Isturitz and Oxocelhaya caves | |
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![]() Entrance of the Isturitz Cave | |
Location | Lower Navarre, Pyrénées-Atlantiques |
Coordinates | 43°21′10″N1°12′22″W / 43.35278°N 1.20611°W |
Discovery | 1929 |
The Isturitz and Oxocelhaya caves (French: Grottes d'Isturitz et d'Oxocelhaya) are an important Paleolithic site where a Neanderthal mandible was found, as well as later modern human finds associated with the Aurignacian, Solutrean and Magdalenian. They also include cave paintings and bone flutes. [1] The caves are located in the Gazetelu hill in the Arberoue Valley in the foothills of Pyrenees, in Lower Navarre, a traditional region of the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, southwestern France, part of the French Basque Country. [2]
The French government has classified the site as a Monument historique since 1953. [3] Occupation by Neanderthal and Homo sapiens communities extends over a period from 80,000–10,000 years BP, and continued to be use (perhaps only for burials) until the Roman era. [4] The site is discussed within the context of Franco-Cantabrian prehistory, as among the easternmost decorated caves that extended along the Pyrenees and Cantabrian Mountains. [4]
The caves are within the territories of the communes of Isturits et de Saint-Martin-d'Arberoue, in the vicinity of Hasparren. They form part of a system of three caves carved into the limestone Gaztelu hill in succession by the Arbéroue stream, which flows into the Lihoury, a tributary of the Bidouze. The hill itself is surmounted by the Rocafort castle.
The Isturitz cave is divided into two parts: the Hall of Saint-Martin (or South Hall) and the Main Hall or Hall of Isturitz (or North Hall). At the beginning of the Mesolithic, the opening that faces the town of Saint-Martin-d’Arberoue is estimated to have been 15 and 20 m wide and about 10 m high, making it visible to humans a distance. [4]
The most common human remains from Isturitz are cranial vaults, which have been cut-marked and modified to create drinking cups ("coupelles"), dating from the Magdalenian (∼15 to 12,000 years BP). [5] [6]
This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in French wikipedia.
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The Magdalenian cultures are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. It is named after the type site of La Madeleine, a rock shelter located in the Vézère valley, commune of Tursac, in France's Dordogne department.
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Édouard Louis Stanislas Piette was a French archaeologist and prehistorian.
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The Goyet Caves are a series of connected caves located in Wallonia in a limestone cliff about 15 m (50 ft) above the river Samson near the village of Mozet in the Gesves municipality of the Namur province, Belgium. The site is a significant locality of regional Neanderthal and European early modern human occupation, as thousands of fossils and artifacts were discovered that are all attributed to a long and contiguous stratigraphic sequence from 120,000 years ago, the Middle Palaeolithic to less than 5.000 years ago, the late Neolithic. A robust sequence of sediments was identified during extensive excavations by geologist Edouard Dupont, who undertook the first probings as early as 1867. The site was added to the Belgian National Heritage register in 1976.
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