Le mammouth dans l’art paléolithique

The mammoth, an emblematic animal of the Prehistory, possesses an important place in the depictions made by prehistoric artists, both in parietal art (cave art) and in mobile art. Its image is known from the Aurignacian, at the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic, until the end of the Last Ice Age, the Magdalenian. However, its geographical and chronological distribution is dissimilar. Mammoth depictions are generally more frequent during the Aurignacian where this animal is found engraved and painted in the Chauvet cave for example and carved from ivory in several cave sites of the Swabian Jura. The Magdalenian cave of Rouffignac and its 160 representations constitute a notable exception. From a formal point of view, the representations of mammoth are elaborated in a rather constant way, like the characteristic cephalic contour and the typical back of the animal, at least as it could be seen in nature. The representations are often even limited to a cursive line with a double curvature that expresses the pachyderm. On the other hand some drawings show intimate details. Sometimes the tusks of the mammoths are not indicated, but certain stylistic features, such as the ventral arch, are relatively reliable chronological markers. Finally, one cannot ignore the ethological or seasonal expressions that sometimes link the mammoths to each other, in a row or in confrontation. This animal obviously inspired the artists of the prehistory who created various portraits of the mammoth.     

Le Paléolithique supérieur dans l’ouest de l’île principale du Japon

The Kinki, Chugoku and Shikoku regions are located in the western part of the Japanese mainland. This area lacks the Pleistocene volcanic soil except a part of Chugoku Mountains. For this reason, the chronology of the late Paleolithic stone industries has been mainly studied by technology and typology of the fields excavated. However, after the late 1980s, the analysis of volcanic ash that contained the Paleolithic sediments had remarkable development. As a result, the cultural layer between the distant Paleolithic sites is compared by several widespread volcanic ashes such as Aira-Tanzawa (in short AT) as key bed. In this paper, we offered chronological order of the late Paleolithic culture in these regions by comparing cultural layers on the basis of the widespread volcanic ashes, referring to typological analysis of industries. The Sétoüchi technique and Ku industry characterize the late Paleolithic culture in these regions. The Sétoüchi technique is the unique one to produce the Ku type backed knife blunting on only one side, using the particular side-blow flaking technology based on physical characteristics of sanukite stone which is a kind of andesite. However, a hypothesis named the “Sétoüchi concept” was proposed in 2001, and it has been used as a substitute of the “Sétoüchi technique” by a few Japanese researchers. So we point out the mistake of the Sétoüchi concept relying on the fact which yielded stratigraphically two different industries in the Suncheon site.     

Le principe de l’anonymat du donneur de gamètes à l’épreuve de son contexte. Analyse des conceptions juridiques de l’identité

This study clarifies the lively debate surrounding the anonymity of gamete donors. This principle, which has not been challenged since 1994, is currently criticized by a number of people, who were conceived through medically assisted procreation technologies with donor and who now have reached adulthood. Their testimony has a very significant impact on French public opinion. Several official reports have already suggested that the anonymity of gamete donors may well be removed under certain circumstances. To understand why public opinion has evolved so dramatically, we must revisit the legal position of gamete donors in the specific context of less visible changes in the law. Indeed, the legal concepts of parenthood and identity have been reshuffled over time, and such changes have deeply affected the legal issues relating to the anonymity of gamete donors. Formerly, the law governing the identification of individuals was shaped by political and social objectives. Now it is more concerned with the sense of identity and personal fulfilment of people. This change, based on modern western notions of egalitarianism and individuality, has dramatically affected the outcome of parenthood trials. Moreover, biological tests have made the truth available like never before. The possibility of finding out the truth has shocked the practice of many areas of family law and has created a new set of challenges, especially when the secrecy of the genetic parents has been legally established. In France, women have traditionally been able to deliver their children anonymously. A deadlock has resulted, which may now be overcome by introducing a new concept of personal origins. Now the law is evolving to permit the children to demand their biological mothers’ identity under certain circumstances, but without affecting anyone’s rights. The concept of personal origins has been quite successful on the European scene and has also charged the debate. It is now recognized under French and European laws that individuals must have privileged access to their personal origins. Can the principle of anonymity of gamete donors remain immune from such a (r)evolution ?     

