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.     

Zaozer'e, un nouveau site du Paléolithique supérieur ancien dans le nord-est de l'Europe. Rapport préliminaire

This paper presents preliminary archaeological and chronostratigraphical data obtained during pilot excavations of one of the northernmost European Early Upper Palaeolithic sites, Zaozer'e, situated on the western slope of the Middle Urals.     

L’industrie en calcaire du site Paléolithique d’Isernia la Pineta : un modèle interprétatif de stratégie comportementale

The studies and the researches carried out in the last years on the Palaeolithic site of Isernia La Pineta have brought to consider in new way the activities realized by the human group that lived the basin of Isernia during the Middle Pleistocene offering an important key of interpretation of the behavioural strategies of the prehistoric man. The analysis of the exploitation of the raw material has confirmed the presence on the site of two different lithotypes: flint and limestone; the lithological dichotomy is related to the functional dichotomy of the raw material that seems to have conditioned the activities of the human group in different areas of the site. The necessity to deepen the study on the limestone has derived from the evidence brought to light in the last excavation campaigns of a remarkable concentration of the flaked limestone pebbles and the flake scars in some areas of the explored archeosurfaces, particularly on the 3a and on the overlooking layers. The present study has the purpose to explain the characteristics of the limestone finds both in reference to the raw material and to its state of preservation both to the technotypological evidences and its spatial distribution with the purpose to better understand the modalities of the exploitation of the raw material. The information collected until today have permitted to obtain a precise knowledge of the environmental context and the territorial resources exploited by the human group showing an opportunistic capability to find the most advantageous behavioural solution for the necessities of subsistence.     

Les éléments de parure au Paléolithique supérieur en Belgique

Considering that body ornaments are, through the choice of the elements, good cultural markers, along with the transitional geographical position of Belgium in the Palaeolithic, an up-to-date study of the body ornaments has been undertaken to catch the diffusion and contact phenomenon next to the influences in the lithic industries between regions. Despite the fact that the observations made take cultural value once they are considered in a broader frame than the actual political boarders of the country, cultural and chronological tendencies in terms of “fashions” within the Belgian material have nevertheless confirmed their informational potential.     

Stratégie de débitage et mode de façonnage des industries du Paléolithique inférieur en Chine et en Europe entre 1 Ma et 400 000 ans: Ressemblances et différences de la culture de l’homme de Yunxian et Acheuléen européen

These stone tools from Yunxian with other Lower Paleolithic sites in South China, for example, the site Lantian (Shanxi, China) and the site Bose (Guangxi, China), indicates that there are many common characteristics among these industries. There are choppers, chopping-tools, picks, hand-axes, cleavers and scrapers. Long ago we thought that there are not hand-axes in China. In fact, there are lots of hand-axes in China and these hand-axes existed more earlier than those in Europe. The hand-axe appeared in China before 800,000 years old and it barely arrived in Europe before 600,000 years old. The quaternary deposits of the site of Yunxian Hominid (Hubei, China) are at least dated to 800,000 years old. A large quantity of lower Paleolithic material was discovered. The types of the tools are choppers, picks, scrapers, hand-axes and cleavers. The pebbles tools make up the majority of the implements. Small flake tools are relatively rare. The lithic industries comparison of the two regions has help us to know the cultural evolution in China and Europe.     

Mode de vie à Isernia La Pineta (Molise, Italie). Stratégie d’exploitation du Bison schoetensacki par les groupes humains au Paléolithique inférieur

The site of Isernia La Pineta (Molise, Italie) is characterized by the presence of a rich faunal assemblage related to a very abundant lithic industry in several archaeosurfaces dated between 600,000 and 700,000 BP. A specific archaeozoological study has been carried out on Bison schoetensacki specimens that are the most represented taxon in each archaeological level, followed by rhinoceros, elephant, bear and cervid. The quantitative et qualitative analysis of the faunal remains, the age profiles and the identification of anthropic modifications have allowed to better understand the exploitation strategies adopted by humans in the site and to underline a selective hunting of population of bison, related to the age of the individuals.     

