Les ostracodes des « Couches Rouges » du synclinal d’Aït Attab, Haut Atlas Central, Maroc : systématique, biostratigraphie, paléoécologie, paléobiogéographie

Ostracode assemblages, collected in the continental “Red Beds” of the Central High Atlas, Morocco, consist of 35 species, belonging to 17 genera, four of which are new and described herein. They allow to assign the lower member of the Iouaridène formation to the Upper Jurassic (?)-Upper Hauterivian and the Jbel Sidal formation to the Upper Hauterivian-Lower Aptian. Ostracode assemblages characterize lacustrine (freshwater) and lagoonal (oligo to mesohaline) environments. On the basis of limnic and lagoonal species, faunal connections are proposed for the Barremian-Aptian between Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula.     

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.     

Paléolithique supérieur et Mésolithique en Méditerranée : cadre culturel

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

Le site de Longgupo dans son environnement géologique et géomorphologique

On a regional scale, Longgupo is found within a karstic landscape of fenglin-ouvala developed in the Triassic limestones of the Yangtze platform. After several seasons, it is now possible to define and propose a scenario for the formation of the site. During one of the intense karstification phases during the Cretaceous or early Tertiary, karstic conduits were created deep in the substratum. In concert with these deep flows and by karstic collapse, a cave was created. With the start of Himalayan uplift during the Oligocene and Miocene, the beginning of fluvial cutting was reflected by the partial erosion of the upper sandstone formations and the creation of the Miaoyu Valley. This action opened the cave, which would later be occupied by the hominid groups that interest us here. Probably at the end of the Tertiary, the cave, open at the bottom of the valley slope and facing upstream, began to be filled with alluvial deposits from the valley. The basal deposits (C III 10 of the current stratigraphic sequence, levels 20-13 of the first sequence) begin with black clays; at the Plio-Pleistocene transition, deposits become clearly alluvial, increasingly marked by reworking of surface and karstic clays and by systematically coarser contributions. During the deposition period of archaeological complexes III/III’ (previously levels 12-6), karstic collapse appears to have still been active. During the Lower Pleistocene sensu lato, the coarse nature of the deposits becomes accentuated. The material of complex II (previously levels 5-2) is a deposit that is clearly heterometric and coarse, composed at the end mainly of gravels, pebbles and more or less rounded blocks in a clayey matrix. At the conclusion of this new stage, the cave was entirely filled and, purely and simply, disappeared from the landscape. As the valley deepened during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene, the Longgupo slope underwent profound changes, the last of the limestone blocks disappeared from the slope limit and the archaeological site was protected by the coarse breccias that carpeted the slope. The main cause for the sedimentation processes at the site of Longgupo is the hydrosystem of the Miaoyu he, although injections of karstic type sensu stricto cannot be excluded. All of the arguments effectively support alluvial deposition: pebbles, an alternation of coarse and clayey beds, systematic and repeated granulometric decrease. But the stratigraphic disposition was disturbed by deformations due to gravity and karstic origins; the alluvial sediments, rendered plastic by the high proportion of clayey beds, were deformed by gravity (deformation of beds, faults, slopes) following the direction of the slope and by karstic collapse along the two limestone walls north and south of the sites (in sub-parallel faults to the south and by circular aspiration to the north). To this is added a calcitic consolidation of the upper levels that made it difficult to excavate complex C II. The stratigraphic disposition of the archaeological levels at Longgupo is now well understood. It has thus been possible to collect samples for absolute dating, to be published soon.     

Le Magdalénien de la grotte « Grappin » à Arlay (Jura, France) : nouveaux regards

The “Grappin” or “Saint-Vincent's” cave, on the western slope of Jura, East of France, has been explored since 1889. From then to 1960, it has yielded substantial material dated to middle “à navettes” Magdalenian developing during the late Pleniglacial. The study of this settlement, although often mentioned, was never dealt with comprehensively until now. Due to its scientific importance for the middle Magdalenian of western Europe, the site is to be reinvestigated through a global interdisciplinary project entitled “The Tardiglacial and the start of Holocene in the Jura and its margins”. This paper will review our present knowledge of the site, radiocarbon dates and archaeological data. It also focuses on ornaments and engraved mobile art.     