Armes de chasse dans l’Épipaléolithique du Caucase du Nord

The article is devoted to the traceological study of points and geometric microliths that are characteristic of the Epipaleolithic sites of the northwestern Caucasus and the Elbrus region. The regularities between the type of stone tools and their functional use are analyzed. Composite hunting weapons were effectively used in hunting a variety of ungulate herd animals. The composition of faunal assemblages largely depended of climatic and landscape conditions of the sites in different periods of the Late Glacial period: from the Oldest Dryas to the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. The proximity of lithic industries within a vast region in the North Caucasus, similar shapes of projectiles and lithic inserts into composite hunting weapons could be associated with active human movements, which are confirmed by the transportation of obsidian from the Elbrus region to the northwestern Caucasus and the transportation of high-quality flint from the west to the Elbrus region in the north-central Caucasus.     

Le geste et la forme dans l’expression graphique du Néolithique

The parietal painted sign keeps on the memory of gesture that produces it. It is one of the distinctive features of this particular artefact. However, it is not possible to reconstruct this gesture if we do not give the context of the sign, if we do not present the numerous physical and cultural parameters which are in charge of their production. About schematic paintings of Neolithic age, we must take the union of criterions into account such as the parietal and site topography, the cultural constraints that appoint the location of figures and the ritual practices originally of the graphical expression, etc. The painter perceives, adapts and behaves according to this spatial and social environment. We refer here to several strategies: the attention for the parietal microtopography in accordance with the signs to draw, the respect of some criterions that specify the choice of the site like the hygrophilie of places and the rubefaction of rock walls, the need to paint at the limits of the accessibility of site and wall, the use of drawing tools for increase the capacities of the body. The efficiency of the gesture consists in realizing a sign bearing a meaning because in harmony with the features of its support.     

Historique des études sur le paléolithique de l’Archipel du Japon

Paleolithic studies on the Japanese Archipelago started from the excavation of the Iwajuku Site in 1949. In 2000, research efforts were damaged by a forgery incident, which was concerned with the Lower/Middle Paleolithic period. After completing the investigation on the incident, the presence of the Lower/Middle Paleolithic remains unsolved. However, we have entered a new stage of research on the Upper Paleolithic for which over ten thousand sites were discovered. The new research framework places, at the heart, tephra-based lithic chronology, site structure analysis that investigates a site's formation process through conjoined pieces and parent rock analysis, and obsidian archaeology in which diachronic research is conducted on obsidian source exploitation and circulation range. Now unique characteristics of Japanese Paleolithic culture are coming to light, beginning with the migration from the neighboring continent, connecting East Asia through the Paleolithic Cultural Corridor around the Sea of Japan and the Obsidian Road, and nurturing the unique traditions of lithic production.     

Chronologie du Paléolithique supérieur dans le Nord-Est de la principale île du Japon

Palaeolithic archaeology in Tohoku region has long been discussed on constructing chronology, however it is difficult to build reliable chronological order because of poor stratigraphic excavations. In recent radiocarbon dating has advanced. In this paper I discuss the relation between chronology and radiocarbon dating in Tohoku region. At first, I categorize the Palaeolithic industries and establish the chronology by analyzing tool typology, lithic technology, and stratigraphic data. I correlate it with radiocarbon data from sites in Tohoku region. The result of analysis shows that Upper Palaeolithic industries are divided into 18 categories and 8 periods on chronology. The calibration curve IntCal 13 indicated that oldest Early Upper Palaeolithic site appeared around 37,000 cal BP, and late Upper Palaeolithic started about 27,000 cal BP. The pottery first appeared as far back as around 16,000 cal BP. Now we do not have enough radiocarbon data, so we have to gather and examine more ¹⁴C data.     

Nouveaux assemblages du Paléolithique supérieur ancien en Hongrie du nord dans le contexte de l’hypothèse du Couloir danubien

Linking southeastern Europe and central Europe, the Danube Valley plays a key role in the models of the first colonization of Europe by anatomically modern humans about 40 thousand years ago (Danube Corridor hypothesis). The middle course of the river, the Carpathian Basin occupies a fundamental place in the search for archaeological evidences of the expansion of modern humans. Surveys carried out in northern Hungary in the last two decades have discovered numerous open-air sites whose lithic material can be attributed to the period concerned. Our excavations carried out in the region of Eger demonstrated the presence of the Aurignacian but also allowed the recognition of a macrolaminar industry of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic. The lithic material collected on the surface of the Andornaktálya 2 site provided rich assemblages of these two industries. The macrolaminar industry has techno-morphological connections with the leptolithic tools of Sokyrnytsia and Korolevo in Transcarpathian Ukraine. The Aurignacian industry has several characteristics in common with those of Košice-Barca and Seňa in southeastern Slovakia. Unfortunately, the chronological position of the macrolaminar and Aurignacian industries cannot be specified at the sites of the Eger region, although their age of Interpleniglacial seems evident from the stratigraphic considerations and the dating of the sediments. Despite these chronological inaccuracies, our results support the model, published by J.K. Kozłowski in 2010, of two waves of the immigration of modern humans across the Danube Corridor.     