Le Paléolithique Supérieur dans la moyenne vallée de l’Ebre

After 30 years of research, we begin to perceive an incipient outline of the Upper Palaeolithic in the central Ebro Valley. The assembled data permit us to speak of human occupation on the Southern face of the Pyrenees, but also on the borders of the Iberian Mountains and of the Ebro basin. All these sites seem to mark the passageways from and to the neighbour territories, emphasizing the communication pathway role of the Iberian basin.     

Les faunes d’ammonites du Pliensbachien inférieur des séries dauphinoises de la Durance (Jurassique inférieur, Barrage de Serre-Ponçon, Hautes-Alpes, France)

The Liassic ammonite faunas and especially those of the Early Pliensbachian are of major importance for the understanding of the stratigraphic framework of the “Dauphiné” zone of the southern subalpine ranges (“dôme de Remollon”). Until now, only listed by the authors, these faunas are, for the first time, described and illustrated in the present paper. With about twenty species, these faunas cover the whole of the Early Pliensbachian. There are poorly diversified and of clearly Euroboreal affinities. Nearly all of the species are abundant and common in most of the NW European fossiliferous localities. Despite of a paleogeographical location fairly close to the Alpine zones (Southern Alps and Austroalpine units) with rather diversified faunas of mainly Mediterranean affinities, none Mediterranean taxa are present in the studied area. Unfortunately, the current stratigraphic and paleogeographic knowledge do not allow to ascertain if this reflects a separation due to paleoenvironmental or true paleogeographic barriers. In this latter case, the general geologic implications would be remarkable.     

L’utilisation des reliefs pariétaux dans la réalisation des signes au Paléolithique supérieur

For a long time, the images of the Upper Paleolithic were represented in a way that emphasized their aesthetic qualities and ignored the specific characteristics of their natural supports. It is more damageable as the architecture of the decorated caves plays a real part, at different levels, in the elaboration of the parietal devices. As omnipresent elements of these devices, the signs play a determining part in this architecture. Analysing the links between the signs and their direct supports brings to light the various ways in which parietal devices can be used and also the integration and research for the volumes and frame. A study led inside the caves on a sample of 692 signs, distributed in the franco-cantabric paleolithic space, makes apparent the variety of the graphic choices left to the artists standing in front of the wall.     

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.     

Le paléolithique supérieur au sud du Portugal : le site de Vale Boi

Before the 90s, data on Paleolithic human occupation of southern Portugal was very scarce. During the last decade, the knowledge of the Upper Paleolithic of Algarve increased substantially due to the work of a research team based at the University of Algarve. The present paper is a report on the recent results from Algarve, focusing specially on the site of Vale Boi. It will present the chronology and stratigraphy of different human occupations from the early Upper Paleolithic up to the early Neolithic. It will focus on aspects of zooarchaeology and the exploitation of large and medium mammals as well as on marine fauna. In addition, we will present new data on stone and bone tools. Finally, we will also refer to the social and symbolic aspects present at the site, base on shell and teeth pendants and to an engraved plaquette with animal motifs.     

L’industrie lithique du site Pléistocène inférieur de Pirro Nord (Apricena, Italie du sud) : une occupation humaine entre 1,3 et 1,7 Ma

The site of Pirro Nord (also known as Cava Pirro or Cava Dell’Erba) is known in literature since the 1970's of the last century as a palaeontological site, of which the mammalian fossil association constitutes a reference (local) fauna for the European latest Villafranchian. This fossil association is also known for the occurrence of some African elements. During the 2005, a lithic industry has been found in three karst fissures, together with the typical elements of the Pirro Nord vertebrate assemblage. The biochronological assessment based on the vertebrate assemblage attributes it to a time interval bracketed between 1.3 Ma and 1.7 Ma. Thus the site of Pirro Nord represents the oldest human occupation of Europe so far known. The lithic assemblage, attributable to the Mode 1, is constituted by three cores and seven flakes, and is made only on flint. Lithic artefacts have been found in stratigraphic context during the preliminary surveys of the three fissures, that they will be the object of systematic excavations in the years to come.     

