Ostracodes et stratigraphie du néogène et du quaternaire méditerranéens

A stratigraphical chart of marine ostracoda from Lower Miocene to Recent is established. Selected species (approximatively 220) are those morphologicaly well characterized and known from different parts of the Mediterranean area. It appears that: • lower Miocene ostracodes are still poorly known; • specific diversity is high during the Tortonian and the Lower Messinian before the complete disappearance of marine Mediterranean species during the Upper Messinian évaporitic episodes; • during the early Pliocene, about half of the Upper Miocene marine species are reintroduced with the Atlantic waters; other species migrate for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea by the same way; • at the end of the Pliocene or at the beginning of the Pleistocene several species known in Mediterranean since the Middle Miocene or before, such as Cytherella sp. gr. transversa and Ruggieria tetraptera, as well some “nordic guests” such as Hemicythere villosa and Cythere lutea, appear. This work is an opportunity to confirme a Late Miocene age for the Neogene of Skyros (Aegean Sea), to assign the “Upper Pliocene” of Terquem to the Lower Pleistocene and to refute the existence of a pliocene psychrosphere.     

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 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.     

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.     

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.