One of the ASPR’s first excavations took place at the “Abri Des Merveilles”, which is located near the commune of Sergeac in south-west France in the Castel-Merle valley, where it is one of numerous paleolithic sites (O’Hara et al., 2015). It was first discovered in 1878, and the ASPR began excavating there in 1924 after the Archaeological Society of Washington secured a 10-year lease at the site. George Grant MacCurdy and his students spent seven summers at Abri Des Merveilles, until they moved on from the site in 1930 (MacCurdy, 1931). It is not clear why MacCurdy stopped excavating there and did not take advantage of the Archaeological Society of Washington’s 10-year time frame, but by 1930 the ASPR was putting significant resources into new excavations in the Levant. Furthermore, 1930 was MacCurdy’s last year as field director; at that point he was 68, and he passed directorship on to former students for all subsequent summers.
Abri Des Merveilles contains three main archaeological contexts: an Aurignacian level (about 45,000 – 25,000 years old) and an Upper and Lower Mousterian level (about 160,000 to 45,000 years old). The site does contain Neanderthal remains, including what is most likely a Neanderthal molar, found in 1926 by M. Castanet, the owner of the site (Trinkaus, 1976). The tooth is associated with a Lower Mousterian level, but it, like many of the other artifacts unearthed in the early 20th century, is difficult to place accurately in time due to poor note taking and a general loss of archaeological contexts. Many of the sites in Castel-Merle were poorly documented during their original excavations, but we do know from MacCurdy’s ASPR bulletins that in addition to the molar, his group found tools made of flint and rock crystal (MacCurdy, 1931, p. 16).
References cited
MacCurdy, G. M. (Ed.). (1931). Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research (7).
O’Hara J. F., White R., Garrett Z. S., Higham T., Roussot A. (2015). The Aurignacian Site of the Abri de la Souquette (commune de Sergeac, Dordogne): A History of Archeology. In R. White, R. Bourrillon, & F. Bon (Eds.), Aurignacian Genius: Art, Technology and Society of the First Modern Humans in Europe (pp. 98–117). Proceedings of the International Symposium, April 08-10 2013, New York University.
Trinkaus, E. (1976). Note on the hominid molar from the Abri des Merveilles at Castel-Merle. Journal of Human Evolution 5(2), 203-205.