Paléolithique supérieur et Mésolithique en Méditerranée : cadre culturel

The origin of the Upper Palaeolithic around the Mediterranean was the result of the local evolution, particularly in the Near East and in the Lower Nile basin, and of the migration from this zone to South-Eastern and Central Europe. The Initial Upper Palaeolithic in the Near East belt was the effect of local evolution from the industries based on Levallois concept to the industries which developed leptolithic blade technologies. This evolution is well registered in multi-layer sites in the Syro-Palestinian belt (Emirian/Ahmarian), which was the starting point of the diffusion of these “transitional” industries in South-Eastern and Central Europe. This diffusion could be identified with the migration of first anatomically Modern Humans. The Early Upper Palaeolithic in Europe — dated to the second half of the Interpleniglacial — was, at least partially, based on these “transitional” industries and manifested by the appearance of the Aurignacian, contrasted with local cultures such as the Uluzzian in Mediterranean Europe. During whole the Interpleniglacial Europe was separated from Northern Africa dominated by local evolution of Middle Palaeolithic (Middle Stone Age) cultures (mostly expressed by the Aterian), and by specific “transitional” industries on the southern Mediterranean coast (Early Dabbian) and in the Lower Nile basin. The Last Glacial Maximum and the corresponding sea level recession opened new possibilities of contacts between the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula in both directions (Aterian-Solutrean and Gravettian-Early Iberomaurusian), which are still difficult to be proved before new chronostratigraphic correlations are made. At the same time we register links between south-eastern Europe and western Anatolia; the real border between Near Eastern and European Mediterranean cultural zones was marked, in the Late Glacial, by the Taurus chain. During the Late Glacial the cultural separation between Europe and Africa was particularly marked. Only in the Aegean basin the first sea navigation facilitated contacts which become widespread as late as in the Early Holocene with neolithization trough maritime contacts.     

Pléistocène moyen et inférieur dans le Latium (Italie centrale)

Explorations and diggings of the Italian Institute of Human Palaeontology in Latium from 1950 to 2005, have brought out the following composite sequence: (1) for upper-middle Pleistocene of northern Latium: Travertine, gravels Acheulian-Mousterian transition, Riss. Homo (femur), Elephas antiquus, Hippopotamus, Bubalus murrensis, with upper Acheulian artefacts. (2) In middle Latium, middle Pleistocene: Volcanoclastic K-Ar 360 Ky. Below: Lower Acheulian complex and bone artefacts. Homo, Inuus, Elephas antiquus, Ursus deningeri, Dama clactoniana. Volcanic ash with Zelkowa, Buxus: caucasian flora. Hot pyroclastic flow about 15 m (50 feet) thick between 520 and 530 Ky. Limno-tuffite with Taxodiacea flora Lower-middle Pleistocene choppers artefacts below volcanic limit of 700 Ky. Southern Latium, lower Pleistocene: travertine reed Phragmites fragments. Ceprano hominid calvarium 800-900 Ky old. Gravel with chopper artefacts. Red sand with Unio shells. Lower palaeolithic gravelly sand, with very rough choppers artefacts, at Arce, Colle Marino, Colle Pece localities; at Castro dei Volsci chopper, assemblage is more evolved. Unconformity. Yellow sand layer with middle Villafranchian Anancus arvernensis and Mammuthus meridionalis fauna.     

Le Paléolithique moyen et supérieur de la Hongrie du nord : nouvelles investigations dans la région d’Eger

The region of Eger town at the foot of the Bükk Mountains in Northeastern Hungary has particular importance for the understanding the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic periods of the Carpathian Basin. One of the key-problems is the association of carinated tools and foliate points in the lithic assemblages of the sites. New investigations at the Egerszalók-K?vágó site give fundamental data for the animated discussion on the relation between Aurignacian and Szeletian.     

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.     

