Madonna dell'Arma (San Remo, Italie) : expression locale de la végétation ligure au cours du Paléolithique moyen

Pollen analysis of Madonna dell’Arma cave inside part (Liguria, Italy) allowed us to reconstitute, at local scale, the Ligurian coastal vegetation between the end of the last interglacial period and the beginning of the pleniglacial. This transition period shows an important representation of arboreal cover and a persistence of thermophilous elements that allowed us to considerate the western Liguria as a periglacial refuge. During the end of the last interglacial, xerophytic, halophytic herbs and shrubs taken over from a Mediterranean pre-forest unit in the first slopes constituted the coastal zone. The nearness of Argentina torrent and the Armea influenced, in the coast, the existence of marshy zones colonized by hygrophilous trees. In the Ligurian lowlands spread out sclerophyllous and mesophilous forests according to altitude. The beginning of the pleniglacial is indicated in the sequence by increases of Pinus, Cupressaceae and Artemisia in the context of a decline in the thermophilous components. This picture of vegetation has become integrated into the multidisciplinary studies of the site and contributed to the elaboration of palaeoclimatic hypothesis similar as those revealed by the fauna.     

Utilisation du bois de feu par les chasseurs-cueilleurs de la « Cidade de Pedra » à partir de l’Holocène moyen (Brésil Central,Mato Grosso,Rondonópolis)

Located in the south-western Mato Grosso state (Central Brazil), the vast territory of the Cidade de Pedra was continuously occupied since the mid-Holocene by several groups of hunter-gatherers. Rock paintings, lithic industries, ceramics, ornaments, combustion remains (etc.) testify their passages in the many rock art sites discovered since 1983. In this paper are presented the results of the first anthracological analyzes conducted in four of these rock shelters. The studies were realized from macro-remains carbonized from hearths, embers and concentrations. From the taxonomic identification of charcoal, the objectives are to highlight the practices of hunter-gatherers related to the collection of wood and the environment in which they evolved for nearly 5000 years. The results indicate that they practiced an opportunistic collection mainly focused on dry wood available in the vegetation around the sites. They evolved in an environment similar to that currently characterizes the region, a typical flora of the Cerrado Biome and seasonal climate.     

Les faunes des sites du Pléistocène supérieur du Caucase méridional : Grotte de Saka?hia, Grotte d’Ortvala et Grotte du Bronze (République de Géorgie)

The paleontological analysis of the fauna from three Late Pleistocene localities in Southern Caucasus (Saka?hia, Ortvala, and Bronze cave) confirmed the presence of Ursus spelaeus, Canis lupus, Equus ferus, Rhinocerotidae, Cervus elaphus, Capreolus capreolus, Alces alces, Bison priscus, Capra caucasica, Ovis ammon and Sus scrofa. The study also permitted the identification of new taxa for these localities. There may be the presence of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) at Saka?hia, however it has not yet been confirmed. Moreover, remains of aurochs (Bos primigenius) were identified, in particular at Bronze cave where its abundance is exceptional. Indeed, Bos and Bison are generally very rare in Southern Caucasus. The analysis of the proportion of the different species in each locality revealed the two types of occupations of the caves, one dominated by hominids and the other by carnivores. At Saka?hia, where fauna is dominated by the presence of cave bear, the cave was seasonally occupied by Neanderthal groups. On the other hand, Bronze cave corresponds to a habitat of hunters, which occupied the site for longer periods.     

