Évolution stratigraphique des actions non utilitaires dans le Magdalénien supérieur de Roc-laTour I

Roc-la-Tour, which is situated in the Ardennian forest, was used many times (20 to 40) for several decades or centuries by the very people who left the well-known camps in Ile de France which were very rich, but poorly provided with art (Pincevent, Etiolles, etc.). Here, at a site which ten times less furnished with tools, and though bones and pearls were lost due to the acidic soil, 653 strongly broken pieces of schist, sandstone and ochre have survived. The slates, which had been shaped, smoothed or covered with ochre, are scattered rather evenly in the different levels. There is numerical correlation between smoothing and ochre, between engraving and smoothing and between shaping and covering with ochre, but there is no correlation at ail between smoothing and shaping. Engraving evolved according to cycles. In level 4, there is only one recognisable design and few abstract signs (23); in level 3 there are a few designs, a maximum of signs (116) and 44 groups of para/lei lines; in the two upper levels, there is the greatest number of designs and still many signs (71 and 57) and para/lei fines (64 and 38); level 2 is the richest with engravings. Then the proceeding of abstract signs occurred before realistic illustrations. Roc-la-Tour I seems to have been "the Site of Spirits" for some time.