Goyet Caves
The Goyet Caves (French: Grottes de Goyet) are a series of connected caves located in Belgium in a limestone cliff about 15 m (50 ft) above the river Samson near the village of Mozet in the Gesves municipality of the Namur province. The site is a significant locality of regional Neanderthal and European early modern human occupation, as thousands of fossils and artifacts were discovered that are all attributed to a long and contiguous stratigraphic sequence from 120,000 years ago, the Middle Paleolithic to less than 5,000 years ago, the late Neolithic. A robust sequence of sediments was identified during extensive excavations by geologist Edouard Dupont, who undertook the first probings as early as 1867. The site was added to the Belgian National Heritage register in 1976.
Grottes de Goyet | |
Finds from Goyet and Trou Magrite in the Museum for Natural Sciences of Belgium | |
Location Goyet Caves Goyet Caves (Belgium) | |
| Alternative name | Caves of Goyet |
|---|---|
| Location | near Mozet village |
| Region | Samson river valley, Gesves municipality Namur province, Belgium |
| Coordinates | 50°26′48″N 5°00′32″E |
| Type | carboniferous limestone |
| Length | 250 m (820.21 ft) |
| History | |
| Material | limestone Karst |
| Periods | Middle Palaeolithic to Iron Age |
| Cultures | Aurignacian, Gravettian, Magdalenian |
| Associated with | Neanderthals, Homo sapiens |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1867, |
| Archaeologists | Edouard Dupont |