The prehistoric site of Renancourt, at Amiens (Somme), has long been known. It has long remained one of the few witnesses to the ancient Upper Palaeolithic (35,000 – 15,000) in northern France. Discovered in 2011 during an Inrap diagnostic, the site of Amiens-Renancourt 1 has been the subject of planned excavations since 2014. During the 2019 campaign, an exceptional 23,000-year-old Gravette «Venus» was discovered.

A camp of Palaeolithic hunters

Near the confluence of the Selle and Somme valleys, in a district southwest of Amiens, the deposit is sealed in wind silt (loess) covering the end of the last ice age (between 40,000 and 10,000 years).

This habitat is characterized by a concentration of very well preserved remains, at a depth of 4 meters under the current soil. Dated by carbon 14 of 23,000 years (21,000 BCE), it is attributed to a recent phase of Gravettian culture that develops in Europe between 28,000 and 22,000 years.   The site of Amiens-Renancourt is today one of the rare testimonies of the presence of modern man (Homo sapiens) at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in the north of France.

The diversity and abundance of the remains illuminate the various activities practiced in this camp of hunters. Among the many flints, projectile tips are intended for predation (Gravette tips), while large blades are transformed into tools: knives, scrapers, etc. The consumption of horse meat is attested by numerous bone remains.

Adornments are also present, including very original perforated chalk washers. In the middle of the ice age, this camp of Gravettian hunters would have been occupied a few weeks, at the end of the fine season, towards autumn.

Renancourt’s «Venus»

The 2019 campaign has just uncovered an exceptional sculpture that crowns a remarkable series of fifteen engraved statuettes, the first of which was discovered in 2014. Carved in chalk, 4 cm high, this «Venus» is steatoppyge: the volume of the buttocks, thighs and breasts is enlarged. The arms are just sketched, the face represented without features.

This sculpture fits perfectly into an aesthetic canon, the Gravettian stylistic tradition, which includes the Venus of Lespugue (Haute-Garonne), Willendorf (Austria) or the bas-relief of Laussel (Dordogne). This «Venus» by Renancourt also wears an amazing «hairstyle» made by fine incisions in grid, which is reminiscent of that of the Venus of Willendorf but especially that of the Lady with the hood of Brassempouy (Landes).

These Venus are known a few dozen times from the Pyrenees to Siberia. In France, only about fifteen were recorded, especially in the southwest quarter (Aquitaine, Pyrenees). The last found in stratigraphic context was discovered in 1959 in Tursac (Dordogne). Today, the site of Amiens-Renancourt 1 doubles the number of these Gravette objects discovered in France. Archaeologists envisage a workshop oriented in this production: the sculptures are accompanied by several thousand fragments of chalk, The function and even the meaning of these Palaeolithic figurations remain discussed.

A planned search

This excavation, carried out on a parcel owned by the agglomeration community

of Amiens Métropole, was conducted on prescription of the Regional Service of Archaeology (Drac Hauts-de-France) and thanks to the financial support of the Drac and Inrap. Led by Clément Paris (Inrap), this multi-institutional excavation involves several CNRS researchers (UMR 7041 and UMR 8591), and benefits from funding for dating and paleo-environment programs.

After a complete study, the sculptures will be deposited at the Picardie Museum in Amiens.

The Drac Hauts-de-France

The Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac) Hauts-de-France (decentralized department of the Ministry of Culture – placed under the authority of the Prefect of Region), is responsible for conducting and implementing the State’s cultural policy, within the framework of the guidelines set at national level by the Ministry of Culture.

Within the Drac, the Regional Archaeological Service ( SRA ) manages the regional archaeological activity by ensuring the application of the regulations on archaeological operations (book V of the Heritage Code). An important part of the SRA activity is devoted to preventive archaeology. Indeed, the impact of a development project on the archaeological heritage may lead the SRA to prescribe archaeological operations (diagnostics and excavations) to ensure its study before its eventual disappearance. In addition, the SRA authorizes, coordinates and finances programmed archaeology operations (surveys, surveys, excavations, etc.) motivated by scientific research objectives. The SRA provides scientific and technical control of all these operations.

The Inrap

The National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research is a public institution under the supervision of the Ministries of Culture and Research. It is responsible for the detection and study of archaeological heritage prior to the development of the territory and carries out every year some 1800 archaeological diagnostics and more than 200 excavations on behalf of private and public developers, in metropolitan France andsea. Its missions extend to the scientific analysis and interpretation of excavation data and the dissemination of archaeological knowledge. With 2,200 staff in 8 regional and interregional directorates, 42 research centres and a headquarters in Paris, it is Europe’s largest archaeological research operator.

Amiens Métropole

The Preventive Archaeology Service of Amiens Metropolis covers 39 municipalities of the agglomeration. It has been approved since 2011 for the realization of diagnostics and excavations concerning the periods of the ages of Metals, Antiquity, Middle Ages and Modern Times. Made up of a dozen officers, it carried out more than 80 diagnostics and a dozen excavations as well as several work follow-up operations in the area of the agglomeration. He is also fully involved in the planned excavation of Boves Castle.