Laurent Bruxelles

French National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS

This paper presents an extensive review of the process of ghost-rock karstification and highlights its role in the formation of cave systems. The process integrates chemical weathering and mechanical erosion and extends a number of existing theories pertaining to continental landscape development. It is a two stage process that differs in many resp...

The cave infills at Sterkfontein contain one of the richest assemblages of Australopithecus fossils in the world, including the nearly complete skeleton StW 573 (‘Little Foot’) in its lower section, as well as early stone tools in higher sections. However, the chronology of the site remains controversial owing to the complex history of cave infilli...

Sterkfontein is the most prolific single source of Australopithecus fossils, the vast majority of which were recovered from Member 4, a cave breccia now exposed by erosion and weathering at the landscape surface. A few other Australopithecus fossils, including the StW 573 skeleton, come from subterranean deposits [T. C. Partridge et al. , Science 3...

In tropical Africa, Late Pleistocene -Holocene climatic fluctuations heavily impacted the continental hydro-systems. The timing and magnitude of ‘African Humid Period’ hydrological dynamics (AHP; ~14.8 – ~5.5 ka BP) are not yet fully understood due to the extreme variability in African geomorphic patterns and the complex network of past air converg...

There has been a long debate about the possibility of multiple contemporaneous species of Australopithecus in both eastern and southern Africa, potentially exhibiting different forms of bipedal locomotion. Here, we describe the previously unreported morphology of the os coxae in the 3.67 Ma Australopithecus prometheus StW 573 from Sterkfontein Memb...

For English see below Une approche intégrée de la grotte Huchard, ou grotte du Ranc pointu no1, a été menée en 2020 et 2021. Elle a eu pour objectif d’investiguer les éventuelles complémentarités d’usages fonctionnels et/ou symboliques ayant pu exister entre les différentes grottes ornées du « complexe de sites » du Ranc pointu, dont fait partie l...

Le site archéologique de Nora, dans le district actuel de l’Ifat en Éthiopie, est situé sur un éperon rocheux à mi-pente de l’escarpement du Rift. Abandonné depuis plusieurs siècles, il présente les vestiges d’une ville islamique habitée de la fin du XIIIe au premier tiers du XVIe siècle. Cet ouvrage est issu de la campagne de fouille conduite à No...

The Paleolithic site of La Ferrassie (Dordogne, France) has contributed significantly to the understanding of Middle and Upper Paleolithic technocomplexes, as well as Neanderthal skeletal morphology. Excavations at the site have spanned more than a century and uncovered rich archaeological assemblages associated with the Mousterian, Châtelperronian...

Karst systems represent an important carbon and freshwater reservoirs. Although karst systems have been studied for many years, a new paradigm has emerged that suggests some of them could be formed by ghost-rock processes (Dubois et al. 2014 ) . Contrarily to the classical total karstification, ghost-rock karstification leaves in place a weathered...

In French : Cette contribution a pour objet de retranscrire l’histoire du site paléolithique de La Balutie (Montignac-Lascaux, Dordogne, France). L’histoire de ce site très tôt oublié, n’est ni sensationnelle, ni exceptionnelle, mais s’avère retranscrire l’atmosphère caractérisant les débuts des explorations des gisements préhistoriques de Dordogn...

Most archaeological and palaeo-environmental archives are preserved in specific environments (buried sediments, rock shelters, cave environments). Hence, the information we can obtain is usually incomplete, and lacking spatial and morphological significance. Studying landscape evolution can help us to understand the location and distribution of pas...

Different reasons can explain the anthropogenic breakage of speleothems: widening of passages, breakage through clumsiness or game. If you know the formation of speleothems, you can deduce a lot of information from calcite in caves.

Numerous traces of bear visits have been found in the caves. But sometimes there is no trace. There is a differential conservation of the traces on the limestone walls which can disappear by the biocorrosion of bats.

The visit to two caves in the Causses and the Cévennes (France) showed an absence of 18th century graffiti and signatures in these two caves. The hypothesis adopted is the flight of Protestants (Huguenots) from the kingdom of France during the Wars of Religion.

The scientific study of signs of human frequentation in caves began with the work of François Rouzaud (1978). Since then, other archaeologists have continued their research, developing a real specialty called speleo-archaeology, defined as the study of human presence in caves prior to modern speleology.

Various causes can be invoked to explain the anthropogenic broken speleothems: the exploration of caves, which sometimes requires the enlargement of passages, breakage by awkwardness, as a game, for different uses, profane or cult, and for many other reasons that still remain unknown. For scientist, the advantages of speleothems are multiple and ar...

