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Product Description
For comparison prices, please see the "Old World Typology and Price Guide" section of the "OVERSTREET IDENTIFICATION AND PRICE GUIDE TO INDIAN ARROWHEADS" editions 7th, 8th and 9th.
SEE MORE UPPER PALEOLITHIC TOOLS
This is a rare Magdalenian flake tool of the type called an ELONGATED LEVALLOIS POINT. A point like this could have been used as a projectile point with its narrow profile and sharp, long cutting edges. The delicate nature to the point was intended and would have made it an effective projectile point in human warfare. It would have been susceptible to break off once it penetrated its target, making it especially deadly. Extraction would have been difficult and it would have led to eventual infection and death. It is complete as originally made, and in perfect form. This flint flake tool was made by Cro-Magnon humans who once lived in this famous decorated cave site of Grotte du Placard, which had been earlier occupied by Neanderthals during the Mousterian Tool phase.
The Levallois technique is a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping developed around 250,000 to 300,000 years ago during the Middle Paleolithic period. It is part of the Mousterian stone tool industry, and was used by the Neanderthals in Europe and by modern humans in other regions such as the Levant. It is named after 19th-century finds of flint tools in the Levallois-Perret suburb of Paris, France.
The technique was more sophisticated than earlier methods of lithic reduction, involving the striking of lithic flakes from a prepared lithic core. A striking platform is formed at one end and then the core's edges are trimmed by flaking off pieces around the outline of the intended lithic flake. This creates a domed shape on the side of the core, known as a tortoise core, as the various scars and rounded form are reminiscent of a tortoise's shell. When the striking platform is finally hit, a lithic flake separates from the lithic core with a distinctive plano-convex profile and with all of its edges sharpened by the earlier trimming work. This method provides much greater control over the size and shape of the final flake which would then be employed as a scraper or knife although the technique could also be adapted to produce projectile points known as Levallois points.
Grotte du Placard is a major archaeological site that has been closed and protected from any private excavations, for many, many decades making this specimen rare and desirable with strong future appreciation in price. Artifacts from all Paleolithic cave sites in Europe can only be legally acquired from very old private collections as this piece came from.
This Magdalenian Upper Paleolithic Cro-Magnon flint tool is an excellent specimen with traits only found on authentic specimens - no modern flaking or crushing, and prehistoric mineralized sediment deposits in micro-crevices and flake scars.
No collection of Paleolithic tools would be complete without the inclusion of examples dating to the Upper Paleolithic Period. This was an era of many of the most famous human development milestones. In this period, the technology developing around the planet took place at slightly different times but globally, humanity was taking a huge turn for the better, and in overall unison. A new level of tool production and craftsmanship emerged unlike ever seen before. Modern humans first arrive on the scene and with them, they bring many new inventions - most notable is the concept of artistic expression as seen in the famous cave paintings that were only produced in this era.
HISTORY
The Grotte du Placard or (the Placard Cave), was first discovered in 1853. It is a very famous prehistoric cave in Charente, France containing art made by humans over 17,000 years ago. It is one of the most important Stone Age cave sites housing prehistoric cave art with abstract signs (aviforms), dating back to the era of Solutrean art. Traditionally grouped together with three other archeological sites of Franco-Cantabrian cave art, all four of the sites contain similar bird-like abstract symbols. The other sites include Pech Merle Cave (25,000 BCE), Cougnac Cave (23,000 BCE), and Cosquer Cave (25,000 BCE). Because Placard Cave is the only one of the four rock shelters whose rock art has been directly dated (to 17,500-18,000 BCE), the strange aviforms it contains are now known as "Placard-type signs", even though the earliest art of this type was created at Pech Merle, during the Gravettian.
The Grotte du Placard has been extensively excavated with more than a dozen levels dating from the Middle Paleolithic to later, higher levels, especially Magdalenian and Solutrean Periods. The French Association for the Advancement of Science funded early excavations in 1902. The subdivisions of the Upper Paleolithic presented by Henri Breuil the 1912 Geneva Convention are partly based on the results of excavations of the Grotte du Placard. Excavations were also done in 1958 by Jean Roche at the request of Jean Piveteau and again, in 1987 following the discovery of a reindeer and cattle engravings and a not yet excavated gallery. Human remains have been found in this cave including Neanderthal and mostly, Cro-Magnon. Many bones of Homo sapiens dating from the Solutrean ( Upper Paleolithic ) have been found, including skulls fashioned into cups. A frieze of about 5 meters long was excavated in 1990 on the walls buried in the Solutrean layer. The drawings are made by very fine incisions. Many horses, deer, ibex, deer, chamois, a saiga of cattle, aurochs and a two buffalo heads sticking out their tongues, are represented. Sieving the excavated material allowed recovery of 640 carved stones, which showed that all of the walls were engraved. A dozen "bird-shaped" signs are also present. Painted red, they are identical to those found in the caves of Pech Merle and Cougnac. This suggests a cultural group or a common artist(s) attended these remote caves of over 150 km apart. Similar signs were found in the Cosquer cave in Marseille, 500 km away.
