Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Roc-de-Sers is a major archaeological complex located in the commune of Sers, Charente (New Aquitaine), 15 km southeast of Angoulême. This deposit, dug in a limestone cliff of 20 meters high by a tributary of the Scale, consists of four caves: the Fontaine Cave, the Virgo Cave, the Roc Cave and the East Cave. These cavities delivered lithic tools (laurel leaves, scrapers, burins) and reindeer wood objects (needles, drills, sagay reinforcements), reflecting an intense human occupation during the upper Paleolithic period, particularly during the aurignacian, perigordian and solutrean periods.

The most remarkable discovery of the site is a frieze carved into 14 blocks, attributed to the final Solutreen (about -20 000 years), representing horses, ibex, a bison and a rare scene of a human being pursued by a muskox. These blocks, initially attached to a collapsed wall, combine the techniques of raised field and round-bosse. Some kept traces of dye. The original frieze is exhibited at the Musée d'Archéologie nationale de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, while a reproduction is visible on site. The site also delivered engraved plaques, trimming elements (limestone locks, pierced teeth) and a triple burial of Bronze Age (circa 3020 BC), originally confused with a Paleolithic tomb.

The excavations, carried out since the 19th century, intensified in the 20th century under the direction of prehistorians such as A. Favraud, Léon Henri-Martin (from 1909 for the cave of la Fontaine and 1927 for the cave of Roc) and Germaine Henri-Martin (checkout in 1950). Their work has resulted in a detailed stratigraphy: layer 2 is solutrean, layer 3 paleolithic with laurel leaves, and layer 4 corresponds to plant soil. The site, classified as a historic monument in 1979, is now equipped for the public with an interpretive platform and free access. It is notable for having delivered remains of saïga dotillope (Saiga tatarica), a rare species in French prehistoric deposits.

The lithic industry of Périgordien, particularly rich in the cave of Roc, includes cranial tips, double scrapers and decorated reindeer wood tools. The cave of La Fontaine, searched by Thuret and then Léon Henri-Martin, revealed aurignacian tools (gratters, burins, slats). The East Cave, explored by A. Favraud, delivered dotted back tips. These discoveries illustrate the diversity of the material cultures that followed each other on this site, from the Aurignacian to the Solutrean and the Périgordian. The Roc-de-Sers thus offers an exceptional testimony of the life and art of hunter-gatherers of the Upper Paleolithic in Aquitaine.

Future

Since May 2015, it has been designed for the public with platform and interpretation space; He's in free access. A reproduction of the frieze is exposed.

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