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| The Roc de Marsal project base is at the OldStoneAge Research Center in Carsac, France (see Maps). It is at this location that we have our lab and living facilities. It is approximately a 30 minute drive to Roc de Marsal. | ||
| The Lab | ||
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Normally about half of the crew, on a rotation basis, works in the lab to process the artifacts and sediment that are brought from the excavation at the end of each day. Lab tasks include wet screening the sediment, washing and labeling artifacts, printing artifact bar-code labels, artifact photography, sorting the finds from the screens, preliminary analysis of the stone tool finds from the screens, and sometimes data entry. Lab tasks are a critical part of the overall excavation project and, as such, are supervised by a lab director. |  |
| The House/Camp | ||
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The house at Carsac is where the entire crew lives and eats. In the
house itself, there is a kitchen, lab/storage room, office, two bedrooms,
and bath facilities. The dining area is under cover behind the
house. There is a large, partly
shaded camping area behind the house for the crew tents. Partly
furnished, canvas Egyptian tents are available for EarthWatch volunteers.
These tents have earthen floors but remain dry and are sufficiently large
to accommodate cots. Other participants must bring their own tent. Under normal circumstances, lunch and dinner meals are prepared by a hired cook. The crew helps with the meals and maintains the cleanliness of the house and camp on a rotational basis. Normally several crew members help with cleaning the dishes and one crew member spends the entire day assisting the cook and cleaning the house. |
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| The Area | ||
 Carsac
is a small village just south of Sarlat. It has a bakery, a butcher,
a small grocery store, a bar, a pharmacy, and a post-office. There
is also a hotel and restaurant in town called the Delpeyrat. Owned
and operated by Aline and Philippe
Delpeyrat, the hotel has been home to excavations since the 1950s and
60s when Bordes excavated at nearby
Pech de l'Azé and
Combe-Grenal. They serve
wonderful, home-style, southwest French cuisine and both the meals and the
rooms are very reasonably priced.Just up the road, walking distance, from Carsac is the small town and chateau of Montfort. Sarlat, an approximately 10 minute drive, is a well preserved medieval town with lots of restaurants an  d
shops. Thirty minutes away is the town of Les Eyzies. Known as
the center of French prehistory, there are numerous Paleolithic sites in
the area including some of the famous painted caves and it has two museums
of prehistory including the new National Museum of Prehistory. Les
Eyzies is also well known for its restaurants and beautiful scenery.
Also, the painted caves of Lascaux and Cougnac are within 30 minutes of
Carsac. The replica of
Lascaux is
open to the public and the original Cougnac is open to the public. |
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