The Le Placard Spearthrowers

THE GROTTE DU PLACARD AT 150 NEW CONSIDERATIONS ON AN EXCEPTIONAL PREHISTORIC SITE edited by Christophe Delage Archaeopress Archaeology Archaeopress Publishing Ltd Summertown Pavilion 18-24 Middle Way Summertown Oxford OX2 7LG www.archaeopress.com ISBN 978 1 78491 960 3 ISBN 978 1 78491 961 0 (e-Pdf) © Archaeopress and the individual authors 2018 Cover images: Original drawing of the cave of Le Placard by Jean Fermond, October 1880 (De Mortillet Archives, Saarland University); Human skull modified into ‘a cup’, according to A. de Maret and H. Breuil (after Breuil and Obermaier 1909, Fig. 6); Schematic human carving (Laurent 1971, Fig. 2). All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners. Printed in England by Holywell Press, Oxford This book is available direct from Archaeopress or from our website www.archaeopress.com CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������iii FOREWORD by François Bonneau ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� vii FOREWORD by Jean-François Tournepiche����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� vii BIOGRAPHIES ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ix PREFACE ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xi INTRODUCING LE PLACARD ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 1 Christophe DELAGE ARTHUR DE MARET AND HIS EXCAVATIONS OF THE CAVE OF LE PLACARD (1877-1888): A NEGLECTED MOMENT IN THE PREHISTORY OF THE CHARENTE ������������������������������������������������������������������37 Christophe DELAGE ADRIEN DE MORTILLET, THE AURIGNACIAN AND THE ARTHUR DE MARET COLLECTION �����������������������������45 Philippe ROUX BREUIL, LE PLACARD AND THE MAGDALENIAN ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������65 Christophe DELAGE THE COLLECTIONS OF THE LE PLACARD CAVE (VILHONNEUR, CHARENTE) AT THE MUSÉE D’ARCHÉOLOGIE NATIONALE IN SAINT-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������74 Catherine SCHWAB A SENSITIVE APPROACH TO THE CAVE OF LE PLACARD ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������86 Anne-Paule MOUSNIER (Translation Jean Bonnin) THE LE PLACARD NATURAL SURROUNDINGS AND LE PLACARD 2, THE LOWER KARSTIC NETWORK ������������94 Pierre VAUVILLIER, Bruno DELAGE and Christophe DELAGE REVISITING THE LE PLACARD RADIOMETRIC CHRONOLOGY ������������������������������������������������������������������������105 Christophe DELAGE NEW ANTLER, SHELL, AND TOOTH TECHNOLOGY FROM LA GROTTE DU PLACARD (COMMUNE DE VILHONNEUR, CHARENTE) ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������112 Michelle C. LANGLEY and Christophe DELAGE CALLING FOR THE DEER� AN EUNUCH FLUTE AT LE PLACARD? ��������������������������������������������������������������������124 Carlos GARCÍA-BENITO, Carlos MAZO PÉREZ & Marta ALCOLEA GRACIA THE LE PLACARD SPEARTHROWERS �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������146 Pierre CATTELAIN THE MAGDALENIAN ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS OF LE PLACARD ����������������������������������������157 Claudine GRAVEL-MIGUEL ART DURING THE LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM IN WESTERN EUROPE �������������������������������������������������������������170 François DJINDJIAN WAS LE PLACARD USED BY SECRET SOCIETIES?��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������186 Brian HAYDEN i THE LE PLACARD SPEARTHROWERS Pierre CATTELAIN ABSTRACT Le Placard Cave yielded at least five spearthrowers in reindeer antler, two of which are complete with simple beveled bases. These objects were found during old excavations and their stratigraphic situation is unknown. Some of them are morphologically related to the Lower Middle Magdalenian, either the Magdalenian with navettes or the Magdalenian of Lussac-Angles, or both. Two pieces are very similar in morphology to the spearthrower of Combe Saunière 1 and could, just like it, belong the Final Solutrean. KEYWORDS Spearthrower; Magdalenian with navettes; Magdalenian of Lussac-Angles; Final Solutrean INTRODUCTION and specified that the complete item had to be hafted (Garrod 1955: 22, Fig. 1, no.1-2). As early as 1913, in his publication entitled ‘The Subdivisions of the Upper Paleolithic and their Significance’ (reprinted and completed in 1937), Henri Breuil illustrated three spearthrowers among the ‘artefacts decorated of small transversal traits and of longitudinal lines...’ in the Magdalenian III of Le Placard. These spearthrowers, of male type (that is to say, with a hook), with a rod-shape and a small module, had no figurative decoration, but incisions and grooves for only two of them. One of the items was complete, although very short, and its proximal part was with a simple bevel. These objects were only mentioned in the legend of Figure 24 (Breuil 1913, 1937), and were not mentioned in the text.1 The only information provided in the text on this Magdalenian III was as follows: ‘These horizons [of the Magdalenians I to III are] recognizable by the types of the spears and the decorative motifs’ (Breuil 1913: 205) and by ‘certain very special decorations and carved figures recently documented at Saint-Germainla-Rivière and Roc-aux-Fées (Marcamps, Gironde), within an ensemble seemingly of the beginning of the Magdalenian 3’ (Breuil 1937: 46). In the typological sheet of the spearthrowers that we published in 1988 (paper submitted in 1985, before the publication of the article defining the Magdalenian with shuttles [Magdalénien à navettes]), these artefacts were brought together within the spearthrowers of Type 2, but were simply attributed to the Middle Magdalenian, since the salient features of the Magdalenian III defined by Henri Breuil were no longer agreed upon unanimously. Two previously unpublished fragments of spearthrowers from the La Garenne site at Saint-Marcel and two items from Le Roc de Marcamps (Roussot and Ferrier 1970, Fig. 4), as well as a fragment of spearthrower from Combe Saunière I dated to the Upper Solutrean (Cattelain 1989), were already included in the reference sample (Cattelain 1988, Sheet 2, p. 3). Following the founding publication of the Magdalénien à navettes in 1985, U. Stodiek, in his dissertation published in 1993, was the first to propose cautiously to correlate the spearthrowers of Le Placard, as well as two items from Le Roc de Marcamps, with the techno-complex of the Magdalénien à navettes (Stodiek 1993: 139-141). In 2004, thanks to the publication in a museum catalog of an unpublished piece from Le Placard identified by J.-F. Tournepiche (Debénath and Tournepiche 1993: 42), we have had the oppertunity to publish this item and to document some very close similarities with artefacts from Le Roc de Marcamps, which appeared almost identical (Cattelain 2004). By the closeness of their morphological and morphometric traits, the attribution of these spearthrowers to the Magdalénien à navettes seemed to be confirmed. Nevertheless, the bad conditions of the old excavations and the imprecision of In her 1955 synthesis on Paleolithic spearthrowers, Dorothy Garrod took up this cultural attribution and thus considered as the oldest ones known at the time the three spearthrowers from Le Placard published by Breuil, to which she added a fourth item published by Gustave Chauvet (1910: 87-89, fig. 71). She classified them in her category of ‘unweighted spearthrowers’ Breuil even specified the following: ‘In the Magdalenian 3, we see the appearance of heads with deeply incised eye orbits carved at the top of the bâtons percés and spearthrowers...’ (Breuil 1954: 63). If this observation is perfectly correct for the bâtons percés, it is not the same for the spearthrowers of which no example dated to the early Middle Magdalenian exhibits this feature. 1 146 Pierre CATTELAIN – THE LE PLACARD SPEARTHROWERS the stratigraphic observations did not make it possible to decide with certainty. backed bladelets and few borers, which was a fairly classic assemblage of the Middle Magdalenian. In 2005, we proposed a revision of our 1988 typological sheet, bringing in typological precisions and new chronological data (Cattelain 2005: 307, Fig. 7-8). Within our Type 2, despite the small sample size, we distinguished two groups. The first group, the only one of interest to us here, included generally very short artefacts, with the hafting device of simple - or exceptionally double - bevel. It could have appeared in the Solutrean (Cattelain 1989) and lasted until the Middle Magdálenien à navettes (Cattelain 2005: 313, 2017a: 244-245). Within the latter phase of the Magdalenian, certain objects had a similar morphology, with a suboval general profile and a very narrow and thick section (for the terminology, see Cattelain 1988, General Data Sheet). On the other hand, bone tools were very peculiar. They were first characterized by the presence of shuttles (navettes), with both extremities