Gisement du Paléolitique supérieur
Monument
Gisement du Paléolitique supérieur, located in Hallines (Pas-de-Calais), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Hallines, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 50.7114, 2.2086
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00108300
Just outside Saint-Omer, the Hallines Palaeolithic site reveals traces of human occupation dating back more than 15,000 years, and has been listed as a historic monument for the exceptional wealth of its Magdalenian remains.
History
Nestling in the verdant landscape of the Pas-de-Calais region, just a few kilometres from Saint-Omer, the Upper Palaeolithic site at Hallines is one of the rare preserved testimonies to the presence of humans in northern France at the end of the last Ice Age. This discreet archaeological site, which has been protected as a Historic Monument since 1970, conceals beneath its sedimentary layers the footprints of the hunter-gatherers who populated the Flemish plain over fifteen millennia ago. What makes this site truly unique is its geographical position: the Hauts-de-France region was a passageway between the climatic refuges of the south and the hunting grounds opened up by the gradual retreat of the glaciers. Hallines lies at the crossroads of the migratory routes used by Magdalenian man, the flint and bone craftsmen who carved reindeer and bison into the cave walls of their time. The artefacts unearthed during the excavations - cut flint blades and flakes, burins, scrapers, projectile points - bear witness to a sophisticated lithic tooling, characteristic of a material culture in full maturity. The mastery of pressure cutting, bone tools and signs of adornment suggest an organised human community capable of adapting its techniques to the local resources of the Aa basin. A visit to the site, set in unspoilt natural surroundings, is aimed primarily at archaeology enthusiasts and those interested in the deep history of the region. While the site itself is only accessible to the discerning eye, it does invite meditation on the depth of human settlement in these northern lands, long before the cathedrals and medieval fortresses that dot the region. The landscape of Hallines - hedged farmland, damp valley and limestone hillsides - also provides a pleasant setting for a walk, helping you to imagine the periglacial landscape of mammoth steppe that these Upper Palaeolithic hunters roamed. It's a breathtaking journey back to the origins of Nordic mankind.
Architecture
The Upper Palaeolithic site at Hallines is not an architectural edifice in the traditional sense of the term: it is an open-air site, stratified in sedimentary deposits of a loessic and alluvial nature, typical of the plains of northern France shaped by the periglacial processes of the Upper Pleistocene. The stratigraphy of the site reveals several superimposed archaeological horizons, each corresponding to a distinct episode of human occupation, separated by sterile levels of eolian sediments or colluvium. The artefacts typical of this type of deposit consist mainly of cut flint tools - muzzle scrapers, dihedral chisels, abruptly retouched blades, micro-lamellae with backs - as well as fragments of hunted fauna and items of finery made from hard animal material. The absence of permanent dwellings, replaced by light tents or hide shelters, is consistent with the nomadic lifestyle of Magdalenian populations at this latitude. The local topography played a decisive role in the choice of this site by prehistoric man: the confluence of a secondary valley with the Aa valley offered an ideal vantage point for observing game migration corridors, combined with easy access to water and flint resources from the surrounding Cretaceous outcrops. This type of geomorphological configuration is recurrent in Upper Palaeolithic open-air deposits in north-western Europe.
Related Figures
Homo sapiens magdalénien — occupant principal du site entre 15 000 et 12 000 av. J.-C.Préhistoriens du Service régional de l'Archéologie des Hauts-de-France — responsables des fouilles et de la documentation scientifique du XXe siècleInspecteurs des Monuments historiques (1970) — acteurs de la décision de protection officielle du gisementChercheurs de l'Université de Lille — contributeurs aux analyses paléoenvironnementales et typologiques du mobilier lithique
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Gisement du Paléolitique supérieur located?
Gisement du Paléolitique supérieur is located in Hallines, Pas-de-Calais department, Hauts-de-France region, France.
Is Gisement du Paléolitique supérieur open to visitors?
Gisement du Paléolitique supérieur is currently closed to visitors.