L'analogie et la représentation de l'art primitif à la fin du XIX siècle

In this paper, we will examine the foundations of Western representation of Paleolithic art at the end of the nineteenth century. Taking the period of 1864-1902 into account, we will prove the leading role of analogy between “modern primitive societies” and “prehistoric societies” in the very definition of “primitive art”. According to us, the representation of the “primitive artist” at that time was largely based in comparison between art which came from modern primitive societies living in Africa, Australia or America, and prehistoric art which was authenticated at about 1865. Through this examination, we will show the way in which analogy functions as a main category in the construction of scientific knowledge.     

L’art Paléolithique est-il un « art » ?: Réflexions autour d’une question d’actualité

During the last years, an international debate about the concept of “Palaeolithic art” has taken place. On one hand, several specialists have critiqued the use of the concept of “art” in naming the images created by Homo sapiens during the Palaeolithic era. They claim that the use of this term implies the projection of a modern category to a world - that of prehistoric humans - which is completely different from our own. On the other hand, some archaeologists consider that the term “Palaeolithic art” does not imply an anachronistic interpretation of prehistoric representations. In presenting the historical context, which has made such a discussion possible, we consider the causes and effects of this controversy. Firstly, we analyze the traditional interpretation, which considered Palaeolithic images as “works of art”. Secondly, we examine the connections, which can be found between the debate about “Palaeolithic art” and certain polemics, which have arisen from the history of art and anthropological frameworks. Thirdly, we consider the arguments utilized by those who are for and those who are against the term “Palaeolithic art”. Finally, we emphasize the importance of this debate to better understand the categories and the concepts, which determine the scientific practice.     

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.     

Sols et structures d’habitat du Paléolithique supérieur, nouvelles données depuis les Cantabres : la Galerie Inférieure de La Garma (Cantabrie, Espagne)

A brief review is done of the history of the research on Upper Paleolithic floors and structures, with a general outline of the main substantive and theoretical-methodological aspects. On the resulting “state of the art” we present the preliminary results of the study of the occupation evidences from the Lower Gallery of La Garma. In essence, it constitutes an astonishing ensemble of extensive Middle Magdalenian occupation floors, exceptionally rich and quite well preserved, including several structures and associated with rock art paintings and carvings of that period. The potential of the site is superlative, and the research’s project already begins to offer some interesting results of which this article is a fairly small advance.     

Paléogéographie des chasseurs de l’Europe du Paléolithique supérieur : répartition et spécialisation des sites

During the Upper Paleolithic, Europe was occupied by human populations mainly living from hunting of big terrestrial mammals. A repartition of fauna and of archeological sites was done with a database: a repartition of Upper Paleolithic sites in central and western Europe. This study shows that the european space was structured following several factors; climate, environment, cynegetic behaviours… We observe a partition of Europe with a mediterranean area with mainly deer, and ibex and an atlantic area with reindeer. Equally, most of the occupations are localized in the “aquitano-cantabric horn” around the Gulf of Gascony. The occupation of Europe undergone a pulsation with a retreat of occupations toward the west and the south during the glacial maximum, then a colonization of North Europe during the Tardiglacial climatic amelioration.     

Codes mythiques du Mézinien

Colonized by mammoths, the Eurasian steppe witnessed the birth of religious performances that are based on the reciprocation of life with the human populations moving apace. Plastic art codes attest to this balanced equilibrium with an up-to-present untamed environment, which is still in evidence among some Siberian peoples and the Saami (Lapps) in Europe. Such persistence can be seen as direct legacies and displays an environment that allows a range of attitudes towards animals incompatible with the notion of animal “domestication” as we commonly associate to the European Neolithic.     

Relecture d’un modèle architectural du III millénaire provençal : l’Habitation n 1 du Collet-Redon à La Couronne (Martigues, Bouches-du-Rhône)

The open-air site of Collet-Redon (Martigues, Bouches-du-Rhône) was discovered in the 1940s, and excavated by M. Escalon de Fonton until the beginning of 1980s. Those pioneering works gave up important series of artefacts and domestic structures of Late Neolithic and Bronze Age that permit to define a new Neolithic culture: the Couronnien group. The importance of this establishment, as a reference in research on Late Neolithic period in South of France, is particularly based on built remains revealed in a sector called “Habitation no. 1”. Quantity and quality of architectural structures allowed M. Escalon de Fonton to describe a Neolithic domestic unit, which became a model for interpreting other regional sites. Since 1999, various studies of artefacts and structures, coupled with an excavation, have been engaged in order to discuss first interpretations. The purpose of this article is to present our results concerning architectural remains of “Habitation no. 1” sector. Study of ancient publications and new observations on structures permit us to suggest a revision of the plan proposed for this third millenary construction.     