exhibiting a forklike shape, made in reindeer antler and by definition characteristic exclusively of this facies. These navettes were more likely scraper handles (Allain 1957; Allain and Rigaud 1993: 12, Fig. 5). A second characteristic artifact was the relatively short and striated double-beveled spear point, exhibiting most often a quadrangular section. Its lower, medullary, face was generally deeply grooved longitudinally and its upper, cortical, face was frequently decorated with similar longitudinal motifs. The relatively abundant bâtons percés often featured phallic representations. Some of them, as well as other objects, also yielded patterns of oval cupules regularly ordered. Finally, artifacts in osseous material sometimes yielded anthropomorphic representations, centered on the human face or head, surprisingly schematized. Moreover, animal depictions and osseous tools with barbs (i.e., harpoons) were extremely rare while the baguettes demi-rondes and the Lussac-Angles-type spear points (Pinçon 1988) were totally missing. Since then, new pieces have come to complete the sample and bring new spatio-temporal data, mainly thanks to the discovery, in June 2007, of a complete spearthrower in level 17 in the cave of El Mirón, well excavated and documented by current standards (González Morales and Straus 2009: 274-277, Figs. 6 to 8). This level, culturally attributed to the Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian, provided four radiocarbon dates ranging from 15,370 ± 80 to 15,700 ± 190 BP, calibrated between 19,467 and 18,181 BP (Straus and González Morales 2010: 36, Table 2), fairly contemporaneous with other dates available for the Magdalénien à navettes.2 Some of these features (navettes, bâtons percés, and baguettes with anthropomorphic depiction, decorations in cups diversely ordered, abundance of the saiga antelope...) led, as early as 1912, H. Breuil to define the Magdalenian III, essentially on the basis of discoveries made in the Grotte du Placard. THE MIDDLE MAGDALÉNIEN À NAVETTES Among the facies of the early Middle Magdalenian, the Magdalénien à navettes was defined in 1985 and its characteristics have been refined since (Allain et al. 1985; Despriée et al. 2009). It has been documented following the excavations of the caves and rockshelters of La Garenne (Indre), and it was subsequently recognized in particular in the sites of Le Placard (Charente) and Roc de Marcamps (Gironde). It is situated in calibrated dates around 19,000-18,000 cal BP, within Dryas I, in a cold steppe climate (Langlais et al. 2015: 47-51). CATALOGUE 1. Musée d’Archéologie Nationale, Saint-Germainen-Laye, museum inventory no.55.187a; Cattelain’s reference: Le Placard 01 (Figure 1) De Maret’s Excavations, 1877-1888, Magdalenian levels (Breuil 1913, Fig. 24); Magdalenian III (Breuil 1937, Fig. 24); level 6 or 7 (de Mortillet 1907: 259). Reindeer Antler L: 69.9mm; wdp: 6.3mm; wmp: 6.0mm; tdp: 11.5mm; tmp: 8.3mm; Lh: 3.7mm; Lb: 32.5mm; IndFra: 8.42; IndFla: 0.7233 References: Bellier and Cattelain 1998: 33, Fig. 6, no.2; Breuil 1913, Fig. 24, no.7; 1937, Fig. 24, no.7; Cattelain 1978: 297-298; 1988: Fiche 2, p. 3 & 9, Fig. 3a; 1989: 215, Fig. 4; 1994: 7, Fig. 3, no.2; 2004: 63-64, Fig. 2, no.5; 2005: 307, Fig. 7, no.3; 2017a: 237-238, Fig. 3; Cattelain and Bellier 2002: 51, Fig. 32, no.2; Cattelain and Pétillon 2015, Fig. 3, no.2; Garrod 1955: 21-22, 34, Fig. 1, no.2; de The fauna, largely dominated by the horse and the reindeer, also included, in all the sites attributed to this facies, the saiga antelope, and according to the cases and in variable proportions, bison, aurochs, ibex, hare, wolf, polar fox, rhinoceros, wolverine and bear, not to mention cold steppe rodents and salmonids. The lithic toolkit showed a clear dominance of the burins, especially dihedral, over the scrapers, numerous 3 L=length; wdp=width of distal part; wmp=width of mesial part; tdp=thickness of distal part; tmp=thickness of mesial part; Lh=length of the hook; Lb=length of the bevel; IndFra=Index of fragility (total length:minimal thickness); IndFla=Index of flattening (width:thickness). 2 The 14C dates calibration was carried out using the OxCal 4.2, IntCal13 software. The calibrated dates are expressed in 2 standard deviations (sigma). 