Les industries lithiques préoldowayennes du début du Pléistocène inférieur du site de Dmanissi en Géorgie

The lithic industry discovered at the Dmanissi site, in Georgia is dated to between 1.81 and 1.7 Myrs and is in association with a rich faunal assemblage composed of large Quaternary vertebrates, as well as several hominid fossils attributed to Homo georgicus, and attests to the human presence on the border of Europe at the beginning of the Lower Pleistocene. The material taken into account in this study was excavated from 1991 to 1999 and comprises 4446 lithic pieces coming from Beds I through VI of the site. The assemblage is very homogenous from the base to the top of the deposits and shows no significative evolutionary tendencies. The lithic material includes a high proportion of whole pebbles (33.8% of the assemblage) coming from two nearby rivers, the Mashavera and the Pinezaouri. They are essentially of fine and coarse grained volcanic tuff, basalt, but also of rhyolite, granite, quartz, as well as other volcanic and metamorphic rocks. Pebbles used for percussion, shaping or debitage were chosen according to their petrographic nature, their morphology and their size. Whole pebbles with percussion marks situated on their extremities or with isolated removals showing convexe edges, are abundant (1.3% of the assemblage). Other pebbles showing percussion marks on a flat face, were used as anvils. Broken pebbles and pebble fragments are very numerous (30.4% of the assemblage). These often show percussion marks on their cortical surfaces. Fractures are generally related to violent percussion as the pebbles were used for striking instruments, or as they were intentionally broken. Some fractures may have been caused accidentally during flaking. Pebble tools represent 4.8% of the lithic assemblage and 10% of the industry, excluding whole and fractured pebbles. These include essentially the primary choppers (pebbles with isolated concave removal negatives) (6% of the industry and 60.1% of the pebble tools), choppers showing continuous cutting edges without a point (2.1% of the industry and 21.2% of the pebble tools). Chopping-tools are very rare (0.8% of the industry and 8.7% of the pebble tools). Although choppers without pointed cutting edges were made using very few removals (3.3 on average), they usually present a regular cutting edge and seem relatively standardised. Cores are well represented (5% of the industry, excluding whole and broken pebbles). They are characterized by a low degree of exploitation and by a frequence of cortical striking platforms. Cored knapped on a single face are most frequent, representing nearly half of the pieces (42.3%), while bifacial cores are present in smaller proportions (34.2%) and multifacial cores are rare (6.3%). Non-modified flakes are very numerous and usually of small size and intentional retouch is absent. On the other hand, the cuttingedges of many the pieces; broken pebbles, pebble tools, cores and flakes, show irregular micro-retouch and irregular retouch such as isolated notches or with continuous or overlapping configuration, sometimes associated with localised crush marks which appear to have been caused by intensive use and heavy working of the pieces. A total of 31.3% of the non-modified flakes show irregular retouch on their cutting edges. One of the main characteristics of the Dmanissi industry appears therefore to be the obtaining of flakes, most often of small size, to be used without modification. The technological and typological characteristics of the lithic industry from Dmanissi allow to attribute the assemblage to a "Pre-Oldowayen" cultural horizon (Lumley de et al., 2004), characterized by the absence of small retouched tools, which appears in East Africa from 2.55 Myrs ago. This cultural horizon is present at the border of Europe, at Dmanissi, around 1.81 Myrs ago and in Western Europe, on the shores of the Mediterranean, at Barranco León about 1.3 Myrs ago and at Fuente Nueva 3 about 1.2 Myrs ago. The lithic industry from the Dmanissi site seems anterior to the Oldowan cultural horizon, characterized by the presence of standardized small retouched tools, which appears in East Africa around 1.8 Myrs ago and emerges in Mediterranean Europe around 800?000 years ago.     

Techniques et activités des hommes du Paléolithique supérieur sur le site de Wangfujing - Oriental Plaza, Pékin, Chine

More than 2000 pieces of cultural relics were unearthed from the Oriental Plaza site, including stone artifacts, bone artifacts, fossils, hematite powder, fire use remains and plant root and foliage. By analyzing these remains in refitting stone and bone artifacts, in experimentally producing some artifacts, and comparing with ethnologic data, it is concluded that the Oriental Plaza site is a seasonal human activity site, that humans had been making a life of hunting and collecting food, can make stone artifacts, bone artifacts to kill their quarries, use fire to cook their food, and at the same time they also conducted some religion activities.