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Font-Bargeix

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Site type:
Cave
Site function:
Habitation site, Decor cave
Lat/Long:
45.46, 0.6
Country:
France
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The cave of Font-Bargeix is an archaeological site of the late Magdalenian. It is located near the hamlet of Bargeix, which belongs to the delegated commune of Champeaux-et-la-Chapelle-Pommier, now part of Mareuil en Périgord in the northern Dordogne département.

The excavations, led by Claude Barrière, found two successions of settlements under a medieval location, which were assigned to the Upper Magdalenian. Significant artefacts included Laugerie Basse tips, Teyjat tips, notched points of the Magdalenian, some geometrically shaped microliths, parrot's beak prits, harpoons made of reindeer antlers toothed on both sides and grooved on both sides, but also tips of Azilian. The first settlement had taken place on the collapsed layers of the arch. Two large fireplaces made of quartz boulders were revealed, and a stately bone slab was also found. It was broken, scratched, and carved with many intersecting lines.

Among the stone artifacts, different types of back knives clearly predominate, of which 447 have been found. This is followed by burrs with 219 finds, but among them, there were only 4 parrot's beak burses. Discounts of burins were very numerous, with 369 copies. Claude Barrière also mentions 21 microstichels. There are 110 different scrapers, including some combined scraper-burins. In the upper layer, round scrapers were also found, which are already to be placed in the azily. Several types occur among the peaks, including teyjat tips, laugerie bass tips, notch tips, azilian tips, and 116 great-circle tips alone. In addition, in addition to thorns, various types of blades appeared.

Artifacts made of bone material are very rare. Only 3 spearheads with a double-chamfered base and the base of a harpoon toothed on both sides should be mentioned.

As far as art objects are concerned, some carved bone remains can be seen (with a possible representation of a bear), a stone bead, a pierced shell flap, and some fossils such as sea urchins and rynchonellids.

Animal bone remains were also found but in poor condition. Among them were bones of reindeer, wild horses, bison, red deer, wild boar, petty predators, and rodents. Finally, a few human bones are worth mentioning.