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2026-03-22 16:47:26 • ID: 2411
Science in action: Shouldered Points at Abri Morin
Figure 2 shows a Shouldered Point and Figure 3 a Laugerie Point from the late Magdalenian in South West France.
This is the story of how an influential theory was created using biased data supported by a couple of well-known prehistorians and how it was falsified later.
The archaeological deposits at the Morin rockshelter are of paramount importance to the study of the transition from Magdalenian to Azilian times in the Aquitaine region. Furthermore, the Abri Morin is significant for its wealth of Magdalenian portable art and for the remains of an early dog found here.
Complex B (Lower Layers) were attributed to the Upper Magdalenian while Complex A (Upper Layers) were subdivided into four levels (I to IV), with abundant remains from the Final Magdalenian, but also from later periods.
Unfortunately it seems that the excavator, did not really understand the complexity of the site and was unable to realize the the amount of secondary mixing between the strata.
However it has to be mentioned, that in the 1950s, even trained prehistorians didn't really think much about how archaeological layers were formed or how artifacts were redistributed by intermixing.
And that's how, based on biased primary data, the inevitable theoretical disaster unfolded.
In the 1950s through the 1970s, François Bordes and Denise de Sonneville-Bordes, the most
prominent couple in prehistoric research at that time, interpreted Deffarges stratigraphy as evidence of a continuous and gradual autochthonous evolution of the Azilian from the local Magdalenian in South West France.
Deffarges' biased reconstruction of the archaeological layers implied that there were Azilian points (Bipoints, Monopoints, and Maulerie points) and genuine late Magdalenian projectiles (points de Laugerie and shouldered Points) in each of the late Magdalenian layers.
Bordes and Sonneville Bordes accepted Deffarges' reconstruction so far and in the next step, they noticed that there were more Azilian points than genuine late Magdalenian projectiles at the top of the reconstructed archaeological succession than at the bottom.
This suggested that the Azilian points gradually developed from the late Magdalenian points over time. The authors finally applied their model to study the whole of Aquitaine. By the end of the 1970s, they had created a new model called the "progressive Azilianization model."
From today’s perspective, it is therefore inevitable to conclude that beside a Magdalenian several stages of the Azilian must have existed in Morin, too.
Indeed, a critical review of the stone and bone tools, including refittings, animal bones, and new C-14 data within the framework of the MAGDATIS project, showed severe inconsistencies within the early version of Morins’ stratigraphy.
It is now believed that the “graduality” observed by Bordes is partly attributable to stratigraphic mixing. The techniques used in excavations of the 1950s were often unable to distinguish fine horizontal differences, resulting in finds from different periods ending up in the same stratigraphic units.
Rather than a smooth transition, current research sees a distinct technological break between the Magdalenian and the Azilian. The Azilian is now often viewed as a response to the drastic environmental changes at the end of the Pleistocene, which occurred in a rather discontinuous manner.
It seems that the so-called Central European "Shouldered Point Horizon" from the late Central European Gravettian around 25 k.a. Cal BP, proposed by Kozlowski, is an artifact of research history and limited stratified data.
In any case, there appears to have been a continuous tradition of manufacturing shouldered points within certain Epigravettian cultures in southwestern France and Italy.
Shouldered and pointed blades were also present during the Lower Magdalenian period, around 17 k.a. (ca. 19 k.a. Cal BP), at sites such as Gandil, Erralla, Montlleó, and Fontgrasse in Southern France.
During the late Magdalenian in south-west France, these armatures were omnipresent (Figure 2 from La Madeleine), albeit in low numbers, at many sites. Shouldered points emerged at the end of the Upper Magdalenian in south-west France, primarily in the Gironde and Dordogne regions.
Technologically and morphologically, they differ from shouldered points that are broadly contemporary in the Paris basin (e.g. Cepoy-Marsangy) and the North European plain (e.g. the classic Hamburgian and the Havelte Group).
Suggested Readings:
Deffarge R., Laurent P., de Sonneville-Bordes D., 1975: Art mobilier du Magdalénien supérieur de l'Abri Morin à Pessac-sur-Dordogne (Gironde), Gallia préhistoire, Tome 18 fascicule 1, 1975. pp. 1-64.
Maligne M., Langlais J., Barshay-Szmidt C., 2012: Des restes de chiens magdaléniens à l’abri du Morin (Gironde, France). Implications socio-économiques d’une innovation zootechnique, PALEO, 23 / 2012, pp. 39-54.
Presentation by Langlais Mathieu via Researchgate: Trente ans après, que reste-t-il du modèle d'azilianisation proposé au Morin par F. Bordes et D. de Sonneville-Bordes
Langlais Mathieu: Magdatis project: Hunter-gatherers and environmental change in the Aquitaine basin during the Magdalenian, Quaternary International 414
Langlais Mathieu: Les groupes culturels de la transition Pléistocène-Holocène entre Atlantique et Adriatique.Actes de la séance de la Société préhistorique française de Bordeaux, 24-25 mai 2014- Full text-see external link