Numerous traces of bear visits have been found in caves. They generally correspond to claw marks on walls or to cave bear wallows. Sometimes, these clues are not always well preserved and do not allow the confident identification of the presence of bears. The differential preservation of clue on limestone walls can hamper speleologists and paleonto...

The scientific study of the human frequentation clues in caves started with the work of François ROUZAUD (1978), entitled "La paléospéléologie". Since that time, other archeologists have continued research, developing a real specialty, the speleo-archeology, defined as the study of human frequentation in caves prior to modern speleology. Clues of h...

L’initiation de la spéléogenèse a toujours constitué une énigme lorsqu’elle est considérée dans son contexte géologique. La découverte des fantômes de roche et surtout leur conception systémique dans le cadre de la karstogenèse conduit à reconsidérer cette initiation. La fantô-misation est la division de la roche-mère en deux phases : une phase sol...

L’hydrogéologie des calcaires karstifiés s’écarte de l’hydrogéologie en roches poreuses ou simplement fracturées par la non-linéarité des équations d’écoulement : la loi de Darcy ne s’y applique que dans le cas d’écoulements laminaires, c’est-à-dire lents, sous potentiel hydrody-namique faible. La découverte de la notion de fantômes de roche ainsi...

In France, two karstic areas attracted very early the attention of geographers, geologists, speleologists and karstologists: the Grands Causses and the Jura plateaus. It is their typical and spectacular forms, but also the particular hydrology that intrigued and were at the origin of detailed studies already borrowing the vocabulary of another famo...

Various causes can be invoked to explain the anthropogenic broken speleothems: the exploration of caves, which sometimes requires the enlargement of passages, breakage by awkwardness, as a game, for different uses, profane or cult, and for many other reasons that still remain unknown. For scientist, the advantages of speleothems are multiple and ar...

The scientific study of the human frequentation clues in caves started with the work of François ROUZAUD (1978), entitled “La paléospéléologie”. Since that time, other archeologists have continued research, developing a real specialty, the speleoarcheology, defined as the study of human frequentation in caves prior to modern speleology. Clues of hu...

The visit of two caves, located in the Causses and the Cévennes (France), has shown an absence of graffiti and signatures of the 18th century in both caves. Indeed, later signatures from the 19th century attest to a resumption of frequentation after a hiatus of more than one hundred years. This hiatus extends from 1650 to 1925, for the Faux‐monnaye...

Le système karstique de bas plateaux de La Rochefoucauld se caractérise par un fonctionnement en pertes/résurgences dont le principal exutoire est la Touvre, 2 e émergence de France (débit moyen de 13 m 3 /s). Les cavités, essentiellement développées subhorizontalement, forment des réseaux labyrinthiques. Malgré cela, les sources de la Touvre donne...

The Great East African Rift and South Africa are the rare areas in which hominin fossils several million years old have been found. The finds, in the “Cradle of Humanity (UNESCO)”, are made inside cavities protected from erosion. The old fauna discovered in Mozambican caves during the 2019 mission of the Human Origins in Mozambic & Malawi (HOMME) p...

Classical speleothems (stalactites, stalagmites, pillars and flowstones) form in the vadose parts of karst cavities. Their presence therefore represents the total or partial, sometimes temporary, dewatering of associated parts of the karstic network. Conversely, the hydrogeological reuse of an old gallery, for example in connection with the rise of...

In cavities inherited from ghost rock weathering networks, the alterite is rarely observed as most of it has been removed by erosion and the galleries are largely reshaped. So, we looked for old mines to search for in situ ghost rocks artificially recut. The Grande Vernissière mine complex was dug in the 19th and 20th centuries, in particular for t...

The recent development of karstic and geoarchaeological studies in the karsts of Gauteng, in South Africa, has completely transformed interpretations in these prestigious hominid sites (Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, Cooper's, Gondolin…). Despite the wealth of faunal and also of hominin fossils, a combination of stratigraphic complexities and...

Numerous traces of bear visits have been found in caves. They generally correspond to claw marks on walls or to cave bear wallows. Sometimes, these clues are not always well preserved and do not allow the confident identification of the presence of bears. The differential preservation of clue on limestone walls can hamper speleologists and paleonto...

The origins of Homo, as well as the diversity and biogeographic distribution of early Homo species, remain critical outstanding issues in paleoanthropology. Debates about the recognition of early Homo, first appearance dates, and taxonomic diversity within Homo are particularly important for determining the role that southern African taxa may have...

