Description : The Carpentier quarry , located on the territory of the municipality of Abbeville , in the department of the Somme is a prehistoric site of the Lower Paleolithic . It was classified as a historical monument in 1983 1 . This old quarry, named after its former owner, is no longer in use. It was located at the time of the excavations between the Porte Saint-Gilles and the Porte du Bois, today, in the area of the Hope 2 district . Several archaeological excavations took place there in the XIX th century, in 1938, 2015 and 2016. The quarry was acquired by the state in 1938 at the instigation of Leo Aufrère and Abbé Breuil 3 . The excavations revealed the bones of large mammals as well as bifaces of human manufacture 4 . This discovery of bifaces helped Jacques Boucher de Perthes prove the existence of what he called "the antediluvian man ". Interest of the site The quarry as well as several others in Abbeville reveal several layers of sediments including white marl as well as sands and gravels containing traces of lithic materials. The Carpentier quarry in particular delivered two crude punches from the Acheulean period 5 . It presents a section of land of 20 mx 4 m protected by a roof.
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