Caours

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Coordinates: 50°07′53″N 1°52′59″E / 50.1313888889, 1.88305555556

Commune of Caours
Location
Administration
Country	France
Region	Picardie
Department	Somme
Arrondissement	Abbeville
Canton	Abbeville-Nord
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes de l'Abbevillois
Mayor	Nadine Tahon (2001-2008)
Statistics
Elevation	6 m–87 m (avg. 15 m)
Land area¹	6,13 km²
Population² (1999)	592
- Density	96/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	80171/ 80132
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.

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

Contents 1 Geography 2 Population 3 History 3.1 Stone-age archaeology 4 See also 5 External links 6 Notes

[edit] Geography

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

[edit] Population

Population Growth

1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999
358	358	508	567	599	592
Census count starting from 1962 : Population without double counting

[edit] History

[edit] 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. ^[1][2].
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. ^[3].

[edit] See also

Communes of the Somme department

[edit] External links

• Caours on the Insee website (French)
• Caours on the Quid website (French)

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Article sur le site de l'INRAP : Néandertal s'invite à l'Eémien (page consultée le 5 mars 2007)
2. ^ Communiqué de presse de l'INRAP : Néandertal s'invite à l'Eémien (page consultée le 5 mars 2007)
3. ^ Jean-Philippe Noël, « Neandertal. Le mystère de sa disparition s'épaissit », dans Science et Vie, Template:Numéro1074, mars 2007, pp. 86-88.

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