Les industries du Paléolithique inférieur dans le Caucase méridional

Acheulean sites are located in almost every areas of Georgia. Most of the time, in Western Georgia, there are few bifaces; these are more common in Eastern Georgia (except in the basins of the Iori and Alazani rivers). In general, the Acheulean of the Southern Caucasus looses rapidly the bifacial shapes and develops into the Typical Mousterian, the Levalloisian and the Charentian.     

Les industries magdaléniennes de l’Ardèche (France) dans le contexte du bassin méditerranéen

Ardèche, a department of Rhone Alpes region, is rich in prehistoric sites belonging to a very large chronological period dated back to 350?000 years ago. But, the prehistory of the region has been unknown for a long time, mainly, because of its distance from traditional centres of research. Jean Combier, in his abstract dated 1967, defined for the first time Upper Palaelolithic stages: only towards the acquisition of new data, we are now able to suggest a new evolution for the Magdalenian from its origins to the Alleröd climatic episod. To define Ardèche originality within the Magdalenian context, we have compared its lithic industries with those of the Adaouste Cave oriental sites, the Cornille rock shelter and of the Gazel cave in the Aude western part. Ardèche Magdalenian dwelling is peculiar compared to the South West of France. Badegoulian has been substituted by a Mediterranean Facies culture rich in bladelets, the Salpestrian. This facies limited in its geographic extention to Gard and Ardèche, evolves gradually in situ gaining Magdalenian elements (such as backed bladelets and dihedral burins) giving birth to the transitory lithic complex of Huguenots and Baume d’Oullins Cave. An established Magdalenian is certified in the Blanchisserie camp, within a cold climatic context dated back to circa 16?000 years ago. Although the lithic industry is dominated by dihedral burins and backed bladeletse it is also characterised by some archaic features (such as keel endscrapers, transverse burins and scalene bladelets). The upper Magadalenian with bone harpoons appears soon in our region, in the Colombier rock shelter, in a fairly temperate climatic context dated according to 14C back to circa 14?000 BP. We could identify six stages within the evolution of this Upper Magdalenian.which are attested in the Colombier, Ebbou and Deux Avens Caves and in the Colombier rock shelter that has been occupied during several periods. The Magdalenian gradually changed loosing his most typical elements, the bladelets and burins supremacy has been substituted by Azilian elements (such as short endscrapers and curved backed points). But even if the Azilian process happens very early (before 12?500 BP) the Magdalenian, in its fundamental features, never disappears completely and it has never been substituted by classic Azilian. After Alleröd appears a culture characterised by the recovery of Magdalenian features similar to the Epimagdalenian defined by D. Sacchi in Gazel. The described evolution can be compared, as regard to its upper stages, to that of several sites of Rhone region as well as of the North West of France, which allow to define a culturally homogeneous province having the Rhone corridor with Ardèche as its Southern border. At the end of Palaeolithic this province broke up and Ardèche opened to the South and the Mediterranean from where seems to come the retouched large blade facies and endscrapers attested by the Colombier rock shelter dating back to 12?150 BP.