L’industrie lithique des gisements du Pléistocène inférieur de Barranco León et Fuente Nueva 3 à Orce, Grenade, Espagne

The archaeological localities of Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 in Orce, Grenade, in actuality have the oldest lithic artifacts in Europe; they are the oldest evidence of human occupation in the east of Europe. When compared the results from faunal analysis and magnetostratigraphical study, notably through the presence of Allophaiomys lavocati allow for a date of around 1.3 Ma. The raw material used for developing these lithic industries are, basically limestone or siliceous rocks, these raw materials selected were smoothed down in situ. The techniques used are knapping at raised with a hammerstone, and we can find all the different elements of the “chaine opératoire”. Both localities are characterised by the predominance of flakes and debris, cores, and some knapped cobbles sowing mediocre aspect. The technical and typological features of both lithic assemblages have an opportunist character but they are relatively sophisticated too.     

Les matières premières,la technologie lithique et les stratégies d’occupation dans le site du Pléistocène moyen de Covacha de los Zarpazos (gisement de Galería,Sierra de Atapuerca,Espagne)

Variability is one of the most debated topics in lithic technology studies. For the Middle Pleistocene period, this debate has specifically focused on the significance of large cutting tools such as handaxes and cleavers. This paper presents the stone tool assemblage from Covacha de los Zarpazos site, included in the Galería complex at Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain). We analyse the management of lithic raw materials, the reduction sequences identified, and the morphological variation in the shape of large cutting tools. The results show that raw materials play an important role in the final variability of tool shape, although they do not represent any real constraint. However, what determines the main variability of a whole lithic assemblage is the occupation strategy and the specific activities carried out in a given site.     

Les stratégies de débitage dans les industries lithiques archaïques des premiers habitants de l’Europe

Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 sites at Orce in the south of Spain, and Vallonnet cave in the south of France, are some of the oldest sites in Europe, testimonies of the first settlements of these territories. The Orce sites, dated around 1.3-1.2 Ma, have given away numerous lithic artifacts principally issued from an important débitage activity. The beginning of flake production processes is few represented into these two consummation sites. In return, full débitage flakes are in high proportion, with generally short dimensions, in consequence of which, in some case an intense core reduction. Two percussion methods are identified: with direct percussion or on anvil. Sometimes, there was débitage on flake, taking advantage of the inferior face natural convexity of the core-flake, permitting the maximal exploitation and the economy of the best raw materials. The bipolar percussion on anvil permitted the maximal exploitation of the short dimensions supports, often in naturally cubic or sub-cubic form. A lot of the producted flakes, sometimes called “pièces esquillées”, show some scales on the distal and/or proximal transversal edges, issued from this bipolar knapping method. In the Vallonnet cave, where the occupation levels are dated around 1 Ma, the lithic industry show a lot of percussion tools and hammerstone flakes, but also some core reduction flakes and some very rares cores, especially in flint. This good raw material was chosen for the débitage, and the flakes show on superior face several anterior removals, and a butt which could reveal a striking platform preparation. At the gates of Europe, in Georgia, Dmanisi site give away an abundant lithic industry associated with faunal and human remains, dated around 1.81 to 1.77 Ma. Amid the lithic assemblages, cores are rather frequent and are characterized by a poor degree of exploitation, most often unifacial, and high frequency of cortical striking platforms. Raw materials, essentially volcanic cobbles, were from local origin, and the knapped supports were often chosen for their angular morphology adequate to begin the débitage in easier way, débitage which was essentially by direct percussion.     

L’approvisionnement en matières premières lithiques au Pléistocène inférieur et moyen dans la Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos (Espagne)

This paper summarizes the latest studies on lithic raw material raising that are currently undertaken within the Sierra de Atapuerca research project. During the past two years, several works have provided new petrographical and technological data, contributing to the knowledge of the kinds of materials exploited by the Atapuerca hominids, as well as the areas where those materials were raised. The sites yielding this information are Gran Dolina (Lower and Middle Pleistocene) and Galeria (Middle Pleistocene), both located in the Trinchera del Ferrocarril archeopaleontological complex.     

