Les plaquettes de schiste gravées du Saut-du-Perron - The Engraved Schist Plaquettes from Saut-du-Perron (Commune de Villerest Loire France)

The open-air sites at Saut-du-Perron (the Villerest district of the Loire, France) have been explored for more than a hundred years and are known in the archaeological literature principally for the discovery of a series of habitation structures associated with a Gravettian industry. These same sites contained 182 engraved schist plaquettes that form the most important collection in eastern France and that are the subject of this study. The author discusses the intrinsic characteristics of the schists, giving a description and drawing of each engraved plaquette, and examines the geographical, stylistic and chronological affiliations of this group within the context of other upper Palaeolithic collections. Book contains complete text in English along with French translation.