Des crosses transformées en haches dans l’art néolithique armoricain : l’exemple du signe D de Dissignac (Saint-Nazaire, Loire-Atlantique, France)

A large number of Armorican engravings (Brittany, France) have been made by “pecking”. Each hammerstone impact caused the removal of a few square millimetres of rock, leaving distinctive groove called “flake negative”. The flake negatives are an authentic “signature of percussion” which informs us about the gestures employed by the engraver. The study of the signatures of percussion makes it possible for us to identify cases of superposition or to show as yet unperceived modifications of the engraved signs or transformations that have been carried out. For example, the technological study of Dissignac (Saint-Nazaire, Loire-Atlantique) showed the case of a crook transformed into a hafted axe. This method thus represents a new way in the development of the relative chronology of neolithic engravings in Armorica.     

Engraved ochres from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa

Powerful categories of evidence for symbolically mediated behaviour, variously described as ‘modern’ or ‘cognitively modern’ human behaviour, are geometric or iconographic representations. After 40,000 years ago such evidence is well documented in much of the Old World and is widely considered as typifying ‘modern human culture,’ but earlier evidence is rare. In Africa, this includes two deliberately engraved ochre pieces from c. 75,000 year old levels at Blombos Cave, Western Cape, South Africa and the greater than 55,000 year old incised ostrich egg shell from the Diepkloof shelter, located in the same province. Here we report on thirteen additional pieces of incised ochre recovered from c. 75,000-100,000 year old levels at Blombos Cave. These finds, taken together with other engraved objects reported from other southern African sites, suggest that symbolic intent and tradition were present in this region at an earlier date than previously thought.     

Gravures et abstraction: Les gravures non figuratives de Roc-la-Tour I, le schiste gravé des Beaux-Sarts et les progrès de l’abstraction durant la Préhistoire et l’Histoire

Beyond the 75 animal and human pictures, the 491 Magdalenian engraved plaquettes bear 410 abstract signs, in 14 different types, among which eight were unknown up to now in South-Western France, (more than 130 cases). Some examples of all those signs are shown. Besides there are 213 groups of parallel lines. At “Les Beaux-Sarts”, less than 2 m from the hut described in 2003, another human excavation (maybe a tomb?) delivered a schist plaquette with 94 parallel lines carved on its surface, the lines appear as three groups of 14, 7 (or 8?) and 24 (or 28?) lines and one group of 17 (or 18?) oblique lines, with various secondary lines. Five thousand years before the cerebral center of precise calculation was at the beginning of its formation, this piece, out of the bases of which calculation might be subdivided, cannot be considered as the evidence that they were able to count. The author analyses the affective mental possibilities proved by those elements and puts them apart from the rational progress in the abstraction possibilities of the human brain, which occurred later all through ten thousand years.     

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 du Cénomanien supérieur et du Turonien de la zone sous-pyrénéenne orientale (Corbières méridionales, SE France). Systématique, biostratigraphie, paléoécologie et paléobiogéographie

Thirty-four species of ostracodes are collected in the platform series of the Southern Corbières; two biostratigraphical assemblages, with 13 and 29 species, are respectively recognized in Cenomanian and Upper Turonian; palaeoecology is specified. At that time, the ostracode sub-province of South-West France, established on Southern Corbières, Aquitaine, Touraine-Poitou-Charentes region and Provence, is connected with Eastern and Northern regions and countries: Sub-alpines ranges, Paris Basin, Great Britain, Switzerland and Bohemia, and with the Iberian Peninsula, sub-province of North-Central Spain and Western Portuguese Basin. The crossing of the Tethys and the Atlantic Ocean is realized, in Turonian, by some rare species.     

旧石器时代早中期刻划遗存的发现与研究

刻划遗存是史前人类有意刻划并保留下来的重要考古资料,对于探索和揭示史前时期古人类认知能力和思维表现形式等方面具有重要作用。目前,刻划遗存的发现与研究工作主要集中在欧洲、非洲南部和西亚地区,中国发现的刻划遗存较少。本文重点介绍当前国内外刻划遗存的发现和研究情况,在此基础上,对刻划遗存的鉴别和分析方法进行总结,并尝试探讨不同时空刻划遗存的差异。本文认为古人类刻划行为出现于旧石器时代早期,在旧石器时代中期呈现出地域发展不平衡的特点。     

Patines et cortex de météorisation de grès du site rupestre d’Oum La Leg (Anti-Atlas, Maroc)