In the last decade, the importance of condensation corrosion phenomena in the evolution of cave gallery morphologies is increasingly taken into account in cave studies. This is particularly the case in archaeological contexts, either for questions related to the taphonomy of cave art or for the understanding and the conservation of the paleo-enviro...

Animal emblématique des Pyrénées, le bouquetin peuple ses deux versants depuis les temps les plus anciens. En s’adaptant à cet environnement, une forme typiquement pyrénéenne Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica apparaît, il y a plusieurs millénaires. Consommé pendant la Préhistoire, le bouquetin est devenu, au cours du Paléolithique récent, une figure incont...

The Mas d'Azil cave is a major site for the study of European prehistory, and the evolution of the discipline itself, especially regarding our understanding of the late Upper Paleolithic. In particular, its mobiliary art is one of the richest and the most beautiful known in a Magdalenian context. Lesser known however, is its rock art. Few publicati...

Principaux résultats : Cette campagne de fouille 2021 au Portel-Ouest avait pour objectifs principaux d’une part de préciser l’organisation sédimentaire des ensembles moustériens (1er ensemble et 2ème ensemble) ainsi que de l’ensemble du Paléolithique supérieur, et de mettre au jour de nouveaux niveaux d’occupations anthropiques datant du Paléolith...

The StW 573 skeleton of Australopithecus prometheus from Sterkfontein Member 2 is some 93% complete and thus by far the most complete member of that genus yet found. Firmly dated at 3.67 Ma, it is one of the earliest specimens of its genus. A crucial aspect of interpretation of locomotor behaviour from fossil remains is an understanding of the pala...

The Early Pleistocene site of Swartkrans in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site has been significant for our understanding of the evolution of both early Homo and Paranthropus, as well as the earliest archaeology of southern Africa. Previous attempts to improve a faunal age estimate of the earliest deposit, Member 1, had produced...

Les chauve-souris et l’art pariétal ne font pas bon ménage. La présence dans le passé de colonies massives de chauves-souris pourrait avoir modifié profondément l’aspect de cavités dans des grottes. Principaux responsables de ces changements : la respiration des chiroptères, qui expirent CO2 et vapeur d’eau, mais aussi et surtout leurs déjections,...

Did the former presence of huge bat colonies in the caves of southern France have an impact on palaeolithic rock art? This is the hypothesis put forward by the geoarchaeologist Laurent Bruxelles, who highlights the spectacular alterations made by these animals to the appearance of cavities. https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/rock-art-and-bats-dont-mix

CAILHOL D., BON F., BIGOT J.-Y., BRUXELLES L., DANDURAND G., JARRY M., PALLIER C., VANARA N. – Influences de la corrosion de condensation et de la corrosion biogénique sur les parois et les dépôts de grotte, l'exemple de la grotte du Mas d'Azil (Ariège, France). Préhistoire, Arts et Sociétés. Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Ariège Pyrénées, 20...

Toulouse, ses rues tortueuses convergeant vers le Capitole, sa Basilique Saint-Sernin, sa cathédrale Saint-Etienne… Des monuments historiques, imposants et bien ancrés au sol depuis des temps immémoriaux. Leurs figures rassurantes symbolisent la ville et son histoire brillante… Ils apportent la garantie du passé et sont le gage de la continuité urb...

Jarry M., Bon F., Potin Y., Comelongue M., Ramis P., Bruxelles L., Lelouvier L.-A., Pallier C. - 2021 - La Grotte du Mas d'Azil (Ariège, France), histories anciennes et recherches récentes. Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Ariège-Pyrénées, Tome 71; 2021, 115-134. Nous proposons ici une synthèse historiographique de la grotte du Mas d'Azil, en...

The ca. 3.67 Ma adult skeleton known as ‘Little Foot’ (StW 573), recovered from Sterkfontein Member 2 breccia in the Silberberg Grotto, is remarkable for its morphology and completeness. Preservation of clavicles and scapulae, including essentially complete right-side elements, offers opportunities to assess morphological and functional aspects of...

Dans cet inventaire des formes de parois, Laurent Bruxelles étudie l’impact de l’occupation passée d’immenses colonies de chauves-souris. Hormis la curieuse habitude de dormir la tête en bas, celles-ci produisent d’énormes quantités d’excréments (le guano) qui libère beaucoup d’acide dans l’air. Leur respiration dégage du CO2 et de la vapeur d'eau...

