THE CAVERN OF VALLONNET
(source : Laboratoire du Lazaret)
GEOLOGY

Situation

The cavern of Vallonnet is placed in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in the Alpes-Maritimes area. It opens towards the North at 110 of altitude, in the small dale of the Roquebrune hill (called also Vallonnet gully) and it goes down towards the bay of Menton. The outer surface presents itself as a small triangular slot, furrowed because of the Superior Jurassic limestone and surmounted by the pudding stone of Roquebrune. The inside part begins with a narrow gully (5 m long) ending in a small hall of 4 m and with a visible length of 5 m. It’s obviously longer and it extends for several meters along the Jurassic limestone, as indicated by a small hall on the west, at a distance which is still difficult to estimate.

 

History

The cavern was found in April 1958 by René Pascal, a member of the Prehistory and Speleology Association of Monaco, who visited it together with Louis Barral, the keeper of the Prehistoric Anthropology Museum of Monaco.

After the discovery of a few very old fossilized opalized bones, René Pascal started to do some excavation and in November 1961 found the femoral diaphysis of a huge old bovine presenting some removals and signs of use. This field, apart from its paleontologic interest, is a prehistoric field. The discovery of a few lithium pieces (choppers, chopping-tools, chips), among which one in allochtonous flint, shows that the cavern was inhabited by Man.

Henry and Marie-Antoinette de Lumley start the excavation of the cave in September 1962 and in 1963 the State Minister for the cultural Affair classified it among the Historical Monuments. Since 1962 the cavern is protected by a gate.

From 1962 till 1973, 12 excavation campaigns allowed to gather more than thousand opalized bones, belonging to an abundant and diversified fauna with affinities to the Villafranchian Era, and a few engraved lithium pieces.
Appeared in 1988, the volume 92 of " l'Anthropologie ", pages 387 - 627, gathers the main results already obtained.

 

The filling stratigraphy

All the deposits, made of 5 following sets, have been precisely dated. The basic stalagmitic floor or Set I has was dated back 1 370 000 years by the ESR method. This dating gave us the possibility to compare it to the marine sands level, or Set II, thanks to the isotopic stadium 31. The closing stalagmite, or Ensemble IV, was dated back 910 000 years by the EST method and compared to the isotopic stadium 29. The clay filling, or Set III, which contains the tools and the fauna, was compared by the isotopic stadium 30, and it was dated back one million years.

 

PALEO-ONTOLOGY
THE FAUNA OF VALLONNET

All the big Mammalians whose opalized bones were found in Set III, together with an archaic industry carved on cobbles ( Lumley H. de, Fournier A., Krzepkowska J. et Echassoux A., 1988), included species from the Villafranchian Era such as the Pachycrocuta brevirostris (the hyena), the Panthera gombaszoegensis (the European jaguar), the Archidiskodon meridionalis (the Meridional elephant), the Equus stenonis (the Stenon horse), the Sus strozzi (the boar), the Pseudodama nestii vallonnetensis (the small deer), the Macaca sylvanus florentina (the macaque) and other species announcing the Medium Pleistocene such as the Ursus deningeri (the Deninger bear), the Canis lupus mosbachensis(the Mosbach wolf ), the Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis (the rhino), the Bison schoetensacki (the bison) and the Megaceroides cf. verticornis (the megaceros/fallow deer). Recently new species have been found: the Homotherium crenatidens (the saber-toothed tiger), Cuon stehlini (the dholes)...

On the other hand, it’s been possible to recognize opalized bones of species already represented by other skeleton elements: a distal phalanx of a Macaca sylvanus florentinaet a fore of a Bison schoetensacki with anatomic connection (humerus, radius-ulna and metacarpus).

This fauna is characteristic of the transition in between the two paleontologic periods of the European Pleistocene. It’s situated in between the end of the Villafranchian Era and period of the renewal of the species which marks the end of the Inferior Pleistocene and which is due to a climatic degradation (isotopic stadium 30) and to an important migration of the species coming from Asia.

The opalized bones are all broken. Many have several fractures on the fresh bones, perforations, signs of rodent teeth (especially the hedgehog). The anthropogenic origin, at least part of it, of this accumulation is confirmed by the archeozoologic study, which underlines the bone fractures and the mortality profiles of the huge herbivorous, and also thanks to the discovery of 78 lithium pieces corresponding to the industrial activity of the Men of Vallonnet.

 

TYPOLOGY

The kind of industry discovered thanks to the stratigraphy inside the cavern of Vallonnet is made of carved cobbles (choppers and chopping-tools), nucleus, un-retouched chips and strikers. The raw material is Marl limestone coming from Miocene pudding stones surmounting the cavern and sometimes the flint. These archaic and not very elaborated tools can be found inside all the deposits with epivillafranchian huge Mammalian bones that sometimes have been broken, bumped or grooved by their cutters.

Thus they testify the presence of Prehistoric Men in this small karstic cavity one million years ago.

GEOCHRNOLOGY

Because of its fauna and big Mammalian, the cavern of Vallonnet dates back to the end of the Inferior Pleistocene though there are also archaic forms from the beginning pf the Quaternary Era and new forms of Asiatic origin. This Paleontological period dates back to the end of the Villafranchian Era. The Paleo-magnetic study shows that three rich deposits of fauna of Vallonnet are contemporary to the episode of Jaramillo, dating back one million years. The absolute dating tells us that the stalagmitic floor is 1.4 million years old, while the closing stalagmite is more or less 900.000 years old.

 

Plancher stalagmitique inférieur daté de 1,4 million d'années

Thus we can confirm that the cavern of Vallonnet sheltered prehistoric men, hunters or thieves, for a relatively long period, in alternation with the passing by of the huge carnivore such as the bear or the hyena, more or less one million years ago.

Mandibule de jeune hyène

Dent de félin machairodonte (homotherium crenatidens)

 

PALEO-ETHNOGRAPHY
THE OCCUPATION OF THE CAVERN OF VALLONNET

Men and animals have probably found refuge in the cavern of Vallonnet; today the question is to establish the alternation and to precise the way of life of its inhabitants thanks to the study of the rests of their meals: especially the fractures and traces that can be found on the bones. We have to study the behavior of the carnivores that were living in the cavern of Vallonnet better and try to understand which was the role of the hyena, the bear, the wolf or the felines in the consumption of the animal rests found inside the cavern.

(source : Laboratoire du Lazaret)