Abstract
Petro-archaeological analysis of the lithic industry of the Lower Paleolithic of La Belle-Roche cave (Sprimont, Belgium), according to the grids developed in recent years by various research programs in France, allows a new reading of this industry. Although the anthropic character of certain objects seems well-estabilished, their accumulation in the deposit remains problematic. In this respect, the taphonomic and weathering analysis of the industry raises questions about the origin of the deposit, the age of the industry and the notion of “site”: is the “La Belle-Roche site” as a prehistorian or prehistoric construction?
Highlights
Located in the Ardennes massif, near the village of Fraiture (Sprimont, Prov. de Liège, Belgium), the karst system of La Belle-Roche opens on the right bank of the Amblève river (Fig. 1A)
All the other anthropic objects (Tableau 1) – as previously suggested by Ozer – testify to a collection and debitage in the Ardennes massif, but to an abandonment somewhere in the Amblève valley, probably at different periods, as evidenced by the variety of weathering classes and the traces of river transport which overlap each other. These objects were accumulated in a high terrace of the Amblève before incorporated into the karst following gravitational phenomena. These observations question the ontological value of “La Belle-Roche site”, which we currently identify as the result of a multiple secondary deposit
This work has led to the reconsideration of the status of a part of La Belle-Roche objects: the mix of true anthropic objects – notably two clearly knapped pieces and most likely 23 – and non-anthropic object
Summary
Located in the Ardennes massif, near the village of Fraiture (Sprimont, Prov. de Liège, Belgium), the karst system of La Belle-Roche opens on the right bank of the Amblève river (Fig. 1A). De Liège, Belgium), the karst system of La Belle-Roche opens on the right bank of the Amblève river (Fig. 1A). Due to the numerous bones attributed to the Middle Pleistocene, it was the subject of excavations by J.-M. These endeavors led to the discovery of more than 50 000 bones and 117 lithic objects of which 110 are made of flint (Cordy et al 1993; Draily 1998). The gallery’s sedimentary sequence begins with a layer of centimetric intrakarstic gravels. It is overlayed by a 2.50 m deposit divided into three fossiliferous complexes (Cordy 1980) (Fig. 1C), which are sealed by a stalagmitic floor dated by U/ Th at - 350 ka (Gewelt 1985; Gascoyne & Scharwcz 1985):
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