2022 AFEQ FIELD TRIP
Quaternary of Northern France
The 2022 AFEQ Excursion took place in May in the Hauts-de-France region. AFEQ partnered with the Société Géologique du Nord to organize four scientific days, from 18 to 21 May 2022, focusing on the Quaternary of Northern France. The event, coordinated by Laurent Deschodt (INRAP), Pierre Antoine (CNRS), and Patrick Auguste (CNRS), brought together 45 participants from diverse backgrounds: geologists, archaeologists, specialists from various disciplines, students, and secondary school teachers.
The first day was dedicated to the international symposium “New Data on the Eemian Interglacial: Northern France (Hauts-de-France) and Neighboring Regions”, hosted at the Lilliad Learning Center of the University of Lille. The following three days were devoted to a field excursion on the theme:
“Variability of Pleistocene Records from Plains and Plateaus: the Scarpe Plain and the Somme Valley.”
The symposium featured seven presentations:
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The first two addressed the characteristics of the Eemian at the European scale, within its climatic and geochronological context.
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Maria-Fernanda Sánchez Goñi (University of Bordeaux) discussed latitudinal variations in records.
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Samuel Toucanne (Ifremer) presented the Eemian’s place within glacial-interglacial cycles, including glacial extensions and Pleistocene sediment fluxes.
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The third talk by Stéphane Pirson (AWAP and University of Liège) gave an overview of current knowledge and research prospects regarding the Eemian in Belgium.
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The next three talks focused on specific Eemian sites:
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Pierre Antoine (CNRS) presented twenty years of research at Caours, in the Somme Basin.
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Julie Dabkowski and David Hérisson (CNRS) discussed the rediscovery of the Resson site (Aube), compared to Caours.
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Laurent Deschodt (INRAP) introduced the Waziers site (Nord department).
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A concluding synthesis on open-air Eemian archaeology was presented by Jean-Luc Locht (INRAP).
The symposium concluded with a lively hour-long discussion, centered on the chronology of the Eemian, its climatic features, and comparisons with other interglacials. The presentations were recorded and may be made available by the SGN, pending speaker approval.
The three-day field excursion provided the opportunity to present new data on the Quaternary of Northern France.
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Day 1 focused on the Scarpe Plain, highlighting a landscape shaped at the end of the Weichselian Pleniglacial:
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dunes,
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thermokarst depressions,
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and fossil channel traces.
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The day concluded with the excavation of a well at Waziers, which revealed a peat layer from the Eemian (Fig. 1).
Wells dug in Waziers during the excursion, with peat and Eemian calcareous silt. © Joan Fernandez Rovira.
The second day took place around Amiens, featuring the presentation of a new slope sequence over nine meters thick at Morcourt, detailing the Middle and Upper Pleniglacial (Fig. 2), followed by the presentation of ongoing research in the same locality on the peat-covered Somme valley floor.
Cleaning of the Morcourt section in preparation for the excursion. © Sylvie Coutard.
After a visit to the reference section of Cagny-La-Garenne, the excursion participants went to the reinvestigation of the Weichselian Early Glacial slope record at Saint-Saufflieu (Fig. 3).
Base of the Saint-Sauflieu section where several thick soils from the early Weichselian glacial period can be distinguished. © Stéphane Pirson.
After an unfortunately too brief visit to the Gravettian site of Amiens-Renancourt, characterized by the presence of numerous female figurines (Fig. 4), the day concluded on the shores of the Bay of Somme.
One of the Gravettian figurines discovered at Amiens-Renancourt. © Stéphane Lancelot, Inrap.
The second day was dedicated to sites in the Abbeville region, including a visit to Carrière Carpentier and a discussion of the earliest human traces in the area, with a focus on the nearby Moulin Quignon site. The excursion concluded at the Caours site with a presentation of the latest stratigraphic, biostratigraphic, paleontological, climate-isotopic, geochronological, and archaeological data from the beginning of the Eemian, making it an exceptional site at the European level. This rich excursion took place in a warm and friendly atmosphere.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Amélie Duquesne (February 8, 2023). 2022 AFEQ FIELD TRIP. AFEQ CNF-INQUA. Retrieved October 14, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/14ayl
