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2017-08-31 05:44:18 • ID: 1650
Bifacial Scraper from Montguillain / Goincourt (Oise)
This is a 9 cm long excellent bifacial scraper from Montguillain (Oise), found during the 19th century.
A very similar artifact can be found in F. Bordes` Typologie du Paléolithique ancien et moyen.
Gabriel De Mortillet’s 1873 described several locations, that he thought to be characteristic for the Mousterian, among them the multilayered site of Montguillain (Oise). Together with other sites, which were early recognized in the 19th century by their abundant material and eye-catching artifacts, such as:
- Le Moustier ("Moustiers"; Dordogne),
- Chez Pourré-Chez Comte" (Corrèze)
- Grotte de Néron (Soyons; Ardèche)
- Grotte abri de l'Ermitage, Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne)
- Grenelle and Levallois-Perret (Paris).
Artifacts from Montguillain are displayed in important textbooks (Mortillet's Musée préhistorique and Bordes' Typologie du Paléolithique ancien et moyen).
Of course some of them cumulated in the collections of early collectors. In his book: "Le préhistorique: Antiquité de l'homme" G. de Mortillet gave the first (and last) account about the material from Montguillain.
Les silex moustériens y abondent : racloirs, pointes, types Levallois, scies, lames, nucléus et percuteurs ; industrie complète. Mais il y a certainement divers niveaux dans cette ballastière.
On y trouve d’assez nombreux instruments chelléens. La belle collection Baudon, à Mouy, en contient depuis 51 millimètres jusqu’à 318 millimètres de long. On y rencontre aussi des lames et grattoirs qui doivent être rapportés au magdalénien, et même quelques grattoirs et pointes de flèche du robenhausien.
Malheureusement cet important gisement a été exploité par de simples ouvriers, sans qu’on l’ait jamais étudié sérieusement".
The last statement remains true till now. Bifacial scrapers are components of the European Middle Paleolithic and incorporated into different systems- especially into the Quina system in S/W-France, the Quina Mousterian of the Rhone Valley, the bifacial Mousterian of N/W- France and the Keilmessergruppen (KMG) of Central and East Europe.
Most classic "Mousterian" assemblages, both in western and central Europe, are characterised by a almost completely lack of bifacial tools. In some assemblages bifacial scrapers or handaxes may be present, but never in large number (Gouzeaucourt layer G; MIS8). Only from MIS5 onwards, during the MTA, are handaxes and other bifacial tools more common.
MTA handaxes are thin, symmetric and (sub)cordiform or (sub)triangular in shape. Several regional MTA variants can be recognised represented by cordiform handaxes in southwestern France, triangular handaxes in northern France and bout-coupé handaxes in the UK.
Furthermore a rich bifacial Mousterian with small handaxes is recognised in western Europe. In the latter, bifacial scrapers are rather common (Saint-Brice-sous-Rânes, la “Bruyère” (Orne), Saint-Julien de la Liègue (Eure)).
In contrast to the Mousterian, which almost totally lacks bifacial elements, a more pronounced occurrence of bifacial tools is the defining the character of the Keilmessergruppen (KMG).
In general the KMG "type fossils" are Keilmesser (asymmetric bifacial backed scraper-knives) together with Faustkeilblätter (artefacts with a finely retouched point, blunt base and one face which is flat and exhibits a covering retouch), Halbkeile (elongated unifaces with a D-shaped cross-section) and Fäustel (small bifaces)and last but not least bifacial scrapers (for example at Lichtenberg and Salzgitter during MIS3).