La gestion du quartz au Pléistocène moyen et supérieur. Trois exemples d’Europe Méridionale

Quartz is one of the main lithic resources employed along the Pleistocene for the manufacturing of tools. The abundance in all kind of environments leads to its frequent presence in archaeological sites. In spite of its suitability for knapping, the scarcity of specific researches on quartz industries has led to a view of this raw material as a second-rate resource, only used when flint was not available in the surroundings. Quite in opposition to this prejudice, the familiarity with the petrological and mechanical properties of the different varieties of quartz has led the Middle/Upper Pleistocene groups to a rational and differential exploitation of the available resources. There is a distinct selection of the varieties attending to the purposes of the exploitation and configuration. The patterns of exploitation of the cores are very standardized, based on longitudinal extractions and documenting the bipolar flaking technique. Moreover, when the raw material is of good quality, more sophisticated reduction methods such as the discoidal or the Levallois may be employed. On the other hand, for the purposes of configuration a clearly differential management of the raw material is attested: thus quartz is used for the small products (denticulates, side-scrapers, notches), while other stones (quartzite, porphyry and others) are devoted to the manufacturing of those tools demanding a more complex control of the elaboration (bifaces, cleavers, etc.). Either acting as the main lithic resource or as a complement to other raw materials, we can observe through the technological analysis of these lithic collections the great conceptual complexity depending on the needs to be fulfilled. Raw material quality allowing, the state-of-the-art technology of knapping can be applied to the quartz and, therefore, we should not understand its use as a consequence of environmental constrictions but rather as a result of the variability of the procurement strategies and management of lithic resources among the prehistoric communities.     

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.     

Les cultures moustériennes en Ligurie italienne : analyse du matériel lithique de trois sites en grotte

Multidisciplinary studies realized these last years about cave sites of Madonna dell’Arma, Arma delle Manie and Santa Lucia superiore, in italian Liguria, have stated precisely the conditions of neandertalian frequentations of those sites, placing at intervals, according to the cases, from isotopic stage five to the beginning of stage three. The mousterian industries recovered in those sites, associated with a lot of faunal remains, are here analyzed about the different stratigraphic levels in each site. In Madonna dell’Arma and Arma delle Manie, those industries show a certain constancy in the different levels, about technological and typological point of view or about raw material management. In Santa Lucia superiore, on the contrary, two different types of occupation have let lithical vestiges with different facies in lower levels and above levels. For the three sites, the analysis of the raw material management shows an essentially local supplying, but also some origins much more far like in the case of the jasper. This carrying of distant stones reveals us one aspect of the mobility or at least the territories extension that were able to apprehend those neandertalian human groups in Liguria region and beyond also. Otherwise, some preferential choices for certain raw materials were done by knappers for the débitage or for the small retouched tool supports. The flaking technics are identified in each site and certain regularities have been stated, like the high frequency of Levallois flaking in the different levels (also external levels) of Madonna dell’Arma site that is not the case in the two other sites.     

Les industries lithiques de trois occupations de plein air et leur place dans le contexte Moustérien du Languedoc méditerranéen : Le Cadénas (Bédarieux, Hérault), Les Cours (Plaissan, Hérault) et Le Serre du Coucouyon (La Capelle et Masmolène, Gard)

Mediterranean Languedoc is a vast region in Southern France where Mousterian occupations, mainly concentrated in the eastern sector, are numerous. The three lithic series of the open-air sites presented in this article are yet unpublished. The techno-economical approach used to analyse these three stone assemblages has brought to light variability in Neandertal behaviour concerning raw material collection and economy in sectors more or less rich in siliceous resources, and also concerning the different production systems used and their goals. Comparisons made with other Mousterian stone assemblages in Languedoc seem to indicate ties with certain sites from the Rhône Valley.     

Variabilité et homogénéité des modes de débitage en Chine entre 300 000 et 50 000 ans

The position of lithic industries of Chinese Paleolithic in comparison with those of other regions in the world is always a controversial topic. The typological analysis has made Chinese prehistorians reveal some variability between lithic industries of different regions of China in terms of technical tradition and industrial structure. But this recognition, based upon some morphological characters of stone artifacts, failed to define systematically the modes of production that exist in each site. To answer these problematic some new methods need to be applied. So the lithic materials from 8 Chinese sites dated from 300 ka to 50 ka B.P. were selected and analyzed by means of lithic technological analysis and a new approach for analyzing the structures of cores. This paper presents principally the analytical results of modes of débitage and revealed that the modes of débitage during this period were characterized essentially by system C (“simple débitage”) and E (discoid) and that the concept Levallois was absent during this period in technical systems of lithic production in China. The Chinese lithic industries between 300 ka and 50 ka B.P. saw some homogeneity in the scale of the continent and remarkable difference from those of other regions in the world. So a stable, continuous but independent even isolated evolution in comparison with those of other regions was observed in this period. In addition, despite of apparent homogeneity, some variability exists also between these industries.     

Les vagues de peuplements humains au Pléistocène inférieur et moyen dans le bassin de la Loire moyenne, région Centre, France. Apports de l’étude des formations fluviatiles

Evidence of earliest human settlements had been searched in the alluvial formations laid down in the Middle Loire Basin. Many stepped sheets deposited during the successive interglacial-glacial quaternary cycles are studied in four valleys of the Loire tributaries: the Creuse, Indre, Cher and Loir rivers. These sandy remnants are systematically dated, using the Electron Spin Resonance method applied on bleached fluvial quartz. Five settlements which contain very Early Palaeolithic industries with Mode 1 technology were occupied during the Lower Pleistocene. About eighty sites with hand-axe assemblages are observed in Middle Pleistocene remnants; nine of these are described in this paper. The results theorize that the geographical center of France (47°N) would be reached by two influxes of human populations with an interval around 400 years, because major climatic pejorations, particularly at the end of the Lower Pleistocene. These two populations produced lithic industries with many differences in supply of raw materials and in techniques of striking. Not any typologic link had been observed joining the two industrial unities.     

L’industrie microlithique du Paléolithique inférieur de Bizat Ruhama, Israël

Bizat Ruhama is a lower Palaeolithic site in the southern coastal plain of Israel. The site was recently dated to ca. 1ma. In terms of lithic industry, Bizat Ruhama is a unique phenomenon amongst the Lower Palaeolithic sites in the Levant. The lithic assemblage of the site is characterized by the production of small (ca. 25mm) tools, flakes and cores. An in-depth technotypological study was made in attempt to reconstruct the production mode of these artifacts. The results presented here reveal a well-developed cognitive production process, which includes selection of special-sized raw material, production of desired blanks and their subsequent shaping into tools. The implications of this study contribute significantly to our understanding of the phenomenon of lower Palaeolithic microlithic industries in Eurasia.     

Productions lithiques et comportements techno-économiques de groupes humains acheuléens et moustériens en région liguro-provençale

Acheulean and Mousterian human occupations left an abundant record of lithic productions in the Liguro-Provençal region. Certain sites show the transition between the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, yielding industries in which the shaping of bifaces continued along with partial Levallois reduction and the development of light-duty, retouched Mousterian tools. In the more recent sites, Mousterian lithic productions show further development in Levallois reduction techniques and sometimes blade production, while shaping techniques disappeared. The transport of artefacts of exotic lithic raw materials from sometimes very distant sources had already occurred by the end of the Acheulean, and the example of the use of allochthonous jasper illustrates an aspect of techno-economical behaviours and the mobility of these human groups. Such transport of jasper blanks from distant sources became further developed at certain Mousterian sites in Liguria, but with the addition of knapping and retouching activities at the occupation sites.     