147 THE GROTTE DU PLACARD AT 150 Figure 1. Spearthrower from Le Placard cave, Charente, France. MAN 55187a (photos: P. Cattelain 2004; Drawing: C. Bellier 1989). Maret 1880: 171, Pl. II; de Mortillet 1907: 259; Pétillon and Cattelain 2015: 21, Fig. 3, no.2 & Fig. 4, no.1; PielDesruisseaux 2004: 266, Fig. 272, no.2; Stodiek 1988: 323, 325-326, Pl. 36, no.3; 1992: 325, Pl. VI, no.3; 1993: 251 & 261, Pl. 74, no.2. Description: Spearthrower of the male type, complete, probably extracted from one of the sides of a small or medium sized antler beam or point. The item is shaped on a «strip» rod of relatively thick compact (cortical) tissue. It bears a non-figurative decor on both sides of the distal part, in the form of five shallow transverse incisions made with a burin. The hook, of plano-convex to subtriangular section, was cleared by large strikes. Its lower surface is not smoothed; its upper surface shows traces of crushing, as well as a use polish at its end. The proximal part shows, on the right side, a long simple bevel, with an ogival contour and a slightly concave longitudinal profile. It has three parallel oblique incisions near the end. This piece was smoothed out by scraping, and then probably by abrasion. The spongy tissue is visible on the right side over the almost entire length, except at the tip of the bevel. Chronology: Breuil attributed the Le Placard spearthrowers to his Magdalenian III. Yet, to find out more, the interested reader was supposed to refer to the legends of the figures which mentioned this famous Magdalenian III in the revision of the 1913 publication, in which the attributions by cultural horizon were specified (Breuil 1937, Fig. 15b, no.1, Fig. 16, no.6, 7 and 9-11, Fig. 18, no.2 and 5-12, Fig. 19, no.67, Fig. 23, no.3, 5-8, Fig. 24, Fig. 25, no.1-7, Fig. 27, no.16). Still, the first written description of the artifacts considered characteristic of the Magdalenian III came only in 1951 (Breuil and Lantier 1951: 186-187), summarized a little while later (Breuil 1954: 61-62). The Magdalenian III has always been a problem. By Breuil’s own admission, ‘To try to see clearly, it was necessary to take a site where this old Magdalenian had a major complexity, and, since 1912, I tried to restore after the event the succession of Le Placard (Charente) badly excavated by M. de Maret. For a small number of pieces, however, he had provided the level of his finds’ (Breuil 1954: 60; see also de Maret 1880; de Mortillet 1907: 206; Pignolet 2013: 43). In addition to the rare information provided by the ancient excavators, Breuil relied mainly, for his classification, on the patina of the objects and on the traces of sediment that adhered to them (Breuil 1954: 60, 1958-59: 269). It is important to note that, already in 1912, Breuil mentioned the presence of Upper Solutrean in the Grotte du Placard (1913: 195201), as well as, above, a more recent Magdalenian (1937, Fig. 23, 1954: 60, 1958-59: 269). In Breuil’s essay of data synthesis on the Magdalenian III, we are led to think that some elements could come from other stratigraphic or cultural horizons. 148 Pierre CATTELAIN – THE LE PLACARD SPEARTHROWERS 2. Musée d’Archéologie Nationale, Saint-Germainen-Laye, museum inventory no.55.187b; Cattelain’s reference: Le Placard 02 (Figure 2) De Maret’s Excavations, 1877-1888, Magdalenian levels (Breuil 1913, Fig. 24); Magdalenian III (Breuil 1937, Fig. 24); level 6 or 7 (de Mortillet 1907: 259). Reindeer Antler L: 148.0mm; wdp: 5.0mm; wmp: 7.5mm; tdp: 12.7mm; tmp: 11.8mm; Lh: 4.6mm; IndFla: 0.636 References: Averbouh and Cattelain 2002: 67-68, Fig. 3b and 4; Breuil 1913, Fig. 24, no.5; 1937, Fig. 24, no.7; Cattelain 1978: 298; 1988, Fiche 2, p. 3 and 9, Fig. 1; 1989: 215, Fig. 5; 1994: 7, Fig. 3, no.2; 2004: 63-64, Fig. 2, no.6; 2005: 307, Fig. 7, no.3; 2017a: 238, Fig. 4; Garrod 1955: 2122, 34, Fig. 1, no.1; de Maret 1880: 171, Pl. II, no.15; de Mortillet 1907: 259; Pétillon and Cattelain 2015: 21, Fig. 3, no.1, Fig. 4, no.2; Stodiek 1993: 251, 261, Pl. 74, no.1. Description: Spearthrower of the male type, with all of the distal and mesial parts preserved. As it was taken from a small sized brow point (tine), its present length is probably quite close to its original length. The item bears, on the distal half of the back of the mesial part, a non-figurative décor: two fairly deep longitudinal grooves, made with a burin, isolated at each end by two transverse (sometimes underlined) grooves. This decor is found, notably, on bipointed spears points of the same site (Breuil 1913, 1937, Fig. 24), as well as on a spearthrower with double beveled base from Isturitz (Cattelain and Pétillon 2015). The upper side bears three transverse incisions, intersected by a slight groove due to use, in the area preceding the hook. This piece was highly smoothed out by scraping, and then probably by abrasion. Some Figure 2. Spearthrower from Le Placard cave, Charente, France. MAN 55187b (photos: P. Cattelain 2004; Drawing: C. Bellier 1989). 