The Tayacian

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The industries associated with the hominid finds have been interpreted as Tayacian, a variant of the Mousterian named after industries found at the site of La Micoque in Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac. Overall, Fontéchevade’s Tayacian industries are characterized by extremely few standardized tool types, irregular flakes with a high percentage of cortex and plain platforms, and simple, irregular cores. Of the tools, notched pieces predominate with some simple scrapers.

Henri-Martin lists 5924 flint and limestone artifacts, a mere 47 of which are scrapers and 168 are notched tools. A rough density estimate based on the number of cubic meters Henri-Martin excavated yields one retouched tool for every 3 to 4 cubic meters. Given improved methods of excavation, is not surprising that densities from the new excavations are higher, but they are still extremely low. In the Tayacian layers there are approximately 7 retouched artifacts per cubic meter.