Le site paléolithique de Sémizbougou XI au Kazakhstan : nouvelle approche de l’étude techno-typologique

The territory of actual Kazakhstan is well known by a high concentration of archaeological sites of different phases of Palaeolithic period. This country situated at the crossroad of two worlds – between Europe and Asia – can be seen as one of the most important territories for understanding of the conduct of Prehistory not only in Central Asia, but also around of the world. The Prehistory study of Kazakhstan helps us to complete the image of the first human migrations from Africa. The lithic material from these sites is discovered in abundance. However, the most ancient period of Human civilisation of this territory is little known and studied not enough. By this paper we try to show the application of a new approach of the techno-typological study to the archaeological material to give a more exhaustive image of the lithic collections from the Palaeolithic sites of the Semizbugu complex and, based on the obtained data, to reconstruct the chain of lithic tools fabrication.     

Le Paléolithique supérieur dans la péninsule coréenne et l’archipel du Japon

There is one decisive gate between the Asian continent and the archipelago of Japan which is the strait of Tsushima that exists between the Korean peninsula and the archipelago. The strait is very narrow; however, the depth is relatively deep. If the sea level did not fall down to at least 130 meters below the present level, the terrestrial bridge would not be formed there. We know the former case concerning the first human population of which crossed this maritime gate of human groups 50,000 years ago. One supposes that the men did not have any means to cross there without the terrestrial bridge previous to 50,000 years. According to the studies of the abyssal drills of the Sea of Japan that one noted several lowering of the sea level according to the marine isotopic stages (MIS): 2, 6, 10, 12, 16, 18 and 20. With regard to the marine isotopic stage 2 that correspond to the Maximum-coldness of the last glacial when the sea dropped in below 125 meters in relation to the present level. According to study of the seismic stratigraphy and according to the obtained ages of seabed sediments by the method of carbon 14 that one concluded the concerned strait remained always like a marine channel and narrow during the last glacial (Park et al., 2000). We notice the typological common points between the lithic industry of the Korean peninsula and the one of the Kyushu island during the marine isotopic stage 2 (MIS-2) which are the tanged point (flake point), the bifacial point to triangular section (point to three retouched faces), etc. However, there are some differences in the composition of tools and the fabrication technique. Regarding the cultural origin and the big human migration, we cannot prove them for now. Such situation showed that some obstacles existed between such two regions. There are no common features on the flaking technique and the typology before 50,000 years in these two regions since we do not have any affirmative overdraft.     

Le Paléolithique de l’île de Kyûshû

The Upper Paleolithic of this region divides in five chronological stages. The first stage is an oldest period on the archipelago of Japan. The lithic industry of the stage is composed by the denticulate, the pointed scraper, the pick and the bifacial tool. The second half of the first stage is characterized the emergence of Kiridashi type backed knife and trapezoidal backed knife. The debitage (flaking) of the first half and the second half is non-blade technique. The second stage is characterized newly by the apparition of willow leaf type backed knife and partial retouching backed knife. The knife-to-back of the type of Kiridashi and the trapezoidal knife-to-back exist again while constantly joining the willow leaf type backed knife and the partial retouching baked knife. The blade debitage was present, principally the one of various flakes. As for the second half of the second stage, the willow leaf type backed knife and the partial retouching backed knife are represented mainly, besides the Kiridashi type baked knife and the trapezoidal backed knife mingled with this typological composition. The debitage was founded on the blade technique. The point on flake (tanged flake point) and the trihedral faced point appeared at the third stage that is a big instrument of hunt. It is likely that the behavior for hunting the big game would have been brought while passing by the land-bridge toward the Kyushu Island during the Maximum-Coldness of the last glaciation. Regarding the fourth stage, the point on flake disappeared, and the industry is essentially composed of trihedral faced point and the spear type point. The flat trihedral faced point and spear type point appeared, and the trihedral faced point appeared on the western part of South-Kyûshû and the part of northern Kyûshû. The culture of the trihedral faced point tips at the third stage on the Kyûshû Island that prolongs until the concerned stage. The fifth stage is the end of the Upper Paleolithic that is characterized by the Microlithic Culture. It is characterized by the miniaturize of the backed knife. At the end, the microlithisation resuscitates at the end of the Upper Paleolithic.     