L’ambre campanien du Mas d’Azil (Ariège,France) : gisement,micro-inclusions,taphonomie

The amber of Le Mas d’Azil (Ariège, France), fashioned by the Magdalenian people of Le Mas d’Azil cave, was collected in clay levels rich in Cupressinoxylon Göppert, of the Campanian Labarre Sandstone Formation, which is a large deltaic set, infilling the sub-Pyreneean trough. The amber pieces are small and resemble modern resin exudates on coniferous trunks. We describe following micro-inclusions. Actinomycetes: Cardonia stellata, nov. gen., nov. sp., located close to the surface of amber pieces, is abundant and displays chains of conidia and isolated aleuriospore. Nocardiopsis ? sp. D is rare. Actinomycete “de type Salignac” is abundant. Its filaments often display a tendril shape, which seems to prelude to a mycelium fragmentation. Other bacteria: Leptotrichites resinatus Schmidt ( Schmidt and Schäfer, 2005), poorly represented, is more variable than the already known material; cf. Sphaerotilus sp., very abundant, also displays differences with the Cenomanian “Sphaerotilus sp.”. Eukaryotes: one fungal filament, and a group of spores, pollens or cysts. Inorganic inclusions: gas bubbles, pseudo-protists of B and C? types, and tiny, transparent, cubic crystals. It seems that most of the quoted prokaryotes were resinicolous organisms, able to settle on the surface of the exudate, and grow in the resin, after inoculation either by a contact with the substrate, or by an anemophilic dispersion of spores. This “taphonomic way” seems here to be more general than trapping.     

Nouveautés sur la séquence du Pléistocène final et l’Holocène initial dans le versant méditerranéen de la péninsule Ibérique à travers l’industrie lithique

This paper explores the cultural sequence for the period 12,500–9000 BP in the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. According to the traditional division by Fortea, this period starts with the end of the Upper Magdalenian, followed by two facies: the Microlaminar Epipalaeolithic and the Geometric Epipalaeolithic (Filador type), (related to Sauveterrian facies). The data collected in recent years suggest a change or amendment to this previous proposal, which now would be divided into four phases: Final Upper Magdalenian, Early Epimagdalenian, Recent Epimagdalenian and Microlaminar Sauveterroid. This paper discusses each of these periods examining the evolution of the stone tools and concluding that in the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula the Magdalenian tradition continues with little changes until the advent of the Mesolithic.     

Relecture d’un modèle architectural du III millénaire provençal : l’Habitation n 1 du Collet-Redon à La Couronne (Martigues, Bouches-du-Rhône)

The open-air site of Collet-Redon (Martigues, Bouches-du-Rhône) was discovered in the 1940s, and excavated by M. Escalon de Fonton until the beginning of 1980s. Those pioneering works gave up important series of artefacts and domestic structures of Late Neolithic and Bronze Age that permit to define a new Neolithic culture: the Couronnien group. The importance of this establishment, as a reference in research on Late Neolithic period in South of France, is particularly based on built remains revealed in a sector called “Habitation no. 1”. Quantity and quality of architectural structures allowed M. Escalon de Fonton to describe a Neolithic domestic unit, which became a model for interpreting other regional sites. Since 1999, various studies of artefacts and structures, coupled with an excavation, have been engaged in order to discuss first interpretations. The purpose of this article is to present our results concerning architectural remains of “Habitation no. 1” sector. Study of ancient publications and new observations on structures permit us to suggest a revision of the plan proposed for this third millenary construction.     

