Since 1991, 6-week excavations have been conducted each year in summer. Two teams of fifteen archaeology students take turns during the dig. These students come from all over France, from Europe, and sometimes even further (Canada, China ...) to participate in the project as part of their training.
​
In order to promote faster progress of the site, this year the excavations will last 8 weeks, from July 8th to August 30th, 2019. Once again, two teams of 15 archaeology students will come back to the site, under the direction of Anne-Lyse Ravon. After removing the metal plates, sandbags and tarpaulins that protect the site during the winter on July 8th, the excavation of layer 9 will resume on Tuesday, July 9th.
​
For further information, all the reports of excavation since 1988 are accessible on Internet, on the website of the DRAC Bretagne: http://bibliotheque.numerique.sra-bretagne.fr
@ A.-L. Ravon
@ A.-L. Ravon
@ A.-L. Ravon
@ A.-L. Ravon
@ F. Eluard
@ A.-L. Ravon
@ F. Eluard
@ F. Eluard
xcavation Techniques/ Methods
E
The method of excavation ensures that each archaeological level is exposed on the entire surface of the site, while reserving two stratigraphic sections, one in the western sector under the vault of the residual cavity, and the other near the east wall.
​
Sediments are excavated, scraped off and removed with trowels, spatulas, or hammers and chisels, depending on the areas and their consistency. They are then brushed and picked up in a scoop, then poured into a bucket allocated to each excavated area; they will then be sieved with seawater, in puddles at low tide, in order to recover the small fragments of stone tools which would have escaped the dig, as well as the small charcoals, which are at the same time rinsed and so well highlighted.
From the early 2000s until 2016, the excavation was limited to the upper part of the site, known as the "upper bench" as opposed to the lower part, excavated at the top of layer 9 in the 1990s. The surface was divided into zones (West, Centre, Centre-under-vault, East) respecting the natural configuration of the deposit. Each of these zones was itself subdivided into 4 "sectors" (A, B, C, D). In 2017, the resumption of the excavation on the entire surface of the site required the establishment of other benchmarks that are practical for excavators and that allow them to easily identify their area of ​​excavation, which they follow up to the recording of the objects (tacheometer) and the sieving of the sediments with sea water. Thus, the names of the squares of the old grid which served to coordinate the objects before the use of a tacheometer were taken again.
Whereas previously the lithic artefacts were only recorded if they measured more than 3 cm, this year 2018, as they were much less abundant, they have all been recorded as far as possible. The tacheometer automatically records the position of objects in all three dimensions of space; in parallel their layer, their orientation and their nature are recorded manually in a notebook. They are then placed in an individual bag with a label showing their number (printed in advance) and the layer to which they belong.
Plan of the excavated areas. @ A.-L. Ravon
The bones, or traces of bones, that could be removed from the soil are wrapped in tin foil. Charcoals are recorded (together if they come from the same fragment) provided they are larger than 1 cm and are also wrapped in tin foil. This also goes for the elements of lithic industry which present traces of heating. In order to differentiate them after packaging, a label mentioning "charcoal", "bone" or "burnt" is added to the label of the number, in the bag of the object. Large blocks of rock are also recorded if their presence may affect the spatial distribution of the material.
​
The smaller elements (lithic fragments and charcoals), collected visually during the excavation or during the sieving of sediments, are grouped by sector or by excavation square in labelled bags.
@ A.-L. Ravon
@ F. Eluard
@ F. Eluard
@ A.-L. Ravon
@ F. Eluard
@ A.-L. Ravon
@ A.-L. Ravon
@ F. Eluard
The collapsed vault blocks are systematically demolished, as they interfere with taking measurements with the tacheometer and delay the excavation. They are destroyed manually, using hammers, chisels, wedges, masses, bars, etc. After being fractured, and broken into several pieces, the debris are deposited below in the cliff, so that the sea naturally removes them during the winter.
​
Sediment samples are taken from each layer or sub-layer, as well as from areas where the appearance of the soil has particularities (reddening, density of organic matter, etc.).
​
The recording of the artefacts with the tacheometer is transferred daily to the computer and the distribution of the points is checked. The annotations recorded manually in the notebook are then added to the digital database.
Every day, a team of three students stays at home to carry out (along with domestic work indispensable for the community life), the washing and marking of the objects resulting from the excavation, photos and the classification by nature of objects and, for artefacts, by type of rock. This information is also entered into a database containing all the information on archaeological materials from the site. In rainy weather and Saturday mornings, this work called "post-excavation work" is carried out by the entire team. In order to be able to interpret the spatial data of the deposit, and thus produce distribution maps to discern possible areas of activity, this post-excavation work focuses mainly on the enrichment of the database from sorted material.
@ F. Eluard
@ F. Eluard
@ A.-L. Ravon
@ F. Eluard