Le principe de l’anonymat du don de sperme: remarques sur son histoire et son application

Introduction

This article, based on sociological research on the activity of donor insemination and semen cryopreservation, addresses four questions concerning the present policy of donor anonymity: What is the principle of anonymous semen donation? Where does it come from? What is its purpose in the organization of donor insemination (DI)? How is the anonymity principle applied in daily practice?

Material and methods

Analysis of the origins and transformations of this policy is based on documents, published in the 70s and the 80s, which provide a history of the practice of donor insemination, in particular within the framework of rules devised by Centre for the Study and Cryopreservation of Semen (Cecos).

Results

This history shows that donor anonymity has been a de facto policy for over two centuries, whereas the notion of an anonymity principle is relatively recent.

Conclusion

Present challenges to this principle have brought to the fore long-standing queries about what establishes fatherhood in cases where paternity is dissociated from impregnation.     

Le Paléolithique supérieur dans l’île d’Hokkaïdo

Since the discovery of the first Paleolithic site in Hokkaido, we consider that the time in the half more than centuries already passed, and float today. However, our research is still a way. By today, we have not discovered the trace about a Pithecantropines (Homo erectus) and a Paleanthropic man (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) at all in this region. We know that a Neanthropic man (Homo sapiens sapiens) dominated all the continents except Antarctica in the final time of the Pleistocene era. And they passed along the dried shoal which appeared to the north in the same time from the Asian Continent to the Island of Hokkaido, and reached it to this place. The first attainment time is an age which exceeds 20,000-years before a little from the present. We are not checking a fact which exceeds it you to be much. However, the habitants of these beginnings left the trace of the activity of them in large numbers, so that he was wonderful to inside of this island. The studies-of-prehistory research in Hokkaido has little proof of the natural science field concerned on age determination or chronology. This has serious restriction. However, the tephra-chronology of volcanic ashes has played the big role uniquely. The eruption of the Eniwa volcano of the Hokkaido central part is especially a very important index. This volcano blows off ash fall (En-a) in large quantities, and covered all large ranges. This deposited volcanic-ashes layer plays a big role to discernment of an old industry and a recent industry on the cultural chronology. The obsidian from this island and nearby hard shale was used for many industries of this Upper Paleolithic cultures as main materials. Although obsidians in the island where the different four outcrops are known well. This rock was mined in large quantities, and was carried in various places. As well as many examples in the world, we divided this rock, and the human beings of the prehistoric age were demanded for it, and it was often utilized. In it, especially the outcrop of Shirataki was located in the northern part of Hokkaido, and was very important. Large quantities of obsidian from Shirataki outcrop is discovered in a large number of Paleolithic sites within a segment 700 km in diameter at least. It covered the territory in Hokkaido and circulated further also except this island. This fact circulated as important trade materials on stone-tool fabrication among the human-beings groups from whom this island's every place differed. In this time, human beings’ activity in Hokkaido is a clear proof, which was not isolated at all. As for the studies of the prehistorians of Hokkaido distinguish, the exception put the technical process of eight different microblade productions. The technical process of some of them was limited only to the specific narrow area. Or it is proved that other technical processes are widely connected with the human-beings group of the Asian Continent on the contrary. At present, our research grasps the whole second-half Paleolithic culture, and has not yet established the year system edited by locally complete. The oldest industry of this area composed the typical stone tool of second-half Paleolithic culture from the beginning, and was accompanied by the manufacturing technique of a braid and microblade. The feature is the example in which the ruins of Kashiwadai-I were most excellent. These ruins correspond at time older than deposition of the Eniwa volcano tephra. It is located at the chill time in the second half of a Würm glacial period. The second continuing step is an industry of succession newer than this volcano tephra. It is raised as an example with Ôsatsu-16 typical ruins etc. The third phase is an industry of the end term of second-half Paleolithic culture. It is simultaneously located in the dawn of Jōmon culture. The feature of this cultural aspect is a transitional cultural stage which earthenware appears and is called what is called “Sub-Neolithic-Culture”. We can check having passed expansively, while the aspect of this last continues within a short period of time relatively.     