Le Protoaurignacien : première culture de l'homme moderne de Provence et Ligurie

G. Laplace defined the Protoaurignacian in Liguria (“abri Mochi”) as the earliest occurrences of Upper Paleolithic in Italy. Stratigraphic sequences in Var exemplify that the Protoaurignacian is the first sequence of Upper Paleolithic in Provence and widely different from classic Aurignacian defined in southwestern France. Recorded in Languedoc-Roussillon, that one is documented in some other stratigraphic sequences from Monaco to southern Spain (“cueva del boquete de Zafarraya”). The Protoaurignacian argue that first modern humans arrived and occupied all along the Mediterranean coasts from Gibraltar to Toscana.     

Le « nucléus Donggutuo » et sa signification dans l’industrie du paléolithique inférieur de Donggutuo, bassin de Nihewan, Chine du Nord

As one of the most important Lower Pleistocene sites of the Nihewan basin in North China, Donggutuo (DGT) site is well known for its fine retouched small tools and characters of flake industry. However, new excavations still reveal some new discoveries and educe some new issues to us. For example, the “DGT core” introduced in this article is a new discovered typotechnology and indicates new economic strategy of the local people, which was never known before in this area at the time of 1.1 Ma B.P. The paper provides general background and statistic analysis of DGT industry including special method applied to the “DGT core” and discusses possible influence of environmental change for the emerging of the “DGT core”. The “DGT core” shows a germinated microlithic tradition and reflects a cultural diversity of early humans in the Lower Paleolithic in North China.     

Une lame de faucille sous la stèle gravée Chalcolithique dite du « Chef de tribu », Vallée des Merveilles, région du Mont Bego, Tende, Alpes-Maritimes

The carved stele known as the “head of the tribe”, attributed to the Chalcolithic, erected at an altitude of 2290 m in the chaos of blocks in the Merveilles torrent in the Mont Bego region at Tende, was removed from its original standing place. Earth extracted from under the stele and sieved yielded a sickle blade in very fine and homogeneous Bedoulian pale biege translucid flint, pressure flaked on a heated core. The blade bears a light polish caused by cereal harvesting. This sickle blade is similar to those widely used in the southern Chassey culture (4300 to 3000 years before our era) but also sometimes in the Campaniform culture, during the ancient and middle Bronze age, like in Murée cave, in the Verdon gorges. The location of the sickle blade at the foot of the carved stele, known as the “head of the tribe”, is not just coincidental. It is highly probable that the blade was intentionally placed beside this rock. It is seemingly during a ritual ceremony that this sickle blade, probably still inserted in a wooden handle, was intentionally placed, in a propitious gesture or as an offering, beside the stele known as the “head of the tribe”.     

Environmental Factors Affecting Airborne Pollen Concentration in Anemophilous Species of Plantago

Pollination of Plantago species in the Extremadura Region (SWof the Iberian Peninsula) was studied using three volumetrictraps located in the cities of Badajoz, Mérida and Cáceresbetween 1994 and 1999. Variations in atmospheric concentrationof Plantago pollen were analysed between locations, and annual,daily, and hourly variations recorded for each location. Thehighest concentrations of pollen were recorded at Cáceres,while the Mérida and Badajoz values were similar. Thisis explained by the nature of the surroundings of each city.Interannual variations in pollination levels were significantlycorrelated with autumn rains, which determine the extent ofdevelopment of the populations. The hourly patterns of pollencapture were well-defined and similar for all three study sites.Maximum levels were reached between 1000 and 1200 h. Nocturnalconcentrations were very low. Furthermore, this pattern wasmaintained throughout the flowering period, impling a very closelink with the patterns of anthesis of the species. The threestations showed similar patterns of daily variation, which weresignificantly correlated with certain meteorological parameters.Pollen concentrations were affected positively by temperature,but negatively by relative humidity. The influence of wind directionalso seemed to be explicable in these terms since the easterlywinds, which are dry and hot in this region, had a positiveinfluence, and the westerly winds which are moist and cool hada negative effect. The most relevant factor influencing levelsofPlantago pollen in the atmosphere was wind speed, which wasnegatively correlated with pollen levels. Copyright 2001 Annalsof Botany Company Plantago, aerobiology, reproduction, anemophily, pollen     

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.     

