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Étiolles, Palaeolithic encampments

Étiolles, Palaeolithic encampments

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  - The Upper Palaeolithic in Europe
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  - Four decades of research
  - Wide-spread exploration
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  - The right environment
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  - Adornment, art and curiosities
- - Étiolles, a centre for scientific innovation
  - From the field to the laboratory
  - A training and outreach centre
- The Magdalenians in their camps
- - The camp of two related families
  - Life inside the tents
  - Around the tents
  - A glimpse of a Magdalenian community
- - One family, several stays
  - Three successive habitations
  - An unusual method for producing blades
  - D71-1, a very unusual habitation
- - Flint knapping
  - A prodigious flint deposit
  - The principles of knapping
  - Flint knapping: why?
- - Norms and technological variation
  - Mastery of traditional techniques
  - A long apprenticeship
  - Some differences between the camps
- The engraved pebble from Étiolles
- - A major discovery
  - The background to the discovery
  - Exceptional artistic evidence
    
    The front
    
    The back
- - Comparisons and interpretations
  - Elsewhere at the same time
  - A stone that tells a story
- - The impact of the discovery
  - A very important discovery for the region
  - The engraved pebble at the musée de Nemours
- More insights into the Magdalenian way of life
- - Other Magdalenian habitats in the Paris Basin
  - A region rich in remarkable habitats
  - Diverse hunting practices
  - A region lacking in symbolic evidence
- - The Magdalenian in Switzerland
  - Living in a treeless landscape
  - An economy based on the hunting of diverse prey
  - Regularly changing location
  - The difficulties of decrypting the camps
  - A network of societies
- - The Magdalenian in the Rhineland and Thuringia
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Étiolles, Palaeolithic encampments

The Magdalenian nomads who came to Étiolles 15,000 years ago seem to have left only a few hours ago. Modest – and sometimes admirable – remnants of their sober life are intact after being buried in the soft alluvium of the Seine. Between secular and sacred life, it's like a "freeze frame" at the end of the Ice Age that the archaeologists are meticulously exploring.

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Inside The Habitations

Inside the habitations

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Inside The Habitations
Inside the habitations

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On a camp at Étiolles. A habitation seen from the outside and inside.

Drawings © MAN/Gilles Tosello

Discover the site

Historical and environmental context
The archaeological site
The habitations, camps and their surroundings
Hunting
Technology and symbols
Étiolles, a centre for scientific innovation

The Magdalenians in their camps

The camp of two related families
One family, several stays
Flint knapping
Norms and technological variation

The engraved pebble from Étiolles

A major discovery
Comparisons and interpretations
The impact of the discovery

More insights into the Magdalenian way of life

Other Magdalenian habitats in the Paris Basin
The Magdalenian in Switzerland
The Magdalenian in the Rhineland and Thuringia

Resources

Media Library
Glossary
Site map

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