149 THE GROTTE DU PLACARD AT 150 spongy tissue is visible on the left side of the distal part, as well as on the upper surface of the proximal end. The lower surface of the hook is flat. It was shaped by scraping off the upper side and by lateral incising. Its texture is dense, with a relatively thick compact tissue (Averbouh and Cattelain 2002: 67-69). A. de Maret reported, in 1880, that the «single-hook harpoons», illustrated in his article by the artifact under this heading, were found with ‘instruments in reindeer antlers forked at their ends, and whose shape makes them be identifiable as shuttles used for making nets’ (1880: 171). The spearthrower is illustrated on Plate II, no.15; the shuttle is illustrated page 173, no.1. Moreover, de Maret did not illustrate, in his various publications on the Grotte du Placard, any other piece resembling a true Magdalenian harpoon: thus one is entitled to wonder whether the fragments of harpoons reported by the author are not all fragments of spearthrowers. Chronology: see above Item no.1. 3. Not found, unknown location; Cattelain’s reference: Le Placard 03 (Figure 3) De Maret’s Excavations, 1877-1888, Magdalenian levels (Breuil 1913, Fig. 24); Magdalenian III (Breuil 1937, Fig. 24); level 6 or 7 (de Mortillet 1907: 259). Reindeer Antler L: 68mm; tdp: 9.4mm; tmp: 8.4mm; Lh: 2.6mm; Measurements estimated from Breuil’s drawing. References: Breuil 1913, Fig. 24, no.6; 1937, Fig. 24, no.6; Cattelain 1978: 298, 1988, Fiche 2, p. 3 and 9; 1989: 214215, Fig. 3; 2004: 63-64, Fig. 3, no.8; 2014: 41, Fig. 2a; 2017a: 238, Fig. 5a; Garrod 1955: 21-22; de Maret 1880: 171; de Mortillet 1907: 259; Stodiek 1993: 251, 261, Fig. 205. Figure 4. Spearthrower from Le Placard cave, Charente, France. Not localised (after Chauvet 1910, Fig. 71; Drawing: P. Mourier). Description: Mesio-distal fragment of male-type spearthrower, probably extracted from an antler. The hook shows a very open acute angle (almost straight). The object does not seem decorated. Morphologically and morphometrically, this fragment is very close to the Combe-Saunière I spearthrower fragment, attributed to the Upper Solutrean (Cattelain 1989, 2017a: 239, Fig. 6). Chronology: see above Item no.1. 4. Not found, unknown location; Cattelain’s reference: Le Placard 04 (Figure 4) Gustave Chauvet’s excavations, 1892, Magdalenian levels Reindeer Antler L: 65.2mm; tdp: 20.6mm; tmp: 16.5mm; Lh: 4.2mm; Measurements estimated from Chauvet’s drawing. References: Cattelain 1978: 299; 1988, Fiche 2, p. 3 and 9; 2004: 63-64, Fig. 3, no.7; 2014: 41, Fig. 2b; 2017a: 238, Fig. 5b; Chauvet 1910: 85, Fig. 71; Garrod 1955: 21-22, 34; Stodiek 1993: 251, 261, Fig. 206. Description: Mesio-distal fragment of male-type spearthrower, probably extracted from an antler point. The hook shows a very open acute angle (almost a right angle). On the basis of the drawing published by G. Chauvet, the left side of the distal part shows an incised X. Chronology: see above Item no.1. 5. Museum of Angoulême; Cattelain’s reference: Le Placard 05 (Figure 5) Jean Fermond’s excavations, ca. 1860 Reindeer Antler L: 69mm; wdp: 7.9mm; wmp: 7.9mm; tdp: 22.1mm; tmp: 22.1mm; Lh: 4.9mm; Lb: 43.7mm; IndFra: 4.21; IndFla: 0.36 Figure 3. Spearthrower from Le Placard cave, Charente, France. Not localised (after Breuil 1913, Fig. 24, no.6). 150 Pierre CATTELAIN – THE LE PLACARD SPEARTHROWERS References: Cattelain 2004: 63-64, Fig. 2, no.6, 2017a: 238, Fig. 5d; Debénath and Tournepiche 1993: 42; Pétillon and Cattelain 2015: 21, Fig. 3, no.3. Description: Almost complete male-type, spearthrower (small flake on the proximal portion of the bevel), of gray-beige color, with an oval profile and a simple beveled base. It was shaped on a strip on compact tissue from a reindeer antler and still bears traces of the spongy tissue on the left side. On this side, the bevel designed for hafting takes up more than half the length of the object, starting even before the onset of the hook on the distal end: the proximal part encroaches on the distal part, and the mesial part is thus non-existent. This