The Magdalenians return to the Solutré museum

The Solutré Site: Route de la Roche

A glacial landscape

It was during the construction project of a single-family home that the prehistoric soil was unearthed by Inrap archaeologists in 2015. The deposit opens halfway up the slope, on the southern side of the Roche de Solutré, at the entrance to the village. 18 years ago, the climate of southern Burgundy was cold and dry and the environment presented open tundra-steppe landscapes, comparable to current Arctic environments. Magdalenian hunters mainly hunted reindeer (000% of the fauna studied), as well as horses (61%), with seasonal peaks around the end of summer and winter. Hares (20%) may have been hunted there throughout the year.

A site of unprecedented richness

The Solutré Route de la Roche site is exceptional in terms of the quantity and quality of the remains preserved. It has yielded a veritable profusion of furniture. More than 168 objects have been unearthed: 000 lithic elements, several tens of thousands of bone remains of consumed animals, 56 objects fashioned from bone, reindeer antlers or ivory, finished pieces, rough cuts and production waste, etc.

Hunting weapons made of flint and animal materials are particularly numerous: 1883 flint-backed blades, 138 reindeer antler projectile points. Domestic flint tools (nearly 1000 pieces and fragments), finished bone objects and manufacturing waste, including rods extracted from reindeer antler poles used to make the objects, cut reindeer antlers, dozens of bone needles and the horse bones from which they were made, several pierced reindeer antler sticks, bear witness to the daily life of a camp and the activities that took place there: making flint tools, making objects from bone and reindeer antler, sewing, etc.

Remarkable preservation quality

The condition of the surfaces is reminiscent of discoveries made in the protective environment of the caves, which allows archaeologists to make numerous observations.

No fewer than 165 decorative or adorned objects show the investment of hunter-gatherers in aesthetic or symbolic activities. Among these, 140 shells, elements of necklaces, bracelets or clothing decorations, attest to contributions from the Mediterranean coast but also to more discreet contacts with the Atlantic regions (2% of the identified pieces). Several beads fashioned from deer spits (canines), a more temperate species absent from the hunted fauna, show the aesthetic or symbolic value of this animal fragment in the Magdalenian world.

Unprecedented insight into the Solutré site 

The data from the Solutré Route de la Roche excavation are changing our understanding of the Solutré site. More than just an open-air hunting site, already known since the first investigations at the end of the 18th ^century , the new data paint a picture of a long-term settlement at the beginning of the Late Glacial period, 000 years ago. With its new insights into the relationship with the natural environment, technical traditions, and aesthetic and symbolic concerns, the excavation provides invaluable testimony to the daily life of Middle Magdalenian communities in east-central France and offers a leading scientific reference for the archaeological understanding of this period.