Le site de Longgupo dans son environnement géologique et géomorphologique

On a regional scale, Longgupo is found within a karstic landscape of fenglin-ouvala developed in the Triassic limestones of the Yangtze platform. After several seasons, it is now possible to define and propose a scenario for the formation of the site. During one of the intense karstification phases during the Cretaceous or early Tertiary, karstic conduits were created deep in the substratum. In concert with these deep flows and by karstic collapse, a cave was created. With the start of Himalayan uplift during the Oligocene and Miocene, the beginning of fluvial cutting was reflected by the partial erosion of the upper sandstone formations and the creation of the Miaoyu Valley. This action opened the cave, which would later be occupied by the hominid groups that interest us here. Probably at the end of the Tertiary, the cave, open at the bottom of the valley slope and facing upstream, began to be filled with alluvial deposits from the valley. The basal deposits (C III 10 of the current stratigraphic sequence, levels 20-13 of the first sequence) begin with black clays; at the Plio-Pleistocene transition, deposits become clearly alluvial, increasingly marked by reworking of surface and karstic clays and by systematically coarser contributions. During the deposition period of archaeological complexes III/III’ (previously levels 12-6), karstic collapse appears to have still been active. During the Lower Pleistocene sensu lato, the coarse nature of the deposits becomes accentuated. The material of complex II (previously levels 5-2) is a deposit that is clearly heterometric and coarse, composed at the end mainly of gravels, pebbles and more or less rounded blocks in a clayey matrix. At the conclusion of this new stage, the cave was entirely filled and, purely and simply, disappeared from the landscape. As the valley deepened during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene, the Longgupo slope underwent profound changes, the last of the limestone blocks disappeared from the slope limit and the archaeological site was protected by the coarse breccias that carpeted the slope. The main cause for the sedimentation processes at the site of Longgupo is the hydrosystem of the Miaoyu he, although injections of karstic type sensu stricto cannot be excluded. All of the arguments effectively support alluvial deposition: pebbles, an alternation of coarse and clayey beds, systematic and repeated granulometric decrease. But the stratigraphic disposition was disturbed by deformations due to gravity and karstic origins; the alluvial sediments, rendered plastic by the high proportion of clayey beds, were deformed by gravity (deformation of beds, faults, slopes) following the direction of the slope and by karstic collapse along the two limestone walls north and south of the sites (in sub-parallel faults to the south and by circular aspiration to the north). To this is added a calcitic consolidation of the upper levels that made it difficult to excavate complex C II. The stratigraphic disposition of the archaeological levels at Longgupo is now well understood. It has thus been possible to collect samples for absolute dating, to be published soon.     

L’exploitation non alimentaire des ressources animales pendant le Magdalénien au Nord-Est de la Peninsule Ibérique. L’exemple de la grotte du Parco (Alòs de Balaguer, Lleida, Espagne)

Parco cave, discovered in 1974, has yielded more than 50 objects fashioned of hard animal parts from levels dating to later phases of the Magdalenian. In the work described here, we have undertaken a technotypological analysis of this previously unstudied bone and antler assemblage. The osseous series from Parco are homogeneous and very similar to those from nearby sites of roughly the same time period; that is to say of the late Upper Magdalenian of the peninsular Mediterranean. The latter are composed primarily of hunting weapons dominated by antler projectile points, as well as eyed bone needles and a few shell ornaments. Technological analysis shows production in which there is a tight relationship between morphological type and raw material employed. The production schema saw the removal of blanks by means of groove and splinter technique, followed by shaping of pieces by scraping and finishing of them - in some cases by abrasion.     

Étude taphonomique, paléoécologique et archéozoologique des faunes de grands mammifères de la seconde moitié du Pléistocène inférieur de la grotte du Vallonnet (Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Alpes-Maritimes, France)

Vallonnet cave (Alpes-Maritimes, France) provided archaic lithic tools together with a big amount of large mammals of the end of lower pleistocene. At the crossing of diverse ecological niches in time and space, three main levels and within them several smaller units were distinguished. The poorly mineralized bones witnessed a huge diagenetic fragmentation. The presence of the animals in the cave seems to be linked to the reasons of their death. The exhaustive and systematic observation of the bones, like the bears probably used to die inside the cave. Some other carnivores especially hyenas, used the cave as a nursery. Man also occupied the cave and had an activity mainly on large cervid bones and on some other species as well. The very progressive deposit gave a way for carnivores and porcupine to gnaw the bones on the ground before their burial. The succession of actions (man, carnivores and porcupine) on the same bones is characteristic on Vallonnet large mammals bones.     