L’ambre campanien du Mas d’Azil (Ariège,France) : gisement,micro-inclusions,taphonomie

The amber of Le Mas d’Azil (Ariège, France), fashioned by the Magdalenian people of Le Mas d’Azil cave, was collected in clay levels rich in Cupressinoxylon Göppert, of the Campanian Labarre Sandstone Formation, which is a large deltaic set, infilling the sub-Pyreneean trough. The amber pieces are small and resemble modern resin exudates on coniferous trunks. We describe following micro-inclusions. Actinomycetes: Cardonia stellata, nov. gen., nov. sp., located close to the surface of amber pieces, is abundant and displays chains of conidia and isolated aleuriospore. Nocardiopsis ? sp. D is rare. Actinomycete “de type Salignac” is abundant. Its filaments often display a tendril shape, which seems to prelude to a mycelium fragmentation. Other bacteria: Leptotrichites resinatus Schmidt ( Schmidt and Schäfer, 2005), poorly represented, is more variable than the already known material; cf. Sphaerotilus sp., very abundant, also displays differences with the Cenomanian “Sphaerotilus sp.”. Eukaryotes: one fungal filament, and a group of spores, pollens or cysts. Inorganic inclusions: gas bubbles, pseudo-protists of B and C? types, and tiny, transparent, cubic crystals. It seems that most of the quoted prokaryotes were resinicolous organisms, able to settle on the surface of the exudate, and grow in the resin, after inoculation either by a contact with the substrate, or by an anemophilic dispersion of spores. This “taphonomic way” seems here to be more general than trapping.     

Les pointes pseudo-Levallois du gisement moustérien Le Rissori, à Masnuy-Saint-Jean (Hainaut, Belgique)

The 1985-1992 excavation of the Middle Palaeolithic site Le Rissori provided 202 pseudo-Levallois points, distributed in four successive Mousterian series covering a period of time of about 200,000 years. The reference object is the typical five and more sided polygonal point. It is an asymmetrical variety of “débordant” flakes with their own striking platform, at the difference of classical “débordant”, the obliquity of which makes the difference in the following three categories : typical polygonals, atypical polygonals, and classical subtriangulars. The operating scheme - which is the same for all the categories- gives some large and thick flakes after “débitage”. The typical pseudo-Levallois points (polygonal and classical of type A) show two thick sides : the butt and the concave reshaped “débordant” side which is corresponding to the partial overcutting of the active striking platform of an uni- or bipolar recurrent Levallois core. Their function stands in latero-longitudinal (distal or proximal) convexities restoration, the usual process of which can only be restored with difficulties, because of the importance of the removed volume.Typical, polygonal and classical points become perfectly integrated into the Levallois system ; their technological scheme shows a lot of similarities, evoking an antesaalian evolution and origin. The pseudo-Levallois point so appears like a product with a technological vocation, which is revealing a latero-longitudinal restoration. The pseudo-Levallois point is moreover confirming the presence of a uni- or bipolar recurrent Levallois “débitage” with blades or lengthened flakes.     

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 Magdalénien de la grotte « Grappin » à Arlay (Jura, France) : nouveaux regards

The “Grappin” or “Saint-Vincent's” cave, on the western slope of Jura, East of France, has been explored since 1889. From then to 1960, it has yielded substantial material dated to middle “à navettes” Magdalenian developing during the late Pleniglacial. The study of this settlement, although often mentioned, was never dealt with comprehensively until now. Due to its scientific importance for the middle Magdalenian of western Europe, the site is to be reinvestigated through a global interdisciplinary project entitled “The Tardiglacial and the start of Holocene in the Jura and its margins”. This paper will review our present knowledge of the site, radiocarbon dates and archaeological data. It also focuses on ornaments and engraved mobile art.     

