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2017-05-13 09:34:16   •   ID: 1601

The Bifacial Mousterian of the Bretagne and the Basse Normandie.

Figure 1
This Mousterian facies is defined by numerous small bifaces (average size:~ 6-8cm) and bifacial scrapers, and is constitutive for the  Middle Palaeolithic of the Bretagne and the Basse Normandie.

Originally dated to the beginning of the last glacial (OIS5), some sites seem to be now securely dated to OIS3.

Important findings were made since the second half of the 19th century in the Eure Valley (Saint-Julien de la Liègue, Saint-Nicolas d'Attez "La Madeleine"),  the Calvados region (Bons-Tassilly "Le Châtelet")  and at several sites in the Orne Valley  (near Putanges-Pont Ecrepin, Saint-Brice-sous-Rânes, la "Bruyère"). 

Some of the sites are considerably large. For example Saint-Brice-sous-Rânes, la "Bruyère"9  covers serval hundred hectares.

Many of these sites have a work-shop character. Bifacial tools display a cordiform, subcordiform and somtimes ovalaire character. The scrapers usually have a covering retouch at one side and often show an incomplete covering of the other side.

Basal thinning of transverse scrapers is common.  Many “unifaces” have similarities to the “Halbkeile” and many flat handaxes are "Faustkeilblätter" in the German nomenclature.  

Similar findings from what is now Germany are known from the Lichtenberg Micoquian site in the North European Plain in Lower Saxony (Figure 2).

Anyhow Micoquian / KMG ensembles are quite different in comparison to the West European Bifacial Mousterian, as systematically shown by K.Ruebens, some years ago.

 Suggested Readings:

Papers on ResearchGate and Academiaedu by K Ruebens

Figure 2
An unique exhibition in 1996 in the Municipal Museum in Göttingen / Lower Saxonia assembled findings from Lichtenberg , several German and Eastern Micoquian sites,  especially from Volgograd [Sukhaja Metchetka].



Resources and images in full resolution: