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.     

Macrauchenia patachonica Owen (Mammalia, Litopterna) de la région de São Raimundo Nonato (Piauí, Nordeste brésilien) et la diversité des Macraucheniidae pléistocènes

The São Raimundo Nonato (Piauí, Northeastern Brazil) area yielded about 50 Macraucheniidae remains. The study of this material and of other fossils from Northeastern Brazil (Paraíba, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte) shows a great similarity to Macrauchenia patachonica as it was defined in Argentina, which is the most abundant of the three species pertaining to the genus. Thus the taxon Xenorhinotherium bahiense created in 1988 by Cartelle et Lessa for a material discovered in the Bahia State and assigned to use for all the Quaternary Litopterns from tropical Brazil appears to be no more than a junior synonym of it. M. patachonica seems to have occupied very varied biotopes from sea level up to a high of 4000 m, and from the cold Southern Patagonia to the Equatorial Venezuela. The species lived from the Middle Pleistocene up to the beginning of the Holocene.     

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.     

La macrofaune du Pléistocène supérieur d’El Harhoura 2 (Témara, Maroc) : données préliminaires

The El Harhoura 2 cave is situated in the commune of El Harhoura in the Temara region (Morocco). The entrance faces west, towards the ocean, around 200 m away from the current shoreline and about 16 m above sea level. The stratigraphy has currently 11 levels numbered from top to bottom. Level 1 is attributed to the early Neolithic. The archaeological material from level 2 places it within the Upper Palaeolithic (Iberomaurusian). Levels 3 to 11 are assigned to the Middle Palaeolithic (Aterian). Since 1977, a surface of 37 m² has been excavated, yielding particularly abundant remains of a large mammal fauna study in this paper.     

Conception et exécution de bases de données intégrées pour l'analyse des rapports spatiotemporels des artefacts du Paléolithique

The archaeologists excavate the historic site and analyze data from the excavation site. Therefore, they study about the past affairs and circumstances unknown to the world. These data are composed of stones, plants, bones and geological features, which are stored in separate files according to the fields of study. It is important to mention that this information become the first step toward the solution of some hypothesis in Archaeology. Therefore, we need the system that can not only support integrated environment to find clues of the past, but also manage existing artifact data systematically and grasp relationships among the data. In this paper, we modeled the time, which is used in archaeology and geology, and built an entity relationship database to store Paleolithic data excavated in Jungwon region site of the Republic of Korea as one resource, which seem to give a base for integrated research and relationships in archaeology. In addition, we developed the Graphic User Interface that allows various users to connect to the established system through the web.     

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 tatouages d’Ötzi et la petite chirurgie traditionnelle

This paper takes a new look at the case of the tattoos worn by Ötzi, a late Neolithic man discovered in 1991 in a small glacier of the Southeast Alps, near the Italo-Austrian border. The Austrian and Italian teams have already advanced several hypotheses. The main one, which suggests that Ötzi was tattooed for therapeutic purposes, is not contested. Others, however, can be briefly invalidated (the “tibetan cauterization” alleged by L. Capasso), while still others call for more in-depth discussion (the Austrian team’s attempt to establish a link between the location of Ötzi’s tattoos and the topography of acupuncture-points). Questionable hypotheses as these result from a lack of knowledge about the ancient treatments using minor surgery. The aim of this paper is thus to assemble available ethnographical and historical data about therapeutic puncturing, tattooing and cauterization. Even though such material postdates Ötzi’s era, it constitutes an essential prerequisite to the formulation of any hypothesis about protohistorical therapeutic concepts and practices.     

Témoins du froid. La faune dans l’art rupestre paléolithique de l’intérieur péninsulaire

It is our intention to analyse the environmental significance of the Palaeolithic artistic representations existing in the inner areas of the Iberian Peninsula. The fauna is used to create chronological and climatical criteria to affirm the condition of the castillan plateau during the last glaciation. In our opinion, it is dangerous to use the isolated animals in order to talk about coldness or heat situation because they reflect the cultural selection of their authors more than the ambiental reality. Neither the animals called thermometer nor the euritherm ones are solely represented in the tempered moments. Moreover, we have almost a no animal representation than artistic during the last finiglacial period in the peninsular interior. It means probably that the artistic representations are mainly cultural signs, which change for cultural reasons and not properly climatic ones within a general reality of glacial environment.     

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.     

Les premières considérations sur le débitage Levallois de l'industrie moustérienne de Villa Ladronaia près de Cecina (Toscane, Italie)

The Palaeolithic site of Villa Ladronaia (Cecina, Tuscany) has given back a lithic industry composed by about 8000 finds. The author presents in this note the main techno-economical characteristics which come from two reduction processes. The main one is interested in the exploitation of subrounded blocks, the second one, on the contrary, employs flakes which are produced by the main reduction process. The technological analysis has put a large use of Levallois conception in evidence, the preliminary data of which will be presented about the variability of the methods an its relation with the different local raw materials, of an industrial facies typical Mousterian rich in scrapers widely documented in Tuscany during the Upper Pleistocene.     