Le bassin de l’homme du Pléistocène supérieur de Liujiang, Sud de la Chine : taille du corps, forme du corps et encéphalisation

The Late Pleistocene hominin fossil assemblage from Liujiang, South China include a fairly well-preserved cranium, a right os coxa, a complete sacrum, and other postcranial elements all belonging to a single individual. This rare discovery offers us a unique and singular opportunity in understanding this Late Pleistocene hominin's body proportion and relative cranial capacity (encephalization quotient [EQ]), and also pelvic morphology. Using the available right innominate and its mirror-imaged left side, we reconstruct Liujiang hominin's pelvis. Our analysis of the pelvis indicates that the Liujiang hominin has a very gracile and modern-like pelvic morphology. Indeed, all of the pelvic dimensions are smaller than those of other Pleistocene hominins. Moreover, the pelvic characteristics typical of Middle and Late Pleistocene hominins including Neanderthals cannot be identified in the Liujiang pelvis. In contrast, both Liujiang's metric and non-metric features indicate affinities to more recent human populations including our modern Chinese collections from Guangxi of south China. Further support of this assessment comes from the EQ value of 5.754 for Liujiang which is closer to Minatogawa 2 and modern Chinese populations than to Middle and Late Pleistocene fossil hominins. Our analysis of body shape shows that Liujiang has body proportion (i.e. body height relative to body breadth) typical of warm-adapted populations. Based on these findings, we reason that the modern physical characteristics of Liujiang may allude to a more recent geological age. Alternatively, its morphological “modernity” could also point to a much higher degree of skeletal variation within Late Pleistocene hominins in East Asia.     

Le « nucléus Donggutuo » et sa signification dans l’industrie du paléolithique inférieur de Donggutuo, bassin de Nihewan, Chine du Nord

As one of the most important Lower Pleistocene sites of the Nihewan basin in North China, Donggutuo (DGT) site is well known for its fine retouched small tools and characters of flake industry. However, new excavations still reveal some new discoveries and educe some new issues to us. For example, the “DGT core” introduced in this article is a new discovered typotechnology and indicates new economic strategy of the local people, which was never known before in this area at the time of 1.1 Ma B.P. The paper provides general background and statistic analysis of DGT industry including special method applied to the “DGT core” and discusses possible influence of environmental change for the emerging of the “DGT core”. The “DGT core” shows a germinated microlithic tradition and reflects a cultural diversity of early humans in the Lower Paleolithic in North China.     

Figurations de l’amas stellaire des Pléiades sur deux roches gravées de la région du Mont Bego Z IX. GII. R 4 et Z IX. GIII. R 6

Two engraved rocks are situated 140 m from each other at an altitude of about 2250 m. One of them is called “female dancer”, and the other, “the Pleiads”, and both show a group of seven small pitted areas, of which one is smaller than the others and ‘ identified as the “Pleiads stellar cluster”, often depicted or mentioned during Antiquity and also throughout various historical periods.On each of these rocks, a large halberd, whose handle is oriented east-west, was traced along a natural fissure in the rock and engraved in the center of the composition. The “Pleiads stellar cluster” is represented on each of the two rocks beside the halberd : although situated to the west above the halberd blade on the “female dancer” rock, it is placed to the south and to the left of the halberd handle on “the Pleiads” rock. This difference may mark two distinct calendar data.The position of the different figures in the compositions illustrated on these two rocks, in particular inversions in the representation of some of them may indicate two distinct periods of the agricultural yearly cycle: on the rock called “female dancer”, the “heliacal raise” at summer's end, marking the beginning of the harvest and, on the rock called “the Pleiads”, the “heliacal setting”, just before winter, after the end of the harvest, when the rains soaks the ground and it is time to plow.     

Découverte d’un site d’art rupestre en Cyrénaïque (Libye) : Kaf Tahr

In April 2009, a new rock art site was discovered in Libya. Kaf Tahr is situated in Cyrenaica, in the Djebel Akhdar (the “green mountain”). This new site with engravings displays several interests. Firstly, it is only the third rock art site discovered - or at least published - in Cyrenaica. Secondly, this rock shelter is the only one that had shown engravings belonging to at least two different chronological periods, the first one being very probably prehistoric, and the second, post-prehistoric. Finally, the engraving of a man (with a sword and a shield) and the engraving of a horse are the first discovered in the area. These two engravings could have been realized in the protohistoric period. This period is well-known in the Libyan Fezzan (“libyco-berberian period” or “horse period”) but it has never been defined in Cyrenaica. Owing to the lack of research, the long period separating the end of Prehistory from the beginning of the greek colonization is hitherto totally unknown. If these engravings would belong to this period, they would be the first elements attesting of a metal work and a horse domestication in Cyrenaica before the historic period.     