bevel is deeply striated (eleven V-shaped incisions, and a lighter line). The distal part of the right side, beyond the hook, shows five short parallel incisions on the upper side and seven on the lower side. The lower surface of the hook is flat, very slightly concave: it was shaped by scraping and incision. This spearthrower is morphologically and morphometrically very similar to the spearthrowers of Roc de Marcamps and El Mirón, although the latter one is a little longer (Cattelain 2017a: 236-237, Fig. 2b and 240, Fig. 8; Pétillon and Cattelain 2015: 22-26, Fig. 6, no.1, 2 and 4; González Morales and Straus 2009). Chronology: see above Item no.1. Reindeer Antler L: 35.5mm; wdp: 6.3mm; wmp: 6.7mm; tdp: 8.5mm; tmp: 6.7mm; Lh: 2.5mm; IndFla: 1.007 References: Cattelain 2014: 42, Fig. 3; 2017a: 239, Fig. 5c; Pignolet 2013: 43, tabl. 4; see also de Mortillet 1907: 259. Description: Mesio-distal fragment of a male-type spearthrower, probably made on an antler point, the compact tissue being present all around, and the spongy tissue visible on the old breakage at the center of the section. The spongy tissue is also visible on a small portion of the upper surface, just in front of the hook. The hook, of plano-convex to subtriangular section, shows a very open acute angle (almost a right angle). This piece, dark beige to brownish, does not seem decorated. It was shaped by longitudinal scraping, probably done with the side of a burin, which gave a slightly faceted appearance to the finished object. The hook was shaped bilaterally. This object, recently identified (Pignolet 2013), nevertheless seems to have already been counted by A. de Mortillet, who, in 1906, reported four spearthrowers at Le Placard (1907: 259). It is morphologically and morphometrically very similar to the Item no.3 of our catalog and the spearthrower fragment of Combe-Saunière I, attributed to the Upper Solutrean (Cattelain 1989, 2017a: 239, Fig. 6). Chronology: see above Item no.1. 6. Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris, Salle Breuil; inventory no.1919-1, 20-220; Cattelain’s reference: Le Placard 06 (Figure 6). De Maret’s Excavations, 1877-1888, Magdalenian levels (Breuil 1913, Fig. 24); Magdalenian III (Breuil 1937, Fig. 24); level 6 or 7 (de Mortillet 1907: 259). SYNTHESIS These spearthrowers of the Middle Magdalenian (and possibly for two of them, of the Upper Solutrean) share the following features, which define Type 2a of our classification (Cattelain 2005: 307): Figure 5. Spearthrower from Le Placard cave, Charente, France. IPH, 1919-1, 20-220, (photos: P. Cattelain 2014; Drawing: M. Baumann 2014). 151 THE GROTTE DU PLACARD AT 150 Figure 6. Spearthrower from Le Placard cave, Charente, France. Museum of Angoulême (photos: J.-F. Tournepiche; Drawing: C. Bellier 2004). • a hook with a flat lower surface, forming a very open acute angle with the upper surface of the mesial part, from which it was shaped by scraping and incising; the section of this hook is plano-convex or subtriangular; • a decor limited to apparently non-figurative incised lines and dorsal grooves; • a blank extracted from either on a rod of compact issue or on a piece of antler point; • a generally reduced length (<10cm) for the complete items; • a striated simple-beveled base,4 situated on the right side; exceptionally, a double-beveled base. The first subtype (2a1) includes an El Mirón spearthrower, three spearthrowers from Roc de Marcamps, two Le Placard spearthrowers, and an Isturitz spearthrower (Cattelain 2017b), amounting for 7 of the 8 complete or almost complete artifacts (Figure 7): this may be explained by the fragility index (IndFra), often correlated with the flattening index (IndFla), both of which are particularly low in this category, making them very resistant to use (Cattelain 1988). The second subtype (2a2) includes the Combe-Saunière I spearthrower, the El Castillo spearthrower, the two La Garenne spearthrowers, and four Le Placard spearthrowers, which correspond to only 1 out of the 8 complete or nearly complete objects. This ensemble differs from Type 2b mainly by the morphology of the hook and its shaping technique: in Type 2b, the hook is always conical and obtained by bifacial grooving. The few known examples of Type 2b are quite elongated with a transverse perforation at the base and carved on a whole antler segment, and a horse decorates one of them. They are associated with spearthrowers of Type 3 and 