Les comportements funéraires au Néolithique en France méridionale : une vue d’ensemble

The research presented in this paper is based on geographical zone chosen as context for a general discussion centred on a critical inventory of graves, burial places and funeral traditions within Neolithic communities between about 6000 and 2200 B.C. It proposes to define the characteristics and the evolution of funeral behaviours during the Neolithic times in Southern France, between about 6000 and 2200 B.C. Southern France has been considered in an extended definition, from Atlantic Ocean to the Alps, a territory constituted of 26 departments. In view of the extent of the territorial limits, the study was directly all-encompassing. It bears on 150 years of archaeological discoveries unevenly distributed on the Neolithic times. The study takes into consideration all the documentation published. The funeral traditions have been considered in the wide sense, that is tomb architecture, laying out and treatment of cadavers, study of archaeological artefacts. The study leads on to an interpretative outline of the funeral traditions whose development was closely linked to the social evolution of southern Neolithic communities. It researchs a social evolution beyond funeral behaviours, a power more and more destined to an elite who prefigures the protohistory.     

Kabazi II (Crimée, Ukraine) : un site d'abattage et de boucherie du Paléolithique moyen

The site of Kabazi II is located on the second row of the Crimea Mounts in the west side of peninsula. The study presented in this article is about the archaeological material of the II/8 level. This level was excavated in 1987 and 1994. It is date of the Hengelo Interstadial. The lithic tools discovered in this level are attributed to the Western Crimea Mousterian (WCM). The E. hydruntinus dominates with more than 90% of the determinated remains. The crossed analysis of the results given by the studies of lithic and bone materials allowed to clarify the chronology, the environment and also the technical and subsistence behaviours of the Neandertals of the II/8 level of Kabazi II. These new interpretations are presented here.     

Aux origines de la Spiritualité : la notion de transcendance au Paléolithique

In a previous note we presented the expression of the late paleolithic spirituality (Welté and Lambert, 2004). A special analytic grid was used as a possible tool for a demonstration. We separeted rationality from metaphysic; notions which are linked with dialectic relations between necessity (daily constraints), thought, action and evolution in the paleolithic period. Starting from the no direct material activities like burials, funeral materials and art, we purpose now that such notions existed before the upper Paleolithic. We infer that a privilegious set of interactions between the animal and the human appeared early in the thought of the people, before the upper Paleolithic. A metaphysic univers forced itself upon them as an evident “anti-world” which is the symmetric shape of the real and tangible world. In such a context, the social system(s) could not discard these duality.     

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.     

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.     

Art mobilier magdalénien en matières dures animales de Moravie (République tchèque). Aspects technologique et stylistique

The Magdalenian techno-complex evolved in Western Europe and Central Europe between 17-12 kyr BP, concentrated in Spain on the Cantabrian Coast and in France in Pyrenees and Dordogne, in Central Europe in Poland and Moravia. In our study we analyse portable art on hard animal tissues from Moravian sites (Pekárna, K?í?ova, Rytí?ská), Czech Republic. Comparative material was provided by sites in South-western France (Laugerie, Basse, Enlène). The results of the technological, stylistic and typological comparisons confirm our hypothesis that the Magdalenian portable art from sites in Moravia belong to the Magdalenian techno-complex. The comparison of typological objects in Moravia, like decorated bone disc, pendants, Venus, bâton percé, spatule, shows that their variability is well in the range expected for techno-complex. The same technological pattern can be found between typological objects of spatule as a technology of decoupage but which is applied on different anatomical parts of animal raw material. We discussed the question about local origin of the objects. Technological comparison shows that engraving and bas-relief are more frequent in Moravia than in South-western France sites. This can be explained as a regional based preference of technology for expression of different subjects of mobile art, but also as a possible bias due to small sample size and differences in sampling of our studied objects. Engraving present similar technological characteristics that are featured in both areas. Design, like organization of space and size of the engraving, can be interpreted as an existence of contact between both groups and presence of one Magdalenian techno-complex.     

Quand désarticuler laisse des traces : le cas de l’hyperextension du coude

In this paper, we try to document butchery practices from the past. We attempt to characterize through experimental data the marks produced when dismembering using overextension of the elbow of Sheep and several bird species. For birds, the experimentation was realized with uncooked carcasses. In many cases, overextension produced break down of the olecranon fossa of the humerus, with medial wrench of the distal part. Moreover, the proximal joints of the radius and ulna are broken. Bony and uncooked forelimb Sheep bones have been dismembered by overextension. Observations were noticed only on the radio-ulnar. The ulnas had a negative wear scar up to the anconeus process. Sometimes, these marks are associated with lateral crushing of the bone. In the second part of the article, we compare our experimental data with archaeological material. Although we found many cases of dismembering by overextension on bird bones, no data were found on small ungulates material.     

L'industrie lithique du Paléolithique dans la région de Jungwon en Corée

Prehistoric people have been often lived in the Jungwon region during the Paleolithic. It is a reference for development of the Paleolithic cultures in Korea. During the lower Paleolithic, pebble tool culture has been developed: tools were made with local raw materials and direct percussion and anvil technique were utilized. Debitage and raw material of the middle Paleolithic did not make a great difference to the lower Paleolithic. Otherwise, tool size became small and the number of flake tools increased. The crucial changes occurred during the upper Paleolithic. Technique, acquisition of raw material and tool kits were thoroughly innovated. All of these changes would reveal that the upper Paleolithic people have carried out more various activities, that earlier periods and their social structure would be more complex than other ones'.