Within the framework of the European Commission's program “Patine du Desert” (DG Research; INCO-CT-FP6-2004-509100), partially concerning the preservation of Saharan engraved rock art, the approach led to the study of the sandstone patina from the rock art site of Oum La Leg (Anti-Atlas, Morocco). The rock and its Tazina school engravings are sometimes covered with a thin brown-ochre coating which only shows a dark patina, the desert patina. This film corresponds to a weathering cortex whose formation is contemporary with wet events from the Holocene period. On the surface, the patinas’ diversity is linked to the heterogeneous distribution of manganese oxides (birnessite and todorokite) due to a reorganisation which led to the incorporation of aeolian silts. Some dating suggestions are made to establish an ante quem age for the engraved lines.     

La variabilité graphique du Molí del Salt (Vimbodí, Catalogne, Espagne) et l'art mobilier de la fin du Paléolithique supérieur à l'est de la Péninsule Ibérique

The Upper Paleolithic of Catalonia has been so far characterized by a very weak presence of artistic representations. This scarcity was especially surprising if we take into account the huge number of discoveries from other zones of the Iberian Peninsula (Valencia, the Cantabrian region). In this paper we present four objects of portable art found at the Molí del Salt site (Vimbodí, Conca de Barberà, Tarragona). Below a mesolithic layer, dated to 8 ka BP, there is an Upper Magdalenian sequence with several dates between 10.8 and 12.5 ka BP. These magdalenian levels have yielded four plaques of schist with engravings, including several animal figurines and one human representations. Once the objects are described, we will place them in the context of the portable art from the Late Upper Paleolithic of Mediterranean Spain. From these data, the chronocultural successions based on the Upper Magdalenian-Microlaminar Epipaleolithic distinction will be discussed.     

Nouvelle approche de l’art rupestre de l’Atlas saharien : les figurations de la période tardive

Figurations in Atlas have been studied numerous times, namely by Flamand and Frobenius between 1891 and 1914, by Vaufrey in 1939 and by Lhote between 1955 and 1970. And finally there were Iliou’s¹ and Hachid’s theses in the 1980s and Amara’s thesis in 2001. The study of the Atlas figurations discovered since 1847 brought new data on the engravings from the recent period. The originality of the engravings lies in the appearance of new themes, which had been unknown until yet. The presence of metal weapons figures enriches the records of the Atlas rock Art. The alphabetical signs, another new theme, give an identity to this Art. The work undertaken in this vast region raises the problem of the persistency of the Neolithic culture. All the figurations show some aspects of the evolution, which become permanent, mostly at the end of the recent period.     

Le Lias et le Dogger du sud du Bassin parisien (France) : rôle de la tectonique syn-sédimentaire et reconstitutions paléogéographiques à l'échelle de la biozone d'ammonite

The Lias and Dogger series in the southern Paris Basin outcrops are precisely dated following the ammonite biozonation scale. In these series, the depositional environment context is accurately identified and thus various isopic zones can bee recognized. From the outcrop study, the depositional sequence and the tectonics events are also distinguished. The poorly dated subsurface data should be not anymore interpreted as diagraphic signatures, with the traditional peak to peak correlation. They now need to be analysed according to the geodynamic evolution of each isopic zone. The Liassic transgressive series (in the Armorican continent) and the Dogger platforms numerous carbonate bodies are correlated at biostratigraphic scale, throughout the whole southern Paris Basin. Subsequently, paleogeographic maps are established and based on depositional sequences. The basin evolution image changes radically. This shows clearly that the complexes carbonate bodies layout prohibits any depositional environment interpretation and any isopach mapping at geological stage level. If not, the carbonate platforms of different age would be amalgamated, without any connection with the reality. Over the time, paleogeographic maps show syn-sedimentary short wavelength deformations, more or less well expressed according to the local sedimentary context. During the Lias and the Dogger, three steps can be distinguished in the southern Paris Basin. Hettangian to Lower Aalenian, the progressive increase in accommodation drives to total immersion of the continental areas; the maximum of accommodation during the Middle Toarcian entails uniform sedimentary conditions. However, short wavelength deformations persist. The major accidents defining the isopic zones are mainly North-South oriented. Middle Aalenian to Middle Bathonian, isopic zones are contrasted, controlled by the North-South accidents but also the North West-South East ones ; the variable accommodation allowed the development of regional sedimentary gaps and shallow limestone progradations on a marly area (so called “Sillon marneux”) ; tectonics events correspond to the Tethyan and the North Sea riftings influences. Upper Bathonian to Upper Oxfordian, the North West-South East tectonics accidents are particularly active; this tectonic phase could be associated to the thermal event, described in the Paris Basin and announcing the Malm depositional environment.     

