THE AURIGNACIAN IN SOUTHERN BURGUNDY
Harald FLOSS, Christian T. HOYER
Claire E. HECKEL, Élise TARTAR
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Since the second half of the 19th century, Southern Burgundy has constituted one of the most important regions of Early Upper Paleolithic research in France, but with a remarkable discontinuity in research after the 1950s and considerable emphasis on the site of Solutré. Beginning in the middle of the 1990s, a research team from Tübingen University directed by H. Floss has been investigating this area, building on a tradition of research started by A. Arcelin and H. Breuil and carried on by J. Combier and H. Delporte. In spite of the long history of research in this region, it is clear that more detailed information in the form of absolute dates, chronostratigraphic studies, and technological reassessments of the Aurignacian industries is required. The Tübingen research team and researchers from several French institutions are filling gaps in current knowledge through ongoing excavation, survey, and collections analysis as part of a Projet Collectif de Recherche on the Early Upper Paleolithic in the region. The present article summarizes the existing information available on the Early Aurignacian of Southern Burgundy as concretely as possible. Of particular significance are the sites of Solutré and Grotte de la Verpillière in Germolles. Some new open-air sites have also been recently discovered, e.g. at Germolles-en-Roche, Uchizy and Charnay-lès-Mâcon. This article provides an overview of our initial insights into the technological characteristics of the lithic and osseous industries.