Cet ouvrage est le fruit d’une longue et étroite collaboration entre une équipe française comprenant des spécialistes de nombreuses disciplines archéologiques et paléo-environnementales et un institut de recherche djiboutien dédié à la recherche archéologique et historique. Leur terrain d’étude se situe dans le bassin du Gobaad, des abords du lac A...

Located on the plateau of Larzac, the site of Soulages testifies, for the first time in a low mountain area, a rural settlement which expand from the 6th to the 9th century. The remains are organised in an area that groups together all living quarters, mixed with the burials of the inhabitants. Within this area, the buildings are divided by activit...

Animal emblématique des Pyrénées, le bouquetin peuple ses deux versants depuis les temps les plus anciens. En s’adaptant à cet environnement, une forme typiquement pyrénéenne Capra pyrenaica apparaît, il y a plusieurs millénaires. Consommé pendant la Préhistoire, le bouquetin est devenu, au cours du Paléolithique récent, une figure incontournable d...

Situé sur le causse du Larzac, le site de Soulages illustre, pour la première fois dans ce secteur de moyenne montagne, une occupation rurale qui se développe du vie siècle au ixe siècle. Les vestiges sont organisés dans un espace qui regroupe l’ensemble des lieux de vie, mêlés aux sépultures des habitants. Au sein de cet espace, les bâtiments sont...

El yacimiento de Soulages, situado en la meseta calcárea del Larzac, ilustra, por primera vez en este sector de media montaña, una ocupación rural que se desarrolla entre los siglos VI y IX. Los restos se organizan en un espacio que agrupa el conjunto de los lugares de vida, mezclados con las sepulturas de los habitantes. En el seno de este espacio...

Zusammenfassung: Die auf der Hochebene Causse du Larzac gelegene Siedlung von Soulages liefert ein bislang unbekanntes Beispiel für eine ländliche Ansiedlung in mittlerer Höhenlage, die sich zwischen dem 6. und 9. Jahrhundert n. Chr. entwickelte. Die Hinterlassenschaften umfassen den gesamten Siedlungsbereich, sowie Gräber der Bewohner. Innerhalb d...

In this study, new approaches are developed for measuring and understanding the reactivity of East African amplifier lakes and the societies that occupied their margins to African monsoon related hydrological changes. Drawing on seven newly discovered archaeological sites in the Lower Awash valley, corresponding to the northern Abhe Lake basin, we...

https://archimede.unistra.fr/revue-archimede/archimede-7-2020/ Earth sciences were used since the earliest paleolithic research in the 19th century to find archaeological sites and to study the adaptation of past societies to environmental changes. They took an important role in the preventive archaeology systems developed from the 1980s to save t...

https://www.inrap.fr/laurent-bruxelles-d-un-confinement-l-autre-14994 - Karstologue et géoarchéologue à l'Inrap, Laurent Bruxelles est confiné chez lui dans les Cévennes pendant la crise sanitaire. Il nous parle de ses projets et expertises : Little Foot, la grotte de Lascaux, les milieux confinés et les chauves-souris. Un portrait de chercheur qu...

Pickering et al. (Nature 2018;565:226–229) utilised calcium carbonate flowstone deposits (i.e. speleothems) from eight Pliocene and Pleistocene South African Cradle of Humankind cave sites to propose that biases were created within the fossil record due to absent clastic sedimentation phases during wet periods, when caves were closed and only spele...

Functional morphology of the atlas reflects multiple aspects of an organism’s biology. More specifically, its shape indicates patterns of head mobility, while the size of its vascular foramina reflects blood flow to the brain. Anatomy and function of the early hominin atlas, and thus, its evolutionary history, are poorly documented because of a pau...

Le site de Lallemand est situé en plaine sur la commune de Mauguio (Hérault) à moins de 4 km du cordon lagunaire. La fouille a donné l’occasion rare en Languedoc oriental d’étudier les abords d’un établissement rural du haut Moyen Âge. Cette opération menée par l’Inrap pendant 4 mois entre 2013 et 2014 a permis d’appréhender, sur 2,3 ha, les modes...

Le diagnostic archéologique comme outil de recherche. https://sstinrap.hypotheses.org/4620

Lieu de pèlerinage pour les chrétiens d’Éthiopie, le site de Lalibela est mondialement connu pour son complexe d’églises taillées dans une roche de couleur rouge sous le niveau du sol. Perchés à 2 500 mètres d’altitude sur les hauts plateaux de l’Éthiopie septentrionale, les monuments se répartissent en trois groupes dans lesquels s’enchevêtrent ég...