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Product Description
SEE MORE UPPER PALEOLITHIC CRO MAGNON TOOLS
With this offer comes a RARE opportunity to acquire an authentic Cro-Magnon flint tool artifact WITH A BUTCHERED FOSSIL MAMMAL BONE FOUND WITH THE TOOL, from the famous La Gane prehistoric Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon habitation rock shelter site in the Dordogne Valley of France. The Dordogne Region in France is considered one of the most important regions of human prehistory in Europe. This specimen came from a collection dating back to the early 1900's by a French collector who excavated the Paleolithic layers of the shelter to reveal an Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian (Cro-Magnon) occupation layer with associated killed and butchered animal fossil remains, with a Middle Paleolithic Mousterian (Neanderthal) occupation layer lying directly below it. That Neanderthal layer also had tools found with more fossil animal remains from fauna they hunted, butchered and had eaten in the shelter. Those respective sets of tools with the fossils, will be offered in our separate MOUSTERIAN Neanderthal section on this website.
Such a collection provides a fantastic and rare window into long-term prehistoric human habitation spanning TWO Paleolithic periods - from Neanderthal to Cro-Magnon life. In this collection were not only tools from both periods but also, many fragmentary fossil remains of animals killed and eaten by these prehistoric humans. The remains included numerous bones and teeth of horse, red deer, reindeer, Megaloceros, aurochs and Steppe bison. The majority of bones were fragments indicating the process of smashing bones to get to the marrow was used. Bone marrow was prized for its rich food value as much if not more than the meat itself. Collections like this come maybe once in a lifetime, if that. This rare chance to acquire such objects will end when we sell out the limited number of specimens we have. Because collecting these artifacts has been off-limits for many decades, artifacts like these will continue to appreciate in value as time goes on.
Acquiring genuine fine grade European Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal flint tools WITH THE ASSOCIATED FOSSIL ANIMAL BONES THAT WERE HUNTED, BUTCHERED AND FOUND WITH THE SAME TOOLS, is rarely something you see offered on the market. We know of no similar collection ever made available for sale, it is THAT RARE!
This is a SUPREME Aurignacian Cro-Magnon flint tool classified as a LARGE KNIFE or BLADE. It comes with a megafauna fossil bone fragment. The straight and angular edges of the bone are the result of human cutting with a flint blade versus jagged, rough edges from breaking. This bone fragment is the leftover from the bone being broken to extract the marrow inside for eating. The superb flake tool it was found with, is complete with no modern damage and all its original flaking. The thick flake with robust cutting edge would have been ideally suited to cut animal bone and shave meat from bone, as well as separate hide from flesh. Evidence of use wear can be seen on the cutting edge. Intact mineral deposits and deep patina on the flint surfaces and hinge fractures to testify to its authenticity and lack of any modern alterations. With it is a megafauna mammal bone fragment found on the same Aurignacian layer as the flint tool, the left-overs of the butchered animals that were hunted and eaten by those same Cro-Magnon humans who made and used the tools.
This is a superb example of an Aurignacian Upper Paleolithic flint flake tool from this famous multi-period Paleolithic site with an interesting story of long-term use by two human species!
HISTORY
The Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in France since 1979. It specifically lists 15 prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley in the Dordogne department, mostly in and around Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, which has been called the "Capital of Prehistory". This valley is exceptionally rich in prehistoric sites, with more than 150 known sites including 25 decorated caves, and has played an essential role in the study of the Paleolithic era and its art. Three of the sites are the namesakes for prehistoric periods; the Micoquien (named after La Micoque), Mousterian (after Le Moustier), and Magdalenian (after Abri de la Madeleine). Furthermore, the Cro-Magnon rock shelter gave its name to the Cro-Magnon, the generic name for the European early modern humans. Many of the sites were discovered or first recognized as significant and scientifically explored by the archaeologists Henri Breuil and Denis Peyrony in the early twentieth century, while Lascaux, which has the most exceptional rock art of these, was discovered in 1940.
The sites cover a period of nearly 400,000 years of human habitation, starting at La Micoque, inhabited from ca. 400,000 years ago until 100,000 years ago and ending about 8,000 years ago. Excavations in the Dordogne region started in 1810, but only in 1863 were the first scientific researches made by the paleontologist Edouard Lartet together with the Englishman Henry Christy; in a period of five months they visited numerous sites in Les Eyzies, including the Grotte Richard, some shelters in the Gorge d'Enfer, Laugerie Basse, Laugerie Haute, La Madeleine and Le Moustier. In 1872 the latter two became the eponymous sites for the Magdalenian and Micoquian cultures, so-called by Gabriel de Mortillet. Lartet previously already had excavated the Cave of Aurignac, which gave its name to the Aurignacian, and had published his finds of a few of the earliest decorated objects from the Upper Paleolithicum.
In 1864 they found at La Madeleine an engraving on ivory, showing a mammoth: this was the first definitive piece of evidence that the inhabitants of these rock shelters had lived at the same time as some long-extinct animals.
In 1868 the human remains of the Cro-Magnon rock shelter were discovered, and in 1872 a prehistoric skeleton was found at Laugerie Basse. The first decorated cave of the region was found in 1896 at La Mouthe: it was the fourth decorated cave found in Europe, some 20 years after the other three had been discovered.
