Prehistory rediscovered
Discovered in 1866, the Crot du Charnier deposit has been the subject of numerous excavation campaigns from the time of the pioneers of archeology to the present day. On two occasions, discoveries at the site helped clarify the chronology of prehistoric times. Immerse yourself in the history of Prehistory, a new science of Man that appeared in the last third of the XNUMXth century.
1866 – 1869: first research
On September 27, 1866, during a walk, Adrien Arcelin (1838–1904), a historian and archivist, accompanied by Henry Testot-Ferry (1826–1869), a paleontologist, discovered flint tools at the foot of the Roche de Solutré , in a place called Le Crot or Clos du Charnier . The two researchers then embarked on archaeological investigations of the site. They contacted the most eminent specialists in the study of fossil humans in Europe, recorded their observations, and published them simultaneously in 1868. Their work focused on three main categories of remains:
- accumulations of horse bones,
- kitchen scraps,
- the burials, some of which appear to date from the age of the reindeer.
©Adrien Arcelin
©Emile Bayard
©Pierre Joubert
The scientific heritage of Testot-Ferry
Henry Testot-Ferry died suddenly in November 1869, and Adrien Arcelin then completed his last work: Le Mâconnais préhistorique (Prehistoric Mâconnais). Published posthumously in 1870, the work was the first major synthesis on the prehistoric archaeology of an entire region.
The birth of a myth
At the same time, Adrien Arcelin aimed to share his discoveries at Solutré with the general public. In 1870, the writer Louis Figuier (1819-1894) prepared the first popular work on Prehistory: L'homme primitif (Hachette, 1870).
In exchange for sending his file on the Solutré research, Adrien Arcelin obtained the right to use Figuier's engravings . They would serve to illustrate the novel he had been writing for a serial in the Revue du Lyonnais since 1870. In 1872, the first prehistoric novel in the history of literature was published: Solutré ou les chasseurs de renne de la France centrale (Solutré or the Reindeer Hunters of Central France), signed "Adrien Cranile," an anagram of Adrien Arcelin.
To explain the thick layer of horse bones covering the site, the author imagines prehistoric hunters driving entire herds of horses into the void from the Roche de Solutré … The visual power of this dramatic scene strikes readers. It gives rise to the myth of the hunt into the abyss, destined for a long posterity under the pencil, or brush, of numerous illustrators of prehistory.
1872-1890: Question time
A new scientific duo
In August 1873, the congress of the French Association for the Advancement of Science met in Solutré to explore the site that would later bear its name . A bronze ring found at the location of a burial site, believed to be prehistoric, caused a stir among the scholars. The matter was serious, as it could compromise the rigor and credibility of the research. Fortunately, a commission of inquiry, convened by Adrien Arcelin, proved that the ring could not have come from the excavated skeleton . The prehistorian decided to join forces with his former rival, Abbé Antoine Ducrost (1833-1889), a geologist and soon-to-be parish priest of Solutré, to resume research and gain a better understanding of the site.
The two men dug numerous trenches, examining and comparing the succession of layers to validate their results. Their stratigraphic sections would serve as a reference for several decades. Following the death of Henry Testot-Ferry, the sudden passing of Abbé Ducrost in 1889 again surprised Adrien Arcelin. In 1890, he published their main findings , notably highlighting the existence of older levels beneath the layer of brecciated bones from the horse magma.
A witness site to the chronology of Prehistory
At the prehistoric congress in Autun in August 1907, Fabien Arcelin (1876-1942) resumed his father's excavations with Abbé Henri Breuil (1877-1961). A trench 40 meters long and 8 meters deep was opened under the road, the last undisturbed area of the site, much to the Abbé's dismay. They succeeded in proving the existence of a prehistoric level sandwiched between the Solutrean and Mousterian periods. All prehistorians shared their thesis, despite the protests of Adrien de Mortillet (1854-1931), son of Gabriel de Mortillet (1821-1898), whose chronology was then definitively revised: the " pre-Solutrean " Aurignacian was integrated into the chronology of prehistoric times.
©Adrien Arcelin
©Honoré Hugrel
1923 - 1928: The bone rush
Between 1923 and 1928, Professors Charles Depéret (1854-1929) and Lucien Mayet (1874-1949) , from the Faculty of Sciences in Lyon, opened new excavations at Solutré. Together with Fabien Arcelin, they embarked on the search for Solutrean human remains . Seventy burials had already been unearthed, sparking debate about their age. In the autumn of 1923, the first four skeletons, called "Aurignacian," were discovered beneath a layer of horse bones.
The media coverage of the discovery of prehistoric skeletons triggered the first mass tourist influx to the site. Daily shuttles transported tourists from Mâcon, and photographic postcards of the skeletons being excavated were sold. This flood of curious visitors, synonymous with noise and a lack of methodological rigor, caused the site to fall out of favor with many researchers.
1968 – 1998: scientific rehabilitation of the site
New excavations began between 1968 and 1976, following the state's acquisition of the main plots of the site. Directed by Jean Combier , a researcher at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), these excavations clarified the sequence of prehistoric occupations. These modern techniques allowed for the definition of the environmental context through several methods : pollen analysis, examination of small mammal remains, and sedimentology. They shed light on the lifestyle of prehistoric hunters and demonstrated that the site was frequented for over 25 years, during successive occupations interspersed with long periods of abandonment. It primarily served as a hunting ground for horses or reindeer during their seasonal migrations.
The myth of the abyss hunt is refuted: the cold and damp climatic conditions of the Gravettian period (around 28,000 years ago) favored the preservation of a layer of horse bones breached by the cave, the result of repeated hunts over a long period , without the need for the simultaneous slaughter of entire herds. Carbon-14 dating clarifies the age of the occupations and refutes the prehistoric origin of the numerous burials discovered on the site: they are the remains of a necropolis dating from the 5th and 6th centuries AD.
The latest archaeological research
The development of the Archaeological Park
From the museum 's opening in 1987, the creation of an archaeological park accessible to the public on the site was planned but not yet implemented. Jean Combier in 1987-1988, and then a team from the University of Kansas in 1997-1998, supplemented the research with topsoil removal and stratigraphic soundings . Casts were made for display on site.
In 2003-2004, excavations by the Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) , led by Nelly Connet, made it possible to anticipate the planned destructions for the development of the site into an archaeological and botanical park.
The Route de la Roche excavation
In 2015-2016, Jean-Baptiste Lajoux directed a preventive excavation for Inrap on the site of a future house at the entrance to the village of Solutré-Pouilly. The exceptional richness of the site necessitated extending the excavation by seven months . The study of the material recovered, including hundreds of lithic objects, numerous examples of bone industry, ornaments, an ochre area, and human remains , is still ongoing.