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Rescoundudou

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Site function:
Habitation site
Lat/Long:
44.41, 2.57
Country:
France
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The site of Rescoundudou, in Sébazac-Concourès in Aveyron, is an archaeological site occupied during the Middle Paleolithic, in the Mousterian.

It is a camp of Neanderthal hunters, occupied between 130,000 and 75,000 years before our era, more precisely during one of the temperate oscillations of isotopic stage 5, about 100,000 years ago. The site has yielded numerous bone and lithic remains.

Horses (45%) and fallow deer (40%) were the main game but other species are also present: aurochs, bison, asinian, deer, bear, wolf, rhinoceros. The climate then had to be temperate.

The industry was made of materials of close origin, mainly flint (80%) but also quartz (20%). Splinters were made by implementing Levallois cutting on both flint and quartz, which is exceptional. Some of these splinters have been retouched to make tools, mainly scrapers (80%). The tools evoke a typical Mousterian rich in scrapers or a Mousterian Charentien type Ferrassie.

Finally, five Neanderthal human teeth were discovered, 3 of which belonged to children of about ten years. These are the oldest human remains found in the department of Aveyron.