4, within the classic Middle Magdalenian (IV of Breuil’s classification). Chronologically, the situation seems quite simple: all these spearthrowers, when they were discovered in stratigraphic levels dated with a certain reliability, are earlier than 18,000 cal BP, which places them at the latest in the early Middle Magdalenian (Table 1). Culturally, the problem is more delicate. The CombeSaunière I fragment of subtype 2a2 clearly seems to be part of an Upper Solutrean level: unfortunately, the range of radiocarbon dates obtained for this level poses a problem and does not allow to totally exclude a possibility of pollution coming from an overlying level. Nevertheless, this item, morphologically and morphometrically very close to at least two Le Placard objects, is perhaps not totally isolated in this cultural horizon: given the conditions of excavations of Le Placard and the a posteriori reclassification of a good Our Type 2a, although still limited in numbers, may be divided into two subtypes: the first one comprising the objects extracted from a strip of compact tissue, with a section usually flattened; the second one including the objects carved on a blank, with a circular or subcircular section (Figure 7). 4 Clearly, the function of these incisions is to improve the contact of the adhesive substance used for hafting (Stodiek 1992: 325). 152 Pierre CATTELAIN – THE LE PLACARD SPEARTHROWERS Figure 7. Geographic distribution of Type 2a spearthrowers. 1: El Castillo; 2: El Mirón; 3: Isturitz; 4: Le Roc-de-Marcamps; 5: Combe-Saunière I; 6: Le Placard; 7: La Garenne. more than likely for the Roc de Marcamps objects, as well as, undoubtedly, for two items at Le Placard, which also yielded numerous artifacts attesting to the presence of this facies. The Isturitz spearthrower is likely to fall well within the chronological range of the early Middle Magdalenian, and could perhaps be associated with the Lussac-Angles spearpoints, here contemporary with the Magdalénien à navettes from which they were excluded; and therefore the facies with Lussac-Angles spearpoints would be neither earlier (Allain et al. 1985: 116) nor later (Delage 2013: 43) than the Magdalénien à navettes. Moreover, ‘the radiometric results indicate an overlap of the direct dates taken on objects of the assemblages with navettes and Lussac-Angles spearpoints. This is verified both at the local and macroregional scale’ (Langlais et al. 2017: 211). part of the osseous industry by Breuil, nothing allows to say that some artifacts do not come from the Upper Solutrean layer well attested at the site. The question thus remains open... On the other hand, the presence of a small spearthrower of the same type at Abri Blanchard in La Garenne, even if it comes from illegal excavations and that it may be considered as a ‘toy’, testifies that this subtype is in any case present in the Magdalénien à navettes, only facies attested at this site. Moreover, this subtype may also be linked to the facies with Lussac-Angles spearpoints, whose ‘fossile directeur’ is well attested at Le Placard (Delage 2013) and Isturitz (Cattelain and Pétillon 2015: 29-30; Pétillon 2004, 2006). The type 2a1 spearthrowers, which are very homogeneous and particularly well preserved (they are all complete or almost complete), appear in the Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian in El Mirón, which seems difficult, in the current state of the documentation, to qualify as Magdalénien à navettes, but which fits within the distribution area of the LussacAngles spearpoints.5 Nevertheless, an attribution of these spearthrowers to the Magdalénien à navettes is In the absence of new discoveries or of radiometric dating performed directly on certain objects, especially on the collections of Le Placard, it will be difficult to be more precise. In any case, the study of the artifacts presented here has, we hope, clearly shown that the use of distal parts of spearthrowers made in cervid antler or other hard animal material has gone through several phases and cannot be restricted to a short period of the Magdalenian. 5 In another sector of El Mirón, level 116, with identical radiocarbon dates, yielded at least one Lussac-Angles-type spearpoint. 