Abstract
The Chauvet-Pont d’Arc Cave (Ardèche, France), famous for its remarkable rock art, also contains unique thermal-alterations such as rock spalling and color changes on the walls. These alterations resulted from intense fires that have not been observed in the other decorated caves thus far discovered. The functions of these unusual fires challenge archaeologists. To characterize these combustions, we used a numerical tool, previously validated with experimental data, to study the thermo-alterations in the Megaceros Gallery. This unprecedented approach in cave art research enabled us to assess the wood quantities and locations of the hearths responsible for the thermo-alterations. We report here that at least ten fires took place in the Megaceros Gallery while burning more than 170 kg of wood. Both simulation and in situ observations suggest that the branches were arranged in a tepee shape and purposefully positioned, some distance from the walls. This method therefore enables further analysis of the functions of these fires.
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Acknowledgments
We wish to thank the Regional Council of Aquitaine and Nouvelle-Aquitaine for providing funding for the CarMoThap project and for their investment in a 432-processor cluster located in the I2M laboratory. This work was also performed using HPC resources from GENCI-CINES (Grant 2017-A0032B10268). The researches in the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc Cave received specific financial help from the Ministry of Culture. We thank the LCPP (Laboratoire Centrale de la Préfecture de Police) for their help in the experiment instrumentation. We thank C. Bouchet, the owner of the quarry in Fauroux (Lugasson), and M. Vidal for having made available scots pine, as well as SDIS 33 staff for the participation in the experiments of the CarMoThaP program. We also express our gratitude to V. Feruglio for her comments and corrections.
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Salmon, F., Ferrier, C., Lacanette, D. et al. Numerical Reconstruction of Paleolithic Fires in the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc Cave (Ardèche, France). J Archaeol Method Theory 28, 604–616 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09484-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09484-5