Cultures et environnements : Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Age (CEPAM)

Vue du Rocher de l’Impératrice (à gauche) et du Rocher de l’Imperator (à droite) depuis la cale du Relecq-Kerhuon (Finistère). Dès le Tardiglaciaire, période succédant à la période glaciaire et caractérisée par d’importants bouleversements climatiques, la base du Rocher de l’Impératrice a servi d’abri. Cet abri-sous-roche fut essentiellement occupé au début de l’Azilien (Paléolithique supérieur), il y a environ 14 500 ans, comme campement par de petits groupes de chasseurs officiant dans l…

Prise de points topographiques lors du relevé d’une coupe stratigraphique. Ces points permettront de caler, au millimètre près, les coupes sur les plans du site archéologique du Rocher de l’Impératrice, à Plougastel-Daoulas, dans le Finistère. Le relevé des coordonnées des points intéressants se fait à l’aide d’un prisme réflecteur tétraédrique placé à la verticale du point que l'on souhaite mesurer. Le prisme réfléchit le laser émis par le tachéomètre qui calcule et mémorise les coordonnées…

Réalisation d’une coupe stratigraphique dans l’abri-sous-roche du Rocher de l’Impératrice à Plougastel-Daoulas, dans le Finistère. A l’occasion de la campagne de fouilles de l’été 2017, le retrait d’un bloc rocheux d’une quarantaine de tonnes, effondré vers 9000 av. J.-C., a permis la mise au jour d’un niveau d’occupation azilien préservé. Les chutes de roches ont ainsi protégé localement les couches antérieures de l’érosion. Découvert en 1987, l’abri-sous-roche du Rocher de l’Impératrice est…

Digging at the Rocher de l’Impératrice site in Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistère. This rock shelter, where digging began in 2013, was mainly occupied at the start of the Azilian, around 14,500 years ago. It was used for short periods by hunters visiting the valley that is now under the sea. The remains of flint tools have been found in this shelter, as well as engraved schist tablets. These tablets, the oldest evidence of artwork in Brittany, show an abstract register (hatching, grids and zigzags)…

Cross-section of the rock shelter at the Rocher de l’Impératrice site in Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistère. This shelter, where digging began in 2013, was mainly occupied at the start of the Azilian, around 14,500 years ago. It was used for short periods by hunters visiting the valley that is now under the sea. The most recent stratum, 101, is made up of colluvium and reworked deposits. Layer 108 is made up of a scree of quartzite rock in colluvium, while layer 102, containing Azilian artefacts,…

Tablet 741, showing horses, from the Rocher de l’Impératrice site in Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistère. This rock shelter, where digging began in 2013, was mainly occupied at the start of the Azilian, around 14,500 years ago. It was used for short periods by hunters visiting the valley that is now under the sea. Flint tools have been found in this shelter, as well as engraved schist tablets. These tablets, the oldest evidence of artwork in Brittany, show a geometric register (hatching, grids and…

Aurochs head on one of the two engraved faces of fragment 317 from the Rocher de l’Impératrice site in Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistère. This rock shelter, where digging began in 2013, was mainly occupied at the start of the Azilian, around 14,500 years ago. It was used for short periods by hunters visiting the valley that is now under the sea. Flint tools have been found in this shelter, as well as engraved schist tablets. These tablets, the oldest evidence of artwork in Brittany, show a…

Projectile points discovered at the Rocher de l’Impératrice site in Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistère. This rock shelter, where digging began in 2013, was mainly occupied at the start of the Azilian, around 14,500 years ago. It was used for short periods by hunters visiting the valley that is now under the sea. The remains of flint tools have been found there, as well as engraved schist tablets. Here, figures 1 to 8 are bipoints; 9 to 11 are regular monopoints; 12 and 13 are irregular monopoints;…

Lithic tools discovered at the Rocher de l’Impératrice site in Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistère. This rock shelter, where digging began in 2013, was mainly occupied at the start of the Azilian, around 14,500 years ago. It was used for short periods by hunters visiting the valley that is now under the sea. Flint tools have been found there, as well as engraved schist tablets. Here, figures 1 to 5 are flat retouched blades; figures 6 to 8 are burins used to work various materials; figures 9 and 10…

Engraved horse heads from the Rocher de l’Impératrice and Pincevent sites. Begun in 2013, the digs at the Rocher de l’Impératrice site in Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistère, led to the discovery, inside a dwelling, of engraved schist tablets dating from the early Azilian, 14,500 years ago. These tablets, the oldest evidence of artwork in Brittany, show a geometric register (hatching, grids and zigzags) as well as naturalistic representations of horses, as in this case, and aurochs. Traces of…

Selection of engraved pieces from the Rocher de l’Impératrice site in Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistère. This rock shelter, where digging began in 2013, was mainly occupied at the start of the Azilian, around 14,500 years ago. It was used for short periods by hunters visiting the valley that is now under the sea. Flint tools have been found in this shelter, as well as engraved schist tablets. These tablets, the oldest evidence of artwork in Brittany, show, as in this case, a geometric register …

Detail of an engraved horse head from the Rocher de l’Impératrice site in Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistère. This rock shelter, where digging began in 2013, was mainly occupied at the start of the Azilian, around 14,500 years ago. It was used for short periods by hunters visiting the valley that is now under the sea. Flint tools have been found in this shelter, as well as engraved schist tablets. These tablets, the oldest evidence of artwork in Brittany, show an abstract register (hatching, grids…

Animal figures engraved on bone or stone, discovered in various deposits dating from the Late Magdalenian (figures 1 to 7) and the Early Azilian (figures 8 to 11). Begun in 2013, the digs at the Rocher de l’Impératrice site in Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistère, led to the discovery of engraved schist tablets dating from the early Azilian. These tablets, the oldest evidence of artwork in Brittany, show a geometric register (hatching, grids and zigzags) as well as naturalistic representations of…