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.     

La hache de Laplume (Lot-et-Garonne) : un outil en pierre polie parmi les plus importants du Néolithique du Midi de la France

This polished axe has been discovered formerly at Laplume (Lot-et-Garonne) but the definite location and the archaeological context are unknown. With regard to its large dimensions and particularly its exceptional weight (1510.8 g), this axe is one of the most important polished tools for the Neolithic period in Southern France.     

Un exemple de gestion des géo-ressources au Paléolithique supérieur en moyenne montagne : le Badegoulien de la grotte du Rond-du-Barry (Sinzelles,Polignac, Haute-Loire)

Rond-du-Barry cave is situated in the centre of the Cenozoïc sedimentary basin of Puy-en-Velay in a mountainous environment. It contains Middle Palaeolithic, Badegoulian, Magdalenian and more recent occupation levels. Lying between two major river corridors (the Loire to the west and the Allier to the east), this site provides a special opportunity for defining exploitation and management modalities linked to the territory occupied by the prehistoric humans who inhabited the cave and the role played by the landscape's structural elements in human behavior at the end of the Upper Pleistocene. Lithic raw material analysis of the archaeological assemblages allowed us to define the dispersal of raw materials used in the site. Such dispersal has for some time been considered to provide a reliable reflection of actual movements of human groups. Our study, based on a modified methodology incorporating the concept of a chaine évolutive for flint, focused on the lithic artifacts from Rond-du-Barry unit F2, which are attributed to the Badegoulian. The results of our study differ from those of previous studies in terms of the diversity of the raw material being used and the frequency of occurrence for each type. Our conclusion is that Badegoulian humans were not physically constrained by a familiar territory, but traveled and/or traded widely in their quest for suitable raw materials. The diversity in the lithic raw materials, gathered locally and semi-locally from different primary and secondary outcrops demonstrates this territorial range. Importation of siliceous raw material originating from the meridional edge of the Paris basin (Berry, Touraine) suggests a planned resource-use strategy for obtaining large pieces of flint, which are rare in the regional outcrops. However, unraveling the resource use strategies to this degree of intention lies beyond what can be revealed by the lithic material alone.     

Frettes (Haute-Saône,France) : un gisement de plein-air du paléolithique moyen,premiers résultats

Frettes is an open air site discovered in 1900 by Docteur Bouchet. Since that date, the site has been prospected by several other local researchers. The surface industry condensed by areas of 50 m², shows something defined around a Ferrassie Mousterian with oriental similitudes. Following a sondage campain in 1988 and 1989, the site has been dug in 1990 and 1991 by Gilles Huguenin. This excavation spread over 48 m² and 3746 artefacts constitute one main lithic serie with about 78 artefacts per meter. During the first polls of 1988-1989 of 4 m² of extension and the fulfilment of a 200 m trench which had for aim to compare polls all together, the lithic obtained was rich of Levallois finds (cores, flakes, tool-flakes), blade finds (rare cores, blades, blade-tools). During the excavation of 1991-1991, the lithic inventory shows the same typology and technology characteristics that we can describe as following: a main Levallois composition and in a lesser extent a blade composition. For the blade part of the lithic serie, we can notice the important part of blade cores done on the tranche of nodules or flakes and the great part of ventral flake realization next to the tradition flat or volume cores. During those researches, the question of a single or recurrent occupation was naturally written. The spatial analysis pleads for one main occupation. The blade artefacts commonly show the same characteristics than the Levallois artefacts position and density: common areas of high density, common areas of lower density, decline areas from higher density to the lowest. The archaological level shows a short vertical dispersion, around 7 cm, the maximum is 12 cm located on plots where the chalk records accidents. Retouched tool are made by noches, simple scrapers, double scrapers, few burins and end-scrapers. Tools are also composed of truncatures and blade convex scrapers. The typology of the flakes is in accordance with types of cores: Levallois flakes, blades or allongated flakes, crested-blade. Located on the east side of a great chalky depression, the stratigraphy of the site can be very poor, away or can be developed with more than 2 meters of deposits before to find the rock. The raw material is local, the blue and white flints are coming from the Bajocien system. Other minerals are also present, they are non-silex like quartz or quartzite coming from the Saône river and his area far from 20 km from the site. This stratigraphy also permits us to propose a first model of major phase of deposit and major phase of frequentation of the landscape by hominids. This article underlines the first totally new results of the stratigraphy, the interpretative results and show us the main characters of an industry composed by Levallois and blade methods and where refittings are numerous and do reflect all debitage steps.     