Une lame de faucille sous la stèle gravée Chalcolithique dite du « Chef de tribu », Vallée des Merveilles, région du Mont Bego, Tende, Alpes-Maritimes

The carved stele known as the “head of the tribe”, attributed to the Chalcolithic, erected at an altitude of 2290 m in the chaos of blocks in the Merveilles torrent in the Mont Bego region at Tende, was removed from its original standing place. Earth extracted from under the stele and sieved yielded a sickle blade in very fine and homogeneous Bedoulian pale biege translucid flint, pressure flaked on a heated core. The blade bears a light polish caused by cereal harvesting. This sickle blade is similar to those widely used in the southern Chassey culture (4300 to 3000 years before our era) but also sometimes in the Campaniform culture, during the ancient and middle Bronze age, like in Murée cave, in the Verdon gorges. The location of the sickle blade at the foot of the carved stele, known as the “head of the tribe”, is not just coincidental. It is highly probable that the blade was intentionally placed beside this rock. It is seemingly during a ritual ceremony that this sickle blade, probably still inserted in a wooden handle, was intentionally placed, in a propitious gesture or as an offering, beside the stele known as the “head of the tribe”.     

Le site du Ranc-Pointu no 2 à Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche : une occupation du Paléolithique moyen ancien dans le Sud-Est de la France

New investigations conducted in 2008 at Ranc-Pointu No. 2, a small cave located along the Ardèche River, led to the complete revision of the infilling and assemblages, confirming at least one human occupation in this small cave. There may have been two periods of occupation, but only the main one located at the top of the sequence (level ‘c’) has been firmly established. Revision of the large mammal corpus and sedimentological data suggests climatic warming from the base to the top of the sequence. The OSL dating of sub-level ‘c1’ to 145 ka must be discussed in relation to the interdisciplinary results. It suggests that this cave was occupied at the end of MIS 6 and therefore that human populations were present in the Ardèche gorges at the end of the Middle Pleistocene. Ranc-Pointu No. 2 would thus represent older Middle Palaeolithic occupations than in other caves located along the Ardèche River, such as Le Figuier or Saint-Marcel. In the Ardèche French department, only the bottom of the Moula-Guercy sequence and the top of the sequence at the site of Payre, both of which are northern sites, have recorded MIS 6 deposits.     

L’art bourgeois de la fin du XIX siècle face à l’art mobilier Paléolithique

On the occasion of the centenary of the Emile Cartailhac’s « Mea culpa d’un sceptique”, we want to reflect on one of the main questions of our discipline: Why has so-called « cave art” only been accepted as Paleolithic art in 1902, whereas the so-called « mobiliary art” had been accepted as Paleolithic art at the beginning of 1860s? In this paper, we want to suggest a definition of the conception of primitive art during the last third of the 19th century in order to understand: (A) Why Paleolithic paintings in the walls of some caves (Niaux, Chabot, Altamira) were not accepted as Paleolithic art between 1860 and 1902. (B) Given that what we now call mobiliary art is the same artistic phenomenon that prehistorians of the late 19th century thought of as primitive art, this article allows us to suggest a genealogy of mobiliary art. This genealogy will enable us to show that this concept not only defines a wide variety of forms, from engraving stones to carving in antler or ivory, but hides a multiplicity of meanings and connotations which originated in the period between 1860 and 1900.     

