Caours

French commune|name= Caours


x = 132
y = 35
region=Picardie
departement=Somme
arrondissement= Abbeville
canton=Abbeville-Nord
insee=80171
cp=80132
maire=Nadine Tahon
mandat=2001-2008
intercomm=Communauté de communes de l'Abbevillois
alt moy=15 m
alt mini=6 m
alt maxi=87 m
hectares=613
km²=6,13
sans=592
date-sans=1999
dens=96|

Caours is a commune in the Somme "département" in the Picardie region of France.

Geography

A village situated some 3 miles northeast of Abbeville, on the D482 road heading towards Saint-Riquier.

Population

History

Stone-age archaeology

The fluvial rocks around Caours, well-known to archaeologists in the latter part of the 20th century, are indications to a time when the climate was more temperate. The last interglacial, once known under the name of Riss-Würm, was between 130,000 and 115,000 years ago. The area has given up the remains of mammals of this Paleolithic era, notably antlers and bone. A joint research programme by the INRAP and the CNRS in 2005, has produced interesting results about Neandertal man. [Article sur le site de l'INR
http://www.inrap.fr/site/fr/page.php?id=430&p=evenement&id_evenement=38 Néandertal s'invite à l'Eémien] (page consultée le 5 mars 2007)] [Communiqué de presse de l'INR
http://www.inrap.fr/site/fr/page.php?id=60&p=communiques-de-presse&id_communique=122 Néandertal s'invite à l'Eémien] (page consultée le 5 mars 2007)] .
Five separate sites of human occupation from around 122 000 years ago have been found. They correspond to occupation of the area for hundreds of years, perhaps only for a few days but in some cases to several weeks. These hunting camps, near to an extinct river, are identified by the fossil remains of aurochs, deer, wooly rhinoceros, wild boar and mammoths that show evidence of cutting and breaking, meaning that the game had been butchered on the spot. The discovery of the antlers of young deer of about six months shows that the camp was set up in the autumn.
The interest in the discoveries at Caours lies in the fact that there are only a few sites in Western Europe where the presence of Neandertal man is known. The site shows that the Neanderthals were not just suited to a cold climate and an open landscape of steppe as some historians thought. The sites at Caours is noted especially because of the forest setting, almost 80% of the natural environment, the rest being meadows, with a climate comparable to nowadays.

The theory that once explained the disappearance of the Neandertals, the inability to adapt to climatic
change has suddenly been put into perspective by the site of Caours. Investigations continue. [Jean-Philippe Noël, « Neandertal. Le mystère de sa disparition s'épaissit », dans "Science et Vie", numéro1074, mars 2007, pp. 86-88.] .

ee also

Communes of the Somme department

External links

* [http://www.recensement.insee.fr/RP99/rp99/co_navigation.co_page?nivgeo=C&codgeo=80171&theme=ALL&typeprod=ALL&lang=FR&quelcas=LISTE Caours on the Insee website] fr
* [http://www.quid.fr/communes.html?mode=query&req=Caours Caours on the Quid website] fr

Notes

*"This article is based on the equivalent article from the French Wikipedia, consulted on January 31st 2008."