Menez-Dregan 1 (Plouhinec,Finistère,France) : un site d’habitat du Paléolithique inférieur en grotte marine. Stratigraphie,structures de combustion,industries riches en galets aménagés

The Lower Palaeolithic site of Menez-Dregan I is currently the subject of an important excavation and has been part of a multidisciplinary project since 1991. It is an ancient marine cave whose roof has gradually collapsed and thus partly protected the site from erosion. In Menez-Dregan 1, the sedimentological evidence has been significantly reduced due to multiple episodes of marine erosion in the cave (low sedimentary preservation in terms of sedimentation and erosion process). However, the proximity of a section with a longer sedimentary record (Gwendrez cliff) has allowed for an attempt at correlation between the different deposits by way of a sedimentologic study applied to sandy marker beds (dunes). The resulting new data permitted a more precise chronostratigraphy of this site to be drawn up and contributed to further validation of dating. Three main stratigraphic units show distinct levels of human occupation at the site, separated by coastal deposits. The ESR dates tend to place the first human occupation in MIS 12 or at the end of MIS 13 (around 465,000 years). The ESR dating obtained at the base of layer 5 gave an age of 380,000 years. The geological analysis (sedimentology, stratigraphical correlations at short distance) tends to confirm these dates. The fauna has not preserved due to the acidic environment, leaving only the lithic industry to show how the human groups who settled at the site lived and, it is worth noting, mastered fire lighting, and or control, at a very early date (late MIS 13 or early MIS 12). The lithic industry from the upper levels (layer 5) is likely Colombanian and is composed of numerous flakes and cores alongside a great quantity of cobble tools (mostly choppers), fractured cobbles, and cobbles with isolated removals on various types of rocks, some cleavers and very rare bifaces. Additionally denticulates and notches form the main part of the light duty tools, together with scrapers. These retouched light duty tools are mainly made on flint, but quartz and glossy sandstone were also used. The last level of occupation (layer 4) probably shows the transition between Lower and Middle Palaeolithic. This may represent a regional cobble tool industry of the south armorican shoreline, however, it is still difficult to separate it totally from the classic European Acheulean from Northern France. These armorican lithic industries could indeed correspond with areas of specialised activities, as demonstrated for some Middle Palaeolithic groups with a cobble tools lithic industry. The notion of culture that could be chosen to explain this variability must be treated with caution, because it would only be based on the presence or absence of only one type of tool (the handaxe).     

La prise en charge du diabète de type 2 : l’HbA1c reste-t-elle le seul objectif ?

HbA1c remains today the main tool for diabetes follow-up. The large scale studies have shown that intensive therapeutic strategies, based on low HbA1c target, were followed by a short-term decrease in microvascular complications, and a short- and long-terms decrease in both micro- and macrovascular complications of diabetes. While a prompt normoglycaemia is strongly encouraged, severe hypoglycaemia must be absolutely avoided. It has been clearly proved that there is a need to control the whole cardiovascular risks, as represented by blood pressure and lipid level in particular, according to the results of the Steno 2 study. The HbA1c target definition should take into account the age, the diabetes duration and the cardiovascular risk factors. Thus, the intensive treatment of type 2 diabetes needs to be quite rapid, not too quick, has to avoid hypoglycaemia, and has to be combined with a strict control of the other cardiovascular risk factors. HbA1c is then a crucial target in type 2 diabetes management, but is not the only one.     

La TEP en gynéco-oncologie,au-delà du [18F]FDG ?

