In the 1950’s, this flint mine, located near the hamlet of Ri in the Orne department, between Argentan and Falaise, was identified by fieldwalking. More than a thousand stone axe preforms were found. The site, thought to cover around 30 hectares, was then forgotten. The A88 motorway excavations allowed an Inrap team to rediscover and excavate two hectares of this site.
Around 650 flint extraction pits were excavated. To the south, where the flint is just under the topsoil, the pits are not very deep. To the north, 2 metre diameter shafts can be 2 metres deep and then open into radiating galleries. The pits often connect together in this zone, attesting to the intensive exploitation of this site.
The largest shafts in the northern sector are as much as 4 to 6 metres deep. One of them opens into two superposed levels of galleries.
These pits allowed their Neolithic excavators to extract high quality flint blocks from which they could produce axes near to the site. These tools, which are emblematic of agricultural populations, were used to clear forests and to work wood.
Inside the shafts and galleries, archaeologists found the objects used by Neolithic peoples to excavate them: more than 400 deer antlers were used as picks or levers. In the zones where the limestone was very hard, flint tools were also used. Seven tons of stone material were discovered.
These shafts are one of the most original elements of the Neolithic of the Basse-Normandie region. The Ri mine served as both a flint exploitation and tool production site, and there was an intense activity that so far has no equivalent in western France. It is likely that the axes produced here were diffused through vast exchange systems into populations of Armorica where this type of material was absent.
Around 650 flint extraction pits were excavated. To the south, where the flint is just under the topsoil, the pits are not very deep. To the north, 2 metre diameter shafts can be 2 metres deep and then open into radiating galleries. The pits often connect together in this zone, attesting to the intensive exploitation of this site.
The largest shafts in the northern sector are as much as 4 to 6 metres deep. One of them opens into two superposed levels of galleries.
These pits allowed their Neolithic excavators to extract high quality flint blocks from which they could produce axes near to the site. These tools, which are emblematic of agricultural populations, were used to clear forests and to work wood.
Inside the shafts and galleries, archaeologists found the objects used by Neolithic peoples to excavate them: more than 400 deer antlers were used as picks or levers. In the zones where the limestone was very hard, flint tools were also used. Seven tons of stone material were discovered.
These shafts are one of the most original elements of the Neolithic of the Basse-Normandie region. The Ri mine served as both a flint exploitation and tool production site, and there was an intense activity that so far has no equivalent in western France. It is likely that the axes produced here were diffused through vast exchange systems into populations of Armorica where this type of material was absent.