Les sciuridés des gisements karstiques du Miocène inférieur à moyen du sud de la France : nouvelles espèces, phylogénie, paléoenvironnement

We describe sciurids from Lower and Middle Miocene karstic sites located in the south of France. Four new taxa are recognized here: Atlantoxerus martini nov. sp., Atlantoxerus sp. 1, Freudenthalia cuencae nov. sp. and Aragoxerus nov. sp. The last two genera are recognized for the first time in the south of France. A comparison with the Iberian peninsula is carried out, it tackles the problems of diversity, phylogeny and settlement. Hypothesis concerning the predation of these terrestrial squirrels and paleoenvironment is proposed.     

Proposition méthodologique pour une étude des esthétiques du Mésolithique : une analyse sociologique-anthropologique de la fin du Tardiglaciaire et durant le Postglaciaire en Europe occidentale

Do the decorated productions cover esthetics, i.e. the whole of the symbolic systems of a culture of hunters-gatherers? How to leave this glance with the aesthetic requirements that we other Westerners, pose on all things… and to exceed the debate of the artistic expressions thought from the aesthetic point of view, like “works of art” objects and “stylistics” objects? It is out of question “to make a fetish” of the productions decorated “works of art” while placing them at the starting point with our reflexion, (Studying them from a functional, technological, typological, art for art, meaningful point of view…) but to associate another of dimensions of the aesthetic experiment, i.e., the context of the decorated productions.     

L'analogie et la représentation de l'art primitif à la fin du XIX siècle

In this paper, we will examine the foundations of Western representation of Paleolithic art at the end of the nineteenth century. Taking the period of 1864-1902 into account, we will prove the leading role of analogy between “modern primitive societies” and “prehistoric societies” in the very definition of “primitive art”. According to us, the representation of the “primitive artist” at that time was largely based in comparison between art which came from modern primitive societies living in Africa, Australia or America, and prehistoric art which was authenticated at about 1865. Through this examination, we will show the way in which analogy functions as a main category in the construction of scientific knowledge.     

Silurian to Mississippian series of the eastern Catalan Pyrenees (Spain), updated by conodonts, foraminifers and algae

Stratigraphic sections and microfossils samples from the upper part of the “Graptolitic Shales-Orthoceras Limestones” and from the Camprodon Formation lying in the area of Camprodon, eastern Pyrenees, Spain, have been studied. Some beds at the top of the “Graptolitic Shales-Orthoceras Limestones” correspond to the Torres Member of the Rueda Formation, and conodont faunas, indicating a Lochkovian age, are described. The Camprodon Fm. is interpreted to be turbidites deposited in deep sea fans, although slope deposits prevail in the eastern sections. One reworked carbonate clast from the Camprodon Fm. provided a valuable early Ludlow conodont fauna, from the Kockelella crassa Zone, reported for the first time in the Iberian Peninsula. Late Devonian conodonts and late Visean (Asbian-Brigantian) foraminifers and algae were also obtained from reworked limestone clasts, and latest Visean or Serpukhovian foraminifers from the sandstone matrix in the Camprodon Fm. The studied microfossils suggest a late Mississippian age for the Camprodon Fm. instead of the previously assigned late Silurian-Lochkovian age. This age must be considered when discussing the distribution of the Culm Facies in the Pyrenees and the significance of the contact between the Camprodon Fm. and the underlying “Graptolitic Shales”.     

Technologie,typologie et analyses fonctionnelles de l’outillage lithique durant le néolithique ancien dans la Cueva de Murciélagos de Zuheros (Córdoba,Espagne) : réflexions sur la néolithisation du sud de la Péninsule Ibérique

The cave of Murciélagos de Zuheros (Cordoba, Spain) is one of the most important sites in Southern Iberian Peninsula. Its thick chronostratigraphic sequence includes occupations ranging from the Middle Palaeolithic to Roman times. Occupation levels corresponding to the earliest farming communities that established in modern-day Andalucia are remarkable due to its archaeological richness. This article focuses on the study of the lithic industry from these Early Neolithic levels, which is approached according to various tightly connected questions: raw material characterization, technical systems of production, and morphology and function of tools. Obtained results in their archaeological context are related to the questions on the origin of the Neolithic in Southern Iberian Peninsula.     

