An Early Gravettian cultural attribution for the human fossils from the Cro-Magnon rock shelter (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Dordogne)

Abstract

In 2002, the 14 C AMS dating of a perforated shell (Littorina littorea) associated with the skeletons discovered in 1868 (Lartet 1868) in the Cro-Magnon rock shelter (Beta 157439: 27 680 ± 270 BP, or 31,324-32 666 cal BP), excluded their attribution to the Early Aurignacian and suggested that they were deposited during an early phase of the Gravettian. A revision of the Gravettian sequence of the Pataud rock shelter, located less than 300 meters downstream on the same bank of the Vézère River, along with new 14 C dates of this sequence and a study of the pendants from layer 5, now enable us to confirm the attribution of the fossils from Cro- Magnon to the Early Gravettian.