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Forge-du-Diable

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Site function:
Habitation site
Lat/Long:
45.33, 0.59
Country:
France
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Le Fourneau-du-Diable, or Forge-du-Diable, is the name given to a natural rocky overhang overlooking a prehistoric site of the Upper Paleolithic, located in Bourdeilles, Dordogne. In particular, carved blocks dating from the Solutrean have been found.

Large blocks of stone were found on the rocky slope, in the middle of the scree.

One of them, half a cubic meter, is dated to the Solutrean by its archaeological context. It has a face carved in bas-relief of eleven figurations representing bovids or bovines (including three aurochs) walking head-on, horses, and deer. The multiple orientations of the sculptures suggest that it is a decorated block and not a detached wall element. The aurochs, easily identifiable, are treated with a certain exaggeration of forms, a rendering of perspective thanks to differences in relief on the limbs or a covering of the figures and a delimitation of the end of the muzzle that evoke the style of the bulls of the cave of Lascaux. Their Solutrean dating is an indirect argument for attributing part of the paintings of Lascaux to the Solutrean.

Some human remains (clavicles, teeth, vertebrae) dating from the Upper Paleolithic as well as many tools (chisels, scrapers, blades, microliths, etc.) of the Gravettian were collected there.