Style v dans le bassin du Douro: Tradition et changement dans les graphies des chasseurs du Paléolithique Supérieur européen

The documentation of some figures of hoofed in Siega Verde on panels of palaeolithic style and its stylistic references in the whole south of Europe, constitutes the starting point of the reflection on the presence of style v in the outdoors sites of the peninsular occident. In the Douro's region exists a richer documentation than the habitual in Europe: the outdoors panels of Côa and Siega Verde, the engravings on palaeolithic figures of La Griega, the paintings with direct chronologies of Ojo Guareña, the decorated plaquettes of the level 4 of Fariseu and the pebbles and plaquettes of Estebanvela. Painting in the caverns, outdoors and cave engravings and mobile art, with good references of absolute chronology between 11,500 BP and 9000 BP that confirm the continuity of the Palaeolithic art. If we compare the data of the peninsular occident with those of the north, those of Levant and those that begin to be known in Andalusia, the coincidence of dates is astonishing. In the same way if we compare these ones with the dates of the South of France and Italy. The external art of the western facade of the Iberian Peninsula possesses not only a unite palaeolithic contrasted sequence but rather it also puts in evidence the reality of the recurrent and continued locations in the whole sector during 30,000 years.Above the 11,000 BP, the transformations of the hunter groups begin to be evident in the whole south of Europe and the graphics demonstrate these changes, with a progressive transformation of contents and style that leads to a bigger schematization. The interesting cohabitation among naturalism and schematism that demonstrate the direct dates of C¹⁴, apparent a progressive transformation that discards radical ruptures between the social and graphic world of the palaeolithic hunters and their heirs.     

Personnages dans l’art saharien : le réel et l’imaginé

In the Sahara, wherever there are naked rock surfaces, engravings and paintings have been found in large numbers. This rock art includes various types of images — the oldest dating about ten millenniums — among which human beings, wild or domesticated animals, therianthrops and non-explicit images can be identified. According to periods and styles, the human being has been represented under extremely varied aspects from particularly realistic — similar to the reality — till very simplified, even caricatural drawings. For some realistic representations of women and men, we can observe anatomical or morphological peculiarities which, without being frequent, show cases of steatopygy and gynoïd or androïd obesity, pathological or not. For certain periods, we also find imaginary, fantastic or caricatural representations. These images characterize particularly styles previous to that called “Round Heads”. So, in the Saharan art, the human being has been represented either in his physical truth, or according to multiple stylistic conventions or graphic stereotypes, which could characterize certain ethnic groups.     

Shells and ochre in Middle Paleolithic Qafzeh Cave,Israel: indications for modern behavior

Qafzeh Cave, the burial grounds of several anatomically modern humans, producers of Mousterian industry, yielded archaeological evidence reflecting their modern behavior. Dated to 92 ka BP, the lower layers at the site contained a series of hearths, several human graves, flint artifacts, animal bones, a collection of sea shells, lumps of red ochre, and an incised cortical flake. The marine shells were recovered from layers earlier than most of the graves except for one burial. The shells were collected and brought from the Mediterranean Sea shore some 35 km away, and are complete Glycymeris bivalves, naturally perforated. Several valves bear traces of having been strung, and a few had ochre stains on them.     

Comparaisons taphonomiques de sites magdaléniens du Bassin parisien : les faunes de Ville-Saint-Jacques (Seine-et-Marne) et Étiolles (Essonne)

The preservation of faunal remains in the Magdalenian sites of the Paris Basin only occurs for one third of the cases. This taphonomic bias is very likely in relation with the open-air locations where the majority of regional sites have been discovered. Nevertheless, the Magdalenian settlement shows a certain variability across the landscape: lowland sites, hillside sites, rock shelter sites. This paper aims to highlight the potential interactions between such physical context variability and the taphonomical features of Magdalenian faunal preservations. The issues presented here mainly focus on the comparison of the two faunal remains’ assemblages of Étiolles (a lowland site of the Seine valley) and Ville-Saint-Jacques (hill side site closed to the Seine valley). These faunal assemblages have been studied using the same set of qualitative and quantitative criteria in order to facilitate direct comparisons. This paper must be viewed as the first step of a more systematical survey of Magdalenian faunal assemblages in the Paris Basin. Finally, the main goal of this survey aims to point out the respective zooarchaeological potential of such sites, and by the way, to reach their global socioeconomic significations.     