Ostracodes et stratigraphie du néogène et du quaternaire méditerranéens

A stratigraphical chart of marine ostracoda from Lower Miocene to Recent is established. Selected species (approximatively 220) are those morphologicaly well characterized and known from different parts of the Mediterranean area. It appears that: • lower Miocene ostracodes are still poorly known; • specific diversity is high during the Tortonian and the Lower Messinian before the complete disappearance of marine Mediterranean species during the Upper Messinian évaporitic episodes; • during the early Pliocene, about half of the Upper Miocene marine species are reintroduced with the Atlantic waters; other species migrate for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea by the same way; • at the end of the Pliocene or at the beginning of the Pleistocene several species known in Mediterranean since the Middle Miocene or before, such as Cytherella sp. gr. transversa and Ruggieria tetraptera, as well some “nordic guests” such as Hemicythere villosa and Cythere lutea, appear. This work is an opportunity to confirme a Late Miocene age for the Neogene of Skyros (Aegean Sea), to assign the “Upper Pliocene” of Terquem to the Lower Pleistocene and to refute the existence of a pliocene psychrosphere.     

Hommes et environnements au Paléolithique supérieur en Ukraine continentale et en Crimée : introduction

Research, conducted under the ANR project “Mammouths”, on “the end of the mammoth steppe: Man/Environment relationship during late Pleniglacial in Eastern Europe”, is the subject of several contributions, a part of them is published in this volume, under the heading “Humans and environments during Upper Paleolithic in mainland Ukraine and Crimea”, in the French journal L’anthropologie.     

Aux origines de la Spiritualité : la notion de transcendance au Paléolithique

In a previous note we presented the expression of the late paleolithic spirituality (Welté and Lambert, 2004). A special analytic grid was used as a possible tool for a demonstration. We separeted rationality from metaphysic; notions which are linked with dialectic relations between necessity (daily constraints), thought, action and evolution in the paleolithic period. Starting from the no direct material activities like burials, funeral materials and art, we purpose now that such notions existed before the upper Paleolithic. We infer that a privilegious set of interactions between the animal and the human appeared early in the thought of the people, before the upper Paleolithic. A metaphysic univers forced itself upon them as an evident “anti-world” which is the symmetric shape of the real and tangible world. In such a context, the social system(s) could not discard these duality.     

Gastropodes sinémuriens du Monte Cucco (Apennins d’Ombrie-Marche, Italie centrale)

Recent researches carried out in the uppert part of the “Calcare Massiccio” formation of Monte Cucco allowed to recover a rich Sinemurian fauna of gastropods, bivalves, brachiopods, ammonoids and some solitary corals. The gastropod fauna is greatly dominant and includes 18 species which belong to the superfamilies Pleurotomarioidea, Fissurelloidea, Amberleyoidea, Neritoidea, Loxonematoidea, Cerithioidea, Nerineoidea, Littorinoidea and Acteonoidea. Ten species of gastropods are here described for the first time. This fauna shows a marked affinity with that of the Sinemurian of Sicily. Under a paleoecological point of view, it is indicative of free marine conditions, in photic zone but under a weak hydrodynamism, and therefore may suggests the reference to a deep infralittoral or upper circalittoral environment.     

Art mobilier magdalénien en matières dures animales de Moravie (République tchèque). Aspects technologique et stylistique

The Magdalenian techno-complex evolved in Western Europe and Central Europe between 17-12 kyr BP, concentrated in Spain on the Cantabrian Coast and in France in Pyrenees and Dordogne, in Central Europe in Poland and Moravia. In our study we analyse portable art on hard animal tissues from Moravian sites (Pekárna, K?í?ova, Rytí?ská), Czech Republic. Comparative material was provided by sites in South-western France (Laugerie, Basse, Enlène). The results of the technological, stylistic and typological comparisons confirm our hypothesis that the Magdalenian portable art from sites in Moravia belong to the Magdalenian techno-complex. The comparison of typological objects in Moravia, like decorated bone disc, pendants, Venus, bâton percé, spatule, shows that their variability is well in the range expected for techno-complex. The same technological pattern can be found between typological objects of spatule as a technology of decoupage but which is applied on different anatomical parts of animal raw material. We discussed the question about local origin of the objects. Technological comparison shows that engraving and bas-relief are more frequent in Moravia than in South-western France sites. This can be explained as a regional based preference of technology for expression of different subjects of mobile art, but also as a possible bias due to small sample size and differences in sampling of our studied objects. Engraving present similar technological characteristics that are featured in both areas. Design, like organization of space and size of the engraving, can be interpreted as an existence of contact between both groups and presence of one Magdalenian techno-complex.