EXCAVATIONS AT THE PREHISTORIC ROCK-SHELTER OF 
LA COLOMBIERE! 
By Hauutam L. Movius, Jr. 
Curator of Palaeolothic Archaeology, 
Peabody Museum, Harvard University 
[With 7 plates] 
INTRODUCTION 
The primary objective of the expedition sent out in 1948 by the 
Peabody Museum of Harvard University to eastern France was to 
attempt to date the time when an Upper Paleolithic locality in the 
Southern Jura region was occupied by our Stone Age ancestors. 
This problem, fundamental to the establishment of a reliable chron- 
ology for the classic sequence of Old Stone Age cultures in western 
Europe in terms of the advances and retreats of the Alpine glaciers 
(see chart, fig. 1), was approached by means of combined archeological 
and geological field work. 
The dating of archeological deposits by means of geology is based 
on a detailed study of stratified layers of sand and gravel which were 
laid down by the action of rivers flowing from the glaciated regions. 
These sand and gravel deposits were built up into the form of terraces 
by the waters which flowed from the glaciers. The latter pushed 
thousands of tons of debris—called moraines—ahead of them, and 
during the warm seasons of the year, when the ice was melting, there 
was an abundant supply of this material piled up at or near the edge 
of the ice that was available for transport by the rivers. The rivers 
in turn carried this material away, and deposited it in the base of the 
valleys, through which they were flowing, in the form of terraces. 
In order to find a locality where combined archeological and geolo- 
gical field work could be expected to furnish fresh facts bearing on 
the problem of Upper Paleolithic chronology, it was not necessary 
to conduct an extensive program of reconnaissance. Just before 
the first World War commenced, Dr. Lucien Mayet of the University 
of Lyon and M. Jean Pissot of Poncin (Ain) partially excavated the 
large rock-shelter of La Colombiére.? This site (pl. 1) is located 
in the Department of Ain, some 45 miles northeast of Lyon and near 
1 Reprinted by permission from Archaeology, vol. 2, No. 1, March 1949. 
3 Mayet, Lucien, and Jean Pissot, ‘‘Abri-sous-roche préhistorigue de La Colombiére, prés Poncin 
(Ain),’”’ Ann, Univ. Lyon, ser. 1, vol. 39, pp. 1-205, 1915. 
866591—50——_24 359 