Les faunes de grands mammifères de la Caune de l'Arago (Tautavel) dans le cadre biochronologique des faunes du Pléistocène moyen italien

The fossiliferous levels of Caune de l'Arago supply a useful tool to investigate the relationships between faunal renewals and climate changes in a restricted area during the Middle Pleistocene. On the other hand the Italian fossil assemblages of the middle Galerian testified changes of palaeoenvironmental conditions. A biochronologic and palaeoecologic comparison among large mammalian faunas of these quite different Mediterranean regions have been performed in the aim to value possible vicariance of taxa and differences of faunal renewal dynamic during the Middle Pleistocene. After the results of our analysis we can correlate the faunal assemblages from the “Complexe moyen, ensemble stratigraphique I”, “Complexe moyen, ensembles stratigraphiques II and III”, “Complexe supérieur, sols A and B” of Caune de L'Arago sedimentary succession with the Italian Isernia (middle Galerian), Fontana Ranuccio (late Galerian) and Torre in Pietra (early Aurelian) faunal units (FUs) respectively. The French faunal assemblages were characterised by the absence of browsers and, conversely, by the presence of boreal taxa, mainly grazers, that were rare or never occurred in Italy. Accordingly, at no one Italian faunal complex, as expected, we can find any indication of continental cold climatic condition as showed by the faunal complexes of the Caune de l'Arago. Nevertheless, the major climate changes characterising the Middle Pleistocene can be detected in both regions. During the span time of Isernia FU, the temperature was at its lowest and arid conditions prevailed, whereas during the following Fontana Ranuccio FU humidity and temperature increased, as is more evident in central Italy local faunas. Moreover, after the similarity analysis, the Visogliano local fauna (North-Eastern Italy) was more related to the French than to the Italian ones. During the late Middle Pleistocene (Torre in Pietra FU) a moderate faunal reconstruction can be detected in both regions. The renewal was linked to climatic modifications taking place in the Mediterranean area approximately around OIS 11/OIS 10 transition, when interstadials became progressively milder and average humidity increased.     

Habitat et mode de vie des chasseurs paléolithiques de la Caune de l'Arago (600 000-400 000 ans)

Several human occupations have been identified within the deposits of the Caune de l’Arago Cave site, dated from 700 000 years to 100 000 years old. The exceptional wealth of these archeological levels provides an opportunity for the study of different types of habitat and behavioral patterns of Paleolithic hunters between 600 000 and 400 000 years ago. Results from preliminary studies, carried out over the last 30 years on these archeological levels, allow for the proposition of a typology for cave habitats during the Middle Pleistocene in the south of France. In fact, four types of habitat were identified and defined. They have been described according to different characteristics such as, the thickness of the archeological accumulation, the animal species represented, the season during which the animals were hunted, the state of conservation of the fossils discovered, the morpho-technological and typological characteristics of the lithics, the categories of raw materials used and the territory exploited by the hominids inhabiting the cave, as defined by the raw materials represented. The four habitation types defined are: the long duration habitat, where the cave was used as a home base; the temporary seasonal habitat, in which case the cave served as a secondary campsite; the hunting stopover and the bivouac, during which the cave was used as a refuge for short term stays. Behavioral patterns appear to be directly related to the type of habitat and oriented towards a principal activity: hunting. The activities performed by the inhabitants of the cave seem to be more diversified during prolonged or seasonal occupations, whereas they appear to be reduced or very specialised during brief stays. Generally, The characteristics studied show that the Caune de l’Arago Cave site had multiple uses over time for Anteneandertalian family groups and hunters who left traces of their activities, allowing us to better understand their lifestyle.