A reappraisal of field data on a purported Quina-bearing site in southern Burgundy

Vergisson 4 is known in the literature as a small karstic cavity opening on the south side of the Vergisson limestone ridge, in southern Burgundy, excavated in the 1950-1960s by J. Combier. Study of lithic industries by M. Massoulié within the framework of an ongoing PhD revealed that the industry from the latest of the two archaeological units is bearing some but not all the Quina characters usually described in classical Quina sites from southwestern France. A three weeks fieldwork (23 May-12 June) was undertaken under the direction of Sylvain Soriano with the aim to control the stratigraphy. The refreshed section was fully sampled by Guillaume Guérin for OSL dating and by Mathieu Rué (Paléotime) for geoarchaeological analyses.

We thank Laurence Bourguignon, Marine Massoulié, Clarisse Chardot, Camille Daujeard, Michel Rasse and Louis De Weyer for their participation in the fieldwork.