Place de l’imagerie dans l’évaluation de l’efficacité des traitements dans le cancer du sein

This paper describes, from the current literature, the role of various imaging methods to assess the response to therapy in breast cancer. Two different clinical situations are considered: neoadjuvant chemotherapy of locally advanced breast cancer and the metastastic breast cancer. Significant clinical data are available for three criteria: the volume of the tumour, the uptake of fluorodeoxyglucose using PET and the perfusion of the tumor evaluated either by dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) or by PET using ¹⁵O water. ¹⁸F FDG PET allows prediction of the response after one or two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. New approaches will offer opportunities to refine the role of imaging in monitoring the response to chemotherapy. PET using thymidine as biomarker is promising in assessing the tissular proliferation. Estrogen analogs could be used to predict hormonally responsive breast cancer. Many other approaches, although less developed, might offer new insights in the response to therapy of breast cancer like magnetic resonance spectroscopy or optical imaging of hemoglobin oxygenation. Imaging also offers potential of monitoring the down-regulation of specialized receptors of the cell membrane in response to treatment: the most studied receptor in preclinical model has been the human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2). Integrin, a family of cell adhesion receptor, is also an important target for imaging. Apoptosis, multidrug resistance and hypoxia can also be studied using appropriate biomarkers. To allow reliable multicenter trials of new drugs, these different imaging approaches still require an improved standardization of image acquisition and processing.     

Développement clinique de l’IRM du tenseur de diffusion de la moelle épinière dans un contexte de lésion médullaire

Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging of the spinal cord is challenging because of the cord's thin structure and the presence of physiological and susceptibility artifacts. To circumvent these issues, we developed a methodology for imaging the thoraco-lumbar spinal cord of cats at 3 T using single-shot spin-echo echo planar imaging. The presented method could potentially be applied to humans since it was developed on a clinical scanner with a standard spine coil. Results provide (1) suggestions for optimal slice orientation and phase encoding direction; (2) an assessment of the benefits of parallel imaging to reduce geometric distortions; (3) the feasibility of acquiring quality diffusion weighted data in 13 min at a resolution of 1.1 mm³ and (4) the determination of axonal disruption, in two cats with complete spinal cord transection, using tractography.     

Les colorants dans l’art pariétal et mobilier paléolithique de La Garma (Cantabrie,Espagne)

La Garma Cave is an Upper Palaeolithic site located ca 15 km from Santander (Cantabria, Spain). The lower gallery, which is accessible thanks to two wells, keeps paintings on the walls and numerous objects laying on the floor, objects made in bone or antler which are carved, engraved and painted. The analysis of more than 50 samples taken from the walls or the objects (37 red, 11 black, five yellow, two brown, one purple) takes part in the global project of the “chaîne opératoire” comprehension of the prehistoric painting activity. The analysis is aimed also to understand the organisation of La Garma cave, looking for the various steps of the decoration of the different rooms. The results bring to light the modulated realisation of the wall paintings: few figures were painted rapidly without any specific intention, the majority, on the other hand, were realised after a complex preparation of the painting matter with the use of specific paint pots.     

L’outillage lithique taillé dans le grand gisement paléolithique de Mitoc-Malu Galben

In this Palaeolithic site, at the moment the largest habitation undergoing investigations in Europe, several archaeological layers were discovered: Lower Aurignacian I, Aurignacian I, II, III and Upper Aurignacian III, Gravettian I, II, III, IV and Dispersed Gravettian. The systematic archaeological investigations were conducted between 1978 and 2017 and covered a surface of more than 900 square meters, reaching a depth of approximately 14 m. Stone artefacts worked in non-local raw materials were identified, as well as a survival of Aurignacian elements within the Gravettian medium, as suggested by the presence of carenated pieces, scarpers, etc.     

La technique de débitage au Paléolithique supérieur de l’archipel du Japon

The representative debitage technique is the one of the culture of knife-to-back in the name of the superior Paleolithic of Japan. She/it can be he divided in two, the one of the first half and the one of the second half. The first corresponds at the time of apparition, either to the stage of launching of the technique of debitage laminaire whose debitage didn’t provide elaborate blades being little successive. As for the stage of fortifying of the debitage laminaire, the industries lithic to knife-to-back of the Sugikubo type developed themselves in the oriental Honshû. With regard to the region of Kantô to the second half of the first where the knife-to-back of Moro type mingled equally with those while shaping on the blade. To the recent stage of development, one can note the industry lithic to knife-to-back of Moro type is based on the technical very blady in the western Japan. Succeeding in the second half of the superior Paleolithic that the technique of debitage of Sétoüchi developed itself in this part whose debitage is characterized by the strut oblong in wing, are the transverse blades These gotten supports used especially for making the knife-to-back of Koü type while spilling country-wide. To the second recent half, the technical blade of Sunagawa type took place in all regions of Japan except the inshore regions of the Interior Sea of Séto and the region of Kinki (Kyoto-Osaka).