La grotte ornée Mayenne-Sciences (Thorigné-en-Charnie, Mayenne) : grotte-limite aux marges du monde anté-magdalénien

The decorated cave of Mayenne-Sciences (Thorigné-en-Charnie, Mayenne) is one of the eight caves or shelters attributed to the Upper Paleolithic in the North of France, with the caves of Gouy and Orival in Normandy, Boutigny, Le Croc-Marin and Les Trois Pignons in the Essonne Department, the Grotte du Cheval and the Grande Grotte of Arcy-sur-Cure in Burgundy. There are about 50 stylised representations in this cave, the chrono-cultural attribution is rather difficult because the archeological context is poor and the site of the cave excentric, far from the great areas like Perigord. After a short statement of what you may guess about the style of the representations in Mayenne-Sciences we try to draw up a synthesis of the sites of parietal art and furniture near Mayenne-Sciences, and to analyse further how to place Mayenne-Sciences within a figurative tendance flourishing during the ante-magdalenian era in Europe which we propose to call art de la silhouette. We show that the style of Mayenne-Sciences is not 50 particular, but that the originality of the style may be explained by the isolation of the cave at the border of the main prehistorical cultural tendances, as this is the case for other decorated caves, we list up. In conclusion this leads us to define the concept of grotte-limite (border-cave), I mean a decorated cave which represents the vision at distance, with caricatural character or not, of the parietal art of one specific region, as for example you must admit that there are similitude’s between Mayenne-Sciences and the caves of Pech-Merle and Cougnac, in the Lot Department.     

L’industrie du site néandertalien de la grotte de Vindija (Croatie) : une révision des matières premières lithiques

The new analysis of the Middle Paleolithic industry from the cave Vindija (Croatia), showed a necessity of revision of the previous obtained data especially considering the use and origin of the raw materials (Kurtanjek and Marci, 1990). The results presented in this study pointed out some new aspects of interpretation. First, the significance of quartz in the Middle Paleolithic was underestimated. At the same time it is obvious that the major change in the use of the raw material was at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic and of the Epigravettian, especially in the use of chert. The second change is registered in the use of chert between Middle and Upper Paleolithic: the chalky nodules of chert are more frequent in the Upper Paleolithic then the river pebbles used in the production of Middle Paleolithic artefacts. Still, the origin of this new raw material is at the moment unknown.     

Habitat et mode de vie des chasseurs paléolithiques de la Caune de l'Arago (600 000-400 000 ans)

Several human occupations have been identified within the deposits of the Caune de l’Arago Cave site, dated from 700 000 years to 100 000 years old. The exceptional wealth of these archeological levels provides an opportunity for the study of different types of habitat and behavioral patterns of Paleolithic hunters between 600 000 and 400 000 years ago. Results from preliminary studies, carried out over the last 30 years on these archeological levels, allow for the proposition of a typology for cave habitats during the Middle Pleistocene in the south of France. In fact, four types of habitat were identified and defined. They have been described according to different characteristics such as, the thickness of the archeological accumulation, the animal species represented, the season during which the animals were hunted, the state of conservation of the fossils discovered, the morpho-technological and typological characteristics of the lithics, the categories of raw materials used and the territory exploited by the hominids inhabiting the cave, as defined by the raw materials represented. The four habitation types defined are: the long duration habitat, where the cave was used as a home base; the temporary seasonal habitat, in which case the cave served as a secondary campsite; the hunting stopover and the bivouac, during which the cave was used as a refuge for short term stays. Behavioral patterns appear to be directly related to the type of habitat and oriented towards a principal activity: hunting. The activities performed by the inhabitants of the cave seem to be more diversified during prolonged or seasonal occupations, whereas they appear to be reduced or very specialised during brief stays. Generally, The characteristics studied show that the Caune de l’Arago Cave site had multiple uses over time for Anteneandertalian family groups and hunters who left traces of their activities, allowing us to better understand their lifestyle.     