Les industries acheuléennes de la France septentrionale

The excavations of several open air sites in Northern France and, especially in the Somme basin, have given numerous data concerning the age and the environment of the human occupations for the period from MIS 12 to MIS 8. The quality of the raw material and the function of the different sites have a great effect on the composition of the lithic assemblages as it has been seen for the different sites located near the confluence of the Somme and Avre (Cagny-la Garenne, Cagny-l’Épinette, Ferme de l’Épinette, Gentelles). The characteristics of the lithic industries of Gouzeaucourt show the complexity of the transition from Lower to Middle Palaeolithic.     

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.     

Zooarchaeological analysis of the Raşcov 8 Upper Palaeolithic site (Republic of Moldova)

The Palaeolithic site of Raşcov 8, discovered in the 1950's, was recently subjected to new investigations. It yielded archaeological layers from the Upper Pleniglacial. We used zooarchaeological methods to deepen knowledge about this site. We focused on the taphonomy, the anatomical representation of the different species and the anthropogenic activities to better determine the use of natural resources by humans, in particular of animal origin, to understand which strategies were used, the technocultural practices and territory occupation. The taphonomic observations are quite typical of a dry and cold environment. They also suggest that the 3 and 3a layers result from the same or chronogically closely occupations, affected by soil movements. Concerning the anthropogenic features, repeated short-term occupations, on a seasonal basis, mainly hunting and butchering activities of one or several small human groups have been highlighted. Whereas in the older layer humans exploited the carcass of a mammoth, in the other layers they hunted reindeer and horses and butchered the carcasses on the site, probably transporting some parts elsewhere. Whereas the lithic industries are different between layers 4/3-3a (Epiaurignacian) and 2/1 (Epigravettian), the subsistence behavior is similar and quite typical of Molodovian.     

Le Moustérien de Grèce à la lumière des récentes recherches

Thanks to recent research and the re-evaluation of the archaeological material coming from older research, the Mousterian of Greece has started to become better known. Aside the surface findings, which testify the presence of Mousterian throughout the entire continental Greece, only five Middle Paleolithic sites have been excavated. Almost every remnant has been dated to the last ice age. All lithics belong to the “typical” Mousterian, while the Quina Mousterian has not been certainly testified. The Levallois method is almost always present, more or less frequent, but always dominated by non-Levallois methods. The recurrent variations, mostly centripetal, have been more frequently used. The “Micromousterian” of Asprochaliko is the only lithic assemblage from which the Levallois method is absent.     

河南登封方家沟遗址的石料产地

方家沟遗址主文化层出土了大量石制品,以石片石器工业为特征,年代约在距今5～3万年前。遗址周边是一个石料资源相对丰富的区域,可以通过原料分布、质量和可获性了解当时人类为何选择特定原料。遗址的原料既包括石英砂岩、石英岩和脉石英砾石,又包括脉石英岩块。石料调查显示,遗址附近丘岗顶部的中更新世砾石层可能是砾石原料的来源;西北距遗址约7～11 km处的嵩山东南麓元古宙地层中多见脉石英出露,最有可能是脉石英岩块的采集地。遗址周边区域并不缺乏燧石等质量更好的原料,但极少被当时人类所利用,这说明当地石片石器工业的长期延续不能用缺乏优质原料来解释。     

Territoires et mobilité des groupes moustériens en Vercors : analyse et discussion

This article focus with recent studies realized on the Vercors Mountain about middle paleolithic site in altitude context. It proposes to make the synthesis of the data concerning the exploitation and especially circulation of the various types of flint inside and near this geographic area. This level of analysis makes it possible to discuss on the mobility degree of the mousterians groups in Vercors and to advance hypotheses on the settlement system within this territory.