Understanding the mechanisms of carcinogenesis led to the development of new therapeutic approaches over the last decades, according to the specificities of tumor phenotypes, particularly in gynecological malignancies. [18F]FDG PET does not specifically assess these potential therapeutic targets. This update details the innovative PET tracers studied for this purpose, according to three families of oncological characteristics: tumor receptors, oncological mechanisms and tumor microenvironment.     

Variabilité de l’industrie lithique entre les structures de l’habitation no 1 de Mezhyrich,site du Paléolithique supérieur d’Ukraine

The investigation of the lithic assemblages from three archaeological structures of the Upper Palaeolithic Mezhyrich site, mammoth bone dwelling no. 1, nearby located pit no. 7 and workshop with a portion of cultural layer situated on the border of the pit, exhibits a sufficient diversity of the main indexes of flint assemblages. According to the latter, the main flint resources, cores and large pieces of flint, as well as blades and several tools (scrapers), were kept just in the dwelling. At the same time, the remains of “debitage” and the modification products of several tools (burin spalls) are more numerous in the pit and the workshop. The higher percentages of backed microliths, included the forms with diagnostic projectile impact fracture, and burins with several working edges are also observed in the assemblages of the last two archaeological structures.     

Technologie,typologie et analyses fonctionnelles de l’outillage lithique durant le néolithique ancien dans la Cueva de Murciélagos de Zuheros (Córdoba,Espagne) : réflexions sur la néolithisation du sud de la Péninsule Ibérique

The cave of Murciélagos de Zuheros (Cordoba, Spain) is one of the most important sites in Southern Iberian Peninsula. Its thick chronostratigraphic sequence includes occupations ranging from the Middle Palaeolithic to Roman times. Occupation levels corresponding to the earliest farming communities that established in modern-day Andalucia are remarkable due to its archaeological richness. This article focuses on the study of the lithic industry from these Early Neolithic levels, which is approached according to various tightly connected questions: raw material characterization, technical systems of production, and morphology and function of tools. Obtained results in their archaeological context are related to the questions on the origin of the Neolithic in Southern Iberian Peninsula.     

Les petits ongulés de la grotte acheuléano-moustérienne du Lazaret (Nice,France) – Origine anthropique ou carnivore ?

Lazaret Cave contains archaeological deposits contemporaneous with Acheulean and Mousterian cultures, corresponding to marine isotopic stage 6 (MIS 6). Archaeological excavations at the site revealed twenty-nine archaeostratigraphic units with recurring, relatively long occupations by Homo heidelbergensis groups. These groups preferentially hunted red deer and ibex, which were abundant in all the units. In contrast, other species, such as the chamois and the roe deer, are poorly represented. In this article, we present the results of the archaeozoological and taphonomic analyses of small ungulate bones in order to determine how these remains were deposited in the cave. Opportunistic anthropogenic hunting is brought to light in some units, explaining the low proportion of these species at the site. In addition, these species only provide low nutrient levels for the needs of the group. The accumulation of remains by carnivores is also observed, mainly by the wolf, which is abundant in the upper units.     

Les hétérochronies du développement : un outil pour l'étude de la variabilité et des relations phylétiques ?: Exemple de Nigericeras,Ammonitina du Crétacé supérieur africain

Ontogenetic heterochronies: a tool to study both variability and phyletic relationships? Example: Nigericeras, Ammonitina of the african Upper Cretaceous. The Nigericeras gadeni ontogenesis (Saharian Upper Cretaceous) is characterized by three ornamental stages: multi-tuberculate inner-whorls, ombilical bi-tuberculate medium-whorls, then finally smooth adult stage. Ontogenetic Heterochonies account for their adult variability, which extends between both paedomorphic (thick/ornamented) morphotype, and peramorphic (thin/smooth) morphotype. That species may take root in the older Pseudocalycoceras. A peramorphocline characterizes the evolution of these ammonites and their younger relatives, leading to different Nigerian and Nigerien, highly compressed taxa. Such morphologies seem to be related to shallow-water palaeo-environments. The general transgressive context leads to the progressive scarcity of their supposed ecological niches. To cite this article: P. Courville, C. Crônier, C. R. Palevol 2 (2003).