Rôle du gypaète barbu (Gypaetus barbatus) dans la constitution de l’assemblage osseux de la grotte du Noisetier (Fréchet-Aure,Hautes-Pyrénées,France)

Located in the Aure Valley (French central Pyrénées), the Noisetier cave opens at 825 m asl. This Middle Palaeolithic site has produced a Mousterian industry associated with a rich faunal assemblage. Bone remains are dominated by Chamois then Ibex and Red deer. Taphonomic analysis strongly suggests a human origin for the Ibex and the Red deer but questions arise for the Chamois. The chamois assemblage differed from the bones of both species by its low cut marks ratio. Semi-digested bones are particularly abundant. Differences are even more perceptible for skeletal portions. For Red deer and Ibex, long bone remains are mostly shaft portions whereas for Chamois, ends are the most abundant. Comparisons of the Noisetier cave bone assemblage with different present-day reference data leads to the conclusion that Chamois bones have mostly been accumulated by bearded vultures.     

Rongements sélectifs des os par les porcs-épics et autres rongeurs : cas de la grotte Tianyuan, un site avec des restes humains fossiles récemment découvert près de Zhoukoudian (Choukoutien)

The Tianyuan cave near Zhoukoudian is among the most special localities in North China for its many porcupine gnawing marks on the bones, as is often the case acknowledged only in South China. But porcupines did not gnaw all the bones, that is gnawing is selective. Skulls, mandibles, tooth roots and long bones are frequently gnawed. The short bones are almost free from gnawing. The selection indicates that, for porcupines, bone gnawing is not only a necessity for attrition of incisors, but also a process of extracting nutrients from the marrow. Additionally, the porcupine gnawing marks can also be employed to determine the provenance of the fossils that were discovered by the local people before the systematic excavation. Those bearing porcupine tooth marks only appear in the upper assemblage. The other significance of the gnawing marks is to infer the habitant of the cave. The bones from the human fossil bearing layer have few tooth marks, which may represent a period of human occupation of the cave. In the upper assemblage, the gnawing marks appear frequently, it may indicate that porcupine and other rodents lived in the cave during this time span.     

Les kystes de dinoflagellés du Crétacé moyen de la marge atlantique brésilienne, le bassin de Santos

Organic dinoflagellate cysts are studied from the sedimentary sequence of hole 1-SPS-14A, drilled during oil exploration in the Santos Basin, Brazilian continental margin. The Ariri and Florianópolis Formations (Transitional sequence) do not contain any dinocysts. The oldest found dinocysts occur at the base of the Drift sequence in sediments, within platform carbonates of the Guarujá Formation. Continuous sea-level rise throughout the late Albian and Cenomanian submerged the carbonate platform with the terrigenous input of the Itanhaém Formation. The transgressive phase reached its peak during the Cenomanian/Turonian transition. Pelites were deposited during oceanic anoxic event (OAE-2), consisting the lower part of the Itajaí-Açu Formation. Normal oceanic conditions re-established in the late Turonian. The Brazilian dinocyst assemblage has tethyan affinities. Some species (i.e., Dinopterygium cladoides, Litosphaeridium arundum, Odontochitina rhakodes and Systematophora cretacea) suggest a middle Albian age for the carbonate platform of the Guarujá Formation. The lower part of the Guarujá Formation was not dated by other microfossils. An uppermost Albian or lower Cenomanian age is suggested for the base of the Itanhaém Formation on the basis of species Palaeohystrichophora infusorioides and Ovoidinium verrucosum. The Cenomanian-Turonian boundary cannot be characterized by dinocysts. Species Atopodinium iuvene, which is known from Turonian sediments in Europe, was found at the top of the Itajaí-Açu Formation. The observed dinocyst bioevents (i.e., last occurrence) are correlated with known foraminiferal, nannofossil and other palynological bioevents. The diversity of the assemblages remains constant throughout the various palaeoenvironments as these are reflected by the Guarujá and Itajaí-Açu Formations, but relative abundances of taxa are variable. Genera Coronifera, Florentinia, Ovoidinium, Spiniferites and Trichodinium are abundant in the carbonate platform assemblages (Guarujá Formation). Genera Cribroperidinium and Cyclonephelium are abundant in detrital sediments (Itajaí-Açu Formation). Only one species (Subtilisphaera guarujaensis n. sp.) is restricted to the carbonate platform environment.     