An anonymous survey of the population for antibodies to the virus causing AIDS

The anonymous survey of the population for the presence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) carried out in Moscow in 1987 revealed 4 seropositive persons among 10, 117 persons subjected to examination. These 4 persons belonged to typical risk groups with respect to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The questioning of the persons coming for examination made it possible to find out that a large percentage of them really had a risk of contacting HIV infection; besides, a considerable proportion of the visitors proved to have signs of AIDS phobia.     

Le site Épigravettien de l'Abri Dalmeri : aspects artistiques à la fin du Paléolithique supérieur en Italie du nord

Over the past fifteen years of research in the alpine area, the Dalmeri Rockshelter, located on the northeastern edge of the Sette Comuni Plateau (Trento, Italy), has become a key site for reconstructing the exploitation of the mountain territories by the human groups of the end of the Upper Palaeolithic. Excavations, carried out between 1991 and 2005, brought to light a sequence of Recent Epigravettian anthropic levels, which were radiocarbon dated to the Allerød interstadial. The well-preserved paleosurfaces provided the opportunity to carry out a thorough analysis on the faunal and lithic remains, enabling us to reconstruct the palaeoeconomy, the function and the internal organisation of the site. In the past five years, the discovery of a notable quantity of red ochre painted stones, which are linked to the earliest settlement phase, revealed different representations, both naturalistic paintings as well as signs. Following this discovery, the interpretation of the site began to touch the artistic-religious sphere, providing new insights into Epigravettian art.     

Les kystes de dinoflagellés des Argiles Ostréennes du Bassin de Paris, France

Palynological studies realized from a borehole drilled on the site of ANDRA (Agence Nationale pour la gestion des Déchets RAdioactifs; Aube Centre near Soulaines, Paris Basin, France) show a sedimentary discontinuity between, on one hand, the Argiles à Plicatules (lower Aptian in age) and Argiles Ostréennes (Lower Barremian/Upper Barremian in age) and, on the other hand, between these same Argiles Ostréennes and the Calcaire à Spatangues (Lower Hauterivian). These conclusions argue against the chronostratigraphical subdivision recently proposed on the basis of sequence stratigraphical and sedimentological interpretations.     

Cupule isolée,groupe de cupules isolées,plage de cupules juxtaposées et chevauchantes,nuage de cupules éparses sur les roches gravées de la région du mont Bego. Représentation de l’amas stellaire des pléiades

The protohistoric rock engravings of the region of Mount Bego, located in the Alpes-Maritimes, in the municipality of Tende, include more than 40,000 figurative engravings, such as corniforms, daggers, halberds, axes, reticulates, appendage reticulate, rectangular or oval beaches, anthropomorphs, geometric figures and radiant circles that we consider as an ideogram and more than 60,000 non-figurative signs, such as isolated cupules, isolated cupules of cells, small beaches of cupules, scattered clouds of cupules, bars, which although not figurative are all highly significant. All these engravings, inscribed on more than 4150 rocks spread over 1500 hectares, in eight high mountain valleys, most often made with small cups, were not carried out at random. They have been traced in relation to economic concerns, cosmogonic myths and cultural traditions of the farming and pastoral peoples of the Copper Age and the Early Bronze Age of the Southern Alps during propitiatory rites. It was a period corresponding to the climatic optimum of Chalcolithic where during the summer, in the lower valleys, cultivated fields and pastures dried up. The economic preoccupations of the populations who then occupied the regions located on both sides of the Southern Alps were essentially turned towards the search for water to irrigate cultivated fields and pastures, as evidenced by the petroglyphs inscribed on the rocks: sinuous lines evoking creeks or irrigation canals, rectangular or oval beaches, water catch basins, isolated wells, isolated wells, wells or scattered cups of rain or reticulates, which represent cultivated fields and pastures connected to natural holes or cracks that evoke springs and streams. During propitiatory rites, the engravers addressed the god of the storm, master of the lightning and dispenser of the fertilizing rain, to the great goddess, goddess-mother or goddess-Earth, arms raised in a position of receptivity for collect rain from the sky and bring in spring, with the return of vegetation, abundance to humans.