Les parois chauffées de la grotte Chauvet-Pont d'Arc (Ardèche, France): caractérisation et chronologie

• Autores: Catherine Ferrier, E. Debard, Bertrand Kervazo, Aurélie Brodard, Pierre Guibert, Dominique Baffier, Valérie Feruglio, Bernard Gély, Jean-Michel Geneste, Fréderic Maksud
• Localización: Paléo: revue d'archéologie préhistorique, ISSN 1145-3370, Nº. 25, 2014, págs. 59-78
• Idioma: francés
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• Resumen

  • Researches on the taphonomy of the rock art walls of the Chauvet-Pont d�Arc cave led to the identification and the detailed study of marks resulting from a heating process : pink and grey color of the rock, flakes due to the heat, and soot deposits. This thermal facies was observed in the first rooms, where the main red paintings are located, as well as in the deep rooms where most of the charcoal paintings were found. A paleothermometric study was undertaken by a thermoluminescence analysis of reddened limestone chips sampled on the archaeological floor or extracted from the walls. As a result, this study showed that the surface of the rock was heated in the past at temperatures ranging from 300 to 375°C according to the sample. The chronological data (C14 datings of the charcoals and relative chronology with the rock art) link the fires mostly to the Aurignacian. The function of the fires remains unknown : lighting, getting the torch going again, colourant production, smoke, heat production, without other reason than symbolic, modification of the wall state, protection from the bears who were present in the cave at the same period...