Étude préliminaire des industries archaïques de faciès Oldowayen du site de Hummal (El Kowm, Syrie centrale)

The spring site of Hummal is located in Central Syria, near the village of El Kowm between the Euphrates basin and the desert steppe stretching from Palmyra to Deir-ez-Zor. In 1966 the well was noted in a survey as Bir Onusi and a short preliminary study was carried out at the beginning of the 1980s. Since 1997, the Institute for Prehistory and Archaeological Science of the University of Basel has undertaken a complete interdisciplinary research program of this major site under the direction of J.M Le Tensorer, supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and associated with the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums of Syria under the direction of S. Muhesen. The site of Hummal is a prominent mound at an artesian spring built out of the sediments, which piled up during the whole Quaternary. Tectonic faults in the bed rock enabled the underlying water in a karstic system to flow out into a dolina, which trapped lacustrine, limnic and aeolian sediments since the Oldest Pleistocene. The impressive stratigraphy – 20 m high – comprises 23 geological units preserving a great number of archaeological levels. It covers an extremely long period of time ranging from the Oldest Palaeolithic (Oldowan) to Upper Palaeolithic (Aurignacian) over more than a million years. This impressive Old and Middle Palaeolithic sequence comprises several layers of Oldowan-like assemblage (23-16), an Acheuleo-Tayacian complex (14-13), five layers of Yabrudian (12-8) at least four levels of Hummalian (7, 6c, 6b, 6a) and a thick sediment complex with 8 Mousterian layers, each of them liable to be subdivided into several sublayers. The lithic industry in the lowest levels of the Hummal sequence, associated with abundant remains of large mammals, can be characterized by non-modified, quite fresh flakes, with, once in a while, traces of use but never bearing intentional retouches. Theses flakes are found with pebble-tools: choppers, chopping-tools, polyhedrons, bolas and core-like artifacts. This assemblage is typical in a broad sense of archaic Palaeolithic whose debitage corresponds to mode 1. From a techno-typological point of view, this industry tallies quite well with the so-called Oldowan stage. It shows remarkable similarities with the oldest assemblages at Ubeidiya but, so far, with no occurrence of bifacial knapping. If the layers 17 and 18 of Hummal relate to this period dating back to 1.6 to 1.2 million years, these levels would be the oldest ones ever found in central Syria. However, as we have no absolute dating at our disposal so far, we will remain careful in assigning a chronological time span for these layers. For this area, from a stratigraphic point of view, the Oldowan levels of Hummal occur before the Acheulean and certainly before the Acheulean sequence of El Meirah (region of El Kowm) which is itself related to the period before Matuyama-Brunhes paleomagnetic reverse. Dating of the lowest sequence of Hummal is underway. If we take into account stratigraphic and techno-typological observations, we assume that the Oldowan-like levels of the site should be older than one million years at least. The sequence of Hummal is one of the largest in the Near-East. Therefore, it can be regarded as a key-site for world prehistory.     

Nouvelles recherches sur l’identité culturelle et stylistique de la grotte Chauvet et sur sa datation par la méthode du C

The discovery of Chauvet cave, at Vallon-Pont-d’Arc (Ardèche), in 1994, was an important event for our knowledge of palaeolithic parietal art as a whole. Its painted and engraved figures, thanks to their number (425 graphic units), and their excellent state of preservation, provide a documentary thesaurus comparable to that of the greatest sites known, and far beyond what had already been found in the group of Rhône valley caves (Ardèche and Gard). But its study – when one places it in its natural regional, cultural and thematic framework – makes it impossible to see it as an isolated entity of astonishing precocity. This needs to be reconsidered, and the affinities that our research has brought to light are clearly incompatible with the very early age which has been attributed to it. And if one extends this examination to the whole of the Franco-Cantabrian domain, the conclusion is inescapable: although Chauvet cave displays some unique characteristics (like every decorated cave), it belongs to an evolved phase of parietal art that is far removed from the motifs of its origins (known from art on blocks and on shelter walls dated by stratigraphy to the Aurignacian, in France and Cantabrian Spain). The majority of its works are therefore to be placed, quite normally, within the framework of the well-defined artistic creations of the Gravettian and Solutrean. Moreover, this phase of the Middle Upper Palaeolithic (26,000–18,000) coincides with a particularly intensive and diversified local human occupation, unknown in earlier periods and far less dense afterwards in the Magdalenian. A detailed critique of the treatment of the samples subjected to AMS radiocarbon dating makes it impossible to retain the very early age (36,000 cal BP) attributed by some authors to the painted and engraved figures of Chauvet cave.     