153 THE GROTTE DU PLACARD AT 150 Site Level Laboratory Sample Calibrated Dates (BP) Le Placard GLD, Level 14 (Final Solutrean) GifA-92083 (AMS) 25,852-25,432 cal. BP Le Placard GLD, Level 17 (Final Solutrean) GifA-92084 (AMS) 24,619-23,934 cal. BP Combe-Saunière 1 Layer IV Upper (Final Solutrean) OxA-753 (AMS) 24,407-22,877 cal. BP Le Placard GLD, Engraved cave wall panel (Final Solutrean) Gif TAN 91-84 (AMS) 24,316-23,722 cal. BP Combe-Saunière 1 Layer IV Upper (Final Solutrean) OxA-752 (AMS) 24,297-22,640 cal. BP Combe-Saunière 1 Layer IV Upper (Final Solutrean) OxA-489 (AMS) 24,201-22,636 cal. BP Combe-Saunière 1 Layer IV Upper (Final Solutrean) OxA-757 (AMS) 23,562-22,054 cal. BP Le Placard Zone Y, Level 2 (Lower Badegoulian) Gif-8800 (conventional) 22,426-21,992 cal. BP Combe-Saunière 1 Layer IV Upper (Final Solutrean) OxA-488 (AMS) 22,186-20,675 cal. BP Combe-Saunière 1 Layer IV Upper (Final Solutrean) Ly-3329 (conventional) 21,807-20,511 cal. BP El Castillo Level 8 (Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian) OxA-971 (AMS) 20,902-19,783 cal. BP Combe-Saunière 1 Layer IV Upper (Final Solutrean) OxA-485 (AMS) 20,224-19,103 cal. BP Le Placard CRL, breccia 1 (early Middle Magdalenian?) Gif-8803 (conventional) 19,941-19,457 cal. BP GX-25853 (conventional) 19,465-18,596 cal. BP GX-24466 (conventional) 19,315-18,179 cal. BP OxA-22093 (AMS) 19,061-18,664 cal. BP GX-27115 (conventional) 19,040-18,351 cal. BP El Miron El Miron El Miron El Miron Level 17, Square 13a (Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian) Level 17, Square 13a (Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian) Level 17, Square 13a (Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian) Level 17, Square 13a (Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian) Le Roc de Marcamps Magdalenian with navettes OxA-26665 (AMS) 19,036-18,723 cal. BP Combe-Saunière 1 Layer IV Upper (Final Solutrean) OxA-754 (AMS) 18,850-17,987 cal. BP Combe-Saunière 1 Layer IV Upper (Final Solutrean) OxA-751 (AMS) 18,839-17,978 cal. BP El Miron Level 17, Square 13a (Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian) GX-32654 (AMS) 18,811-18,456 cal. BP Le Roc de Marcamps Magdalenian with navettes OxA-27394 (AMS) 18,805-18,490 cal. BP Combe-Saunière 1 Layer IV Upper (Final Solutrean) OxA-756 (AMS) 18,780-17,925 cal. BP Le Roc de Marcamps Magdalenian with navettes OxA-X-248219 (AMS) 18,776-18,441 cal. BP La Garenne Level B7 (Magdalenian with navettes) ETH-28492 (AMS) 18,758-18,346 cal. BP Isturitz, Grande salle Layer II (Magdalenian of Lussac-Angles type) OxA-19836 (AMS) 18,651-18,080 cal. BP Combe-Saunière 1 Layer IV Upper (Final Solutrean) OxA-755 (AMS) 18,585-17,650 cal. BP La Garenne Level B6 (Magdalenian with navettes) ETH-28493 (AMS) 18,538-18,021 cal. BP La Garenne Level B5 (Magdalenian with navettes) ETH-28494 (AMS) 18,483-17,976 cal. BP Isturitz, Grande salle Layer II (Magdalenian of Lussac-Angles type) OxA-28083 (AMS) 18,458-18,015 cal. BP Table 1. Calibrated 14C dates available for the levels where Solutrean and early Middle Magdalenian and assimilated spearthrowers were found. Combe Saunière: Geneste, Plisson 1986: 11-12, Table 1; El Castillo: Barandíarán 1988; El Miron: Straus and González Morales 2003: 43, Table 1, 2007: 1209, Table 2, 2010: 36, Table 2; Le Placard: Delage, Revisiting the Le Placard chronology, this volume; Le Roc de Marcamps: Langlais et al. 2015: Table 13; Lenoir 1991; La Garenne: Despriée et al. 2009; Langlais et al. 2015, Table 13; Isturitz: Langlais et al. 2015, Table 13; Szmidt et al. 2009; Barshay-Szmidt et al., submitted; Cattelain and Pétillon, submitted. Jacquement, Philippe Jugie, Marie-Sylvie Larguèze, Serge Maury, Christian Normand, Patrick Paillet, Marylène Patou-Mathis, Marie-Paule Pellan, Patrick Perrin, Jean-Marc Pétillon, Stéphanie Renault, André Rigaud†, Alain Roussot†, Catherine Schwab, Ulrich Stodiek, Jean-François Tournepiche, Carole Vercoutère, and all those I have certainly forgotten to mention, for ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I extend my warmest thanks to Jacques Allain†, Aline Averbouh, Malvina Baumann, Coralie Bay, Claire Bellier, Lucie Braem, Henriette Camps-Fabrer†, Jean-Jacques Cleyet-Merle, Catherine Cretin, Henri Delporte†, Dominique Buisson†, Jean-Michel Geneste, Peggy 154 Pierre CATTELAIN – THE LE PLACARD SPEARTHROWERS Cattelain, P. 1994. La chasse au Paléolithique supérieur. Arc ou propulseur, ou les deux? Archéo-Situla 21-24: 5–26. Cattelain, P. 2004. Un propulseur inédit de la Grotte du Placard (Vilhonneur, Charente, France). Notae Praehistoricae 24: 61–67. Cattelain, P. 2005. 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