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Grotte Mandrin

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Site type:
Cave
Site function:
Habitation site
Lat/Long:
44.46, 4.77
Country:
France
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The Grotte Mandrin is a rock shelter, located in the town of Malataverne, in Drôme, in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, in the natural and historical region of Tricastin. It was occupied during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, from 120,000 years to 42,000 years before the present. For the oldest period, the Eemian, a particularly temperate interglacial period, temperatures were even very high over fifteen millennia. It is the subject of archaeological excavations.

The site was inhabited by groups of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens; the interest that archaeologists have for this cave is due in particular to the fact that the settlements of these two populations are only separated there by a few years, or perhaps by a shorter interval; it is even possible to imagine that the Mandrin cave was a meeting place for Neanderthals and modern humans.

A study published in 2022 concludes with the occupation by Homo sapiens dated at −54,000 years (between 56,800 and 51,700 years, calibrated, before the present). The dating, obtained by fuliginochronology and confirmed by thermoluminescence, relates to a layer of sediment named E. This layer contains modern tools (fine and standardized) and a broken molar of a baby, whose talonid is modern (square), whereas the layers immediately below and above contain Neanderthal remains and Mousterian tools.