Stress physiologique et état de santé des plus anciens Hommes anatomiquement modernes du sud-est de l’Europe (données dentaires,couche 6-1, Buran-Kaya III,Crimée)

Buran-Kaya III site, in Crimea, provides an exceptional stratigraphic sequence, extending from Middle Paleolithic to Neolithic. Among the archaeological layers allocated to the Gravettian (sensu lato), more than 170 anthropological remains have been discovered in the layer 6-1. They represent the oldest Upper Paleolithic modern humans from Eastern Europe in a well-documented archaeological context. The aim of this article, based on dental remains and enamel dental hypoplasias in particular, is to evaluate the health of the modern humans, which lived more than 32,000 years BP ago in Crimea. This study puts into the light the low frequency of hypoplasias (occurring in the two youngest individuals). This article complete the rare studies concerning the presence of this physiological stress during the Early Upper Paleolithic and confirm the scarcity of enamel dental hypoplasias and dental pathologies, such as caries, at this period.     

La chronologie du Néolithique ancien cardial du nord-est de la péninsule Ibérique. Datations, problématique et méthodologie

In this work, we make a compilation of all radiocarbonical data existing for the cardial Neolithic culture in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula with the aim to delimit as much as possible the chronological range attributed for this period. For this reason calibration of all data is presented on the same curve, taking into account the critical process for all of them based on stratigraphical, taphonomical and radiometrical concepts. Finally, is shown that chronological range of cardial Neolithic culture could be focused on the 2nd half of the VI millennium cal. BC.     

Indices de fréquentation humaine dans les grottes à ours au Paléolithique moyen final: L’exemple de la Caverna Generosa dans les Préalpes lombardes, Italie

Already known like a palaeontological site for the study of Ursus spelaeus, Caverna Generosa also records ephemeral traces of human visits during the late Middle Palaeolithic. The cave opens at an altitude of 1450 m on the steep southern slope of the Monte Generoso Massif between the Lugano and the Como lakes and forms a complex group of narrow galleries and inner chambers. Sedimentological and palaeontological data and radiocarbon dates place both the cave-bear and the human frequentations in the first part of the isotopic stage 3 with climatic conditions shifting from cool and dry to more temperate and wet. Environment progressively changed from scarcely arboreal to arboreal-brush with small open spaces. Few flakes and Levallois flakes have been recovered scattered in the sediment and affected in most cases by intense postdepositional alteration. These items testify incursions of mousterian groups equipped with end-products and radiolarite flakes struck from blocks provisioned at lower locations southwards. End-products, namely Levallois flakes, prove that lithic reduction sequences were spatiotemporally fractionated in the covered territory. Conversely, it cannot be excluded a priori that sublocal radiolarite has been chipped at the entrance of the cave or at the very close surroundings for extraction of rudimental tools for immediate use. It is worth to mention that the small chert slabs in the Moltrasio limestone which crop throughout the cave walls were totally ignored. Caverna Generosa can be viewed as a refugia-location used in function of more or less constrained factors strongly influenced by high-altitude and bioclimatic situations. This type of site might well be integrated within the seasonal movements of humans in the western Lombard Pre-Alps area.