team make reproductions of the many human cranial remains as well as artefacts and objects from the French Palaeolithic, the well-appointed labs including an XRD, SEM, laser particle size analyser, microscopes, computing facilities and labspace for preparing thin-sections, pollen and other analyses. A huge storage building houses the collections.

We were really pleased to be able to look at the original fossils with Henri and his collaborator and wife Marie-Antoinette in the strong room where the material is kept. The cutmarks on many of the bones are clearly visible. The suture lines where the cranial frontal bone and the remains of the parietal fit back together neatly are amazing. It must have felt incredible to have been there at the time of the discovery of these fossils. In the excavation book of 1971 we saw the find number and details of Arago 21; found at 16:40 on the 22nd of July. We asked one of the team what the party was like that night as they celebrated the find. Oh yeah, he said, that was the best party ever.

Above: Thibaut, Henry and Marie-Antoinette de Lumley and the famous Arago specimens.