Gisement préhistorique
MonumentHidden Treasure
On the outskirts of Bordeaux, this Upper Palaeolithic site reveals a unique Magdalenian burial: a human skeleton adorned with shells and animal teeth, a deeply moving testament to our ancestors from 16,000 years ago.
History
Nestling in the limestone soils of the Gironde, the prehistoric site of Saint-Germain-de-la-Rivière is one of the most precious archaeological sites in south-western France. Discovered at the beginning of the 20th century in the Dordogne valley, this Magdalenian site has yielded one of the most moving funerary testimonies of European prehistory: the burial of a carefully buried individual, adorned with a rich set of fossil shells and pierced deer teeth, attesting to a spiritual and ritual life of unsuspected depth. What sets Saint-Germain-de-la-Rivière apart from the countless Palaeolithic sites in the Périgord region is precisely this exceptional funerary dimension. While the Vézère Valley is home to most of the world's cave art sites, this Gironde site sheds additional, equally fascinating light on the social practices, beliefs and care bestowed on the dead by the hunter-gatherers of the Magdalenian culture around 16,000 years ago. The site is set in a remarkable geological territory, marked by the gentle relief of the limestone hillsides on the right bank of the Dordogne, a landscape shaped over thousands of years by erosion and watercourses. For the discerning visitor, wandering around this area means mentally superimposing the strata of time, from the Bordeaux vines that cover these hills today to the Magdalenian hearths that brought them to life at the height of the Ice Age. The archaeological finds - bones, ornaments, flint and bone tools - are now preserved and displayed in the collections of the Musée d'Aquitaine in Bordeaux, where the reconstructed skeleton and its ornaments are one of the jewels of regional prehistory. The site itself, listed as a Historic Monument since 1935, is protected but has few facilities for the public, giving it an authentic, intimate feel, far removed from mass tourism.
Architecture
The Saint-Germain-de-la-Rivière site is an open-air and rock shelter excavated in the Cretaceous limestone formations that form the dominant geological substratum on the right bank of the Gironde Dordogne. These asteriated limestones, which are typical of the Aquitaine Basin, have a natural tendency to form overhangs, caves and shelters that provided Palaeolithic populations with favourable living conditions: protection from bad weather and glacial cold, proximity to watercourses and hunting resources. The morphology of the site is characterised by sedimentary stratigraphy in horizontal layers, typical of deposits accumulated over long periods of human occupation alternating with phases of abandonment. Archaeologists have identified several superimposed layers, each corresponding to a distinct cultural episode. The Magdalenian layer, the richest, is of significant thickness, indicating repeated and prolonged use of the site, which was probably used as a seasonal hunting lodge rather than a permanent habitat. No built structures in the architectural sense of the term have been identified on the site, in keeping with the practices of the period. The organisation of the domestic space can be deduced from the layout of the remains: hearths in troughs demarcating cooking areas, concentrations of tools revealing specialised work spaces, and the burial itself, dug into the natural soil and carefully covered, constituting the only 'funerary architecture' testifying to a deliberate gesture by these Magdalenian communities to structure their space.
Related Figures
Les Magdaléniens de Saint-Germain-de-la-Rivière — population de chasseurs-cueilleurs ayant occupé le site vers 16 000 ans BPLe défunt de la sépulture — individu paré d'une riche parure funéraire, figure centrale des découvertes du gisementHenri Laville — géologue et préhistorien ayant contribué à l'étude stratigraphique des sites magdaléniens girondins au XXe siècleFrançois Daleau — archéologue amateur pionnier de la Gironde, actif dans la région à la fin du XIXe siècle, ayant ouvert la voie aux recherches préhistoriques localesLes conservateurs du Musée d'Aquitaine de Bordeaux — gardiens des collections issues du gisement depuis le classement de 1935
