Les derniers Homo heidelbergensis et leurs descendants les néandertaliens : datation des sites d’Orgnac 3, du Lazaret et de Zafarraya

This article presents the dating results recently obtained on three archaeological sites in Europe. At Orgnac 3 (Ardèche, France) from where the last Homo heidelbergensis fossils are associated with the first evidence of levallois technique, two speleothem formations from the 5b–6–7^th layers were U-Th dated with MC-ICPMS, giving an age range of 319–255 ka (2σ) (MIS 8–9), while the volcanic ash-bearing second layer was dated by ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar, obtaining a preliminary date of 308.2 ± 6.8 ka (2σ). The combined ESR/U-Th dating of red deer enamel teeth from Lazaret cave (Alpes-Maritimes, France) attributed ages of 120–190 ka to the Acheulean and pre-Mousterian layers (MIS 6), which is in agreement with previous TIMS U-Th dates between 108 and 44 ka on calcite samples from the overlying TRA trench (MIS 5, 4, 3). At Zafarraya (Andalousie, Espagne), a number of ¹⁴C measurements on charcoal samples as well as combined ESR/U-Th dates on Capra and Equus dental enamels assigned the Mousterian artefacts and neandertalian fossils-bearing deposits an age interval between 42 and 34 ka (MIS 3).     

Les industries magdaléniennes de l’Ardèche (France) dans le contexte du bassin méditerranéen

Ardèche, a department of Rhone Alpes region, is rich in prehistoric sites belonging to a very large chronological period dated back to 350?000 years ago. But, the prehistory of the region has been unknown for a long time, mainly, because of its distance from traditional centres of research. Jean Combier, in his abstract dated 1967, defined for the first time Upper Palaelolithic stages: only towards the acquisition of new data, we are now able to suggest a new evolution for the Magdalenian from its origins to the Alleröd climatic episod. To define Ardèche originality within the Magdalenian context, we have compared its lithic industries with those of the Adaouste Cave oriental sites, the Cornille rock shelter and of the Gazel cave in the Aude western part. Ardèche Magdalenian dwelling is peculiar compared to the South West of France. Badegoulian has been substituted by a Mediterranean Facies culture rich in bladelets, the Salpestrian. This facies limited in its geographic extention to Gard and Ardèche, evolves gradually in situ gaining Magdalenian elements (such as backed bladelets and dihedral burins) giving birth to the transitory lithic complex of Huguenots and Baume d’Oullins Cave. An established Magdalenian is certified in the Blanchisserie camp, within a cold climatic context dated back to circa 16?000 years ago. Although the lithic industry is dominated by dihedral burins and backed bladeletse it is also characterised by some archaic features (such as keel endscrapers, transverse burins and scalene bladelets). The upper Magadalenian with bone harpoons appears soon in our region, in the Colombier rock shelter, in a fairly temperate climatic context dated according to 14C back to circa 14?000 BP. We could identify six stages within the evolution of this Upper Magdalenian.which are attested in the Colombier, Ebbou and Deux Avens Caves and in the Colombier rock shelter that has been occupied during several periods. The Magdalenian gradually changed loosing his most typical elements, the bladelets and burins supremacy has been substituted by Azilian elements (such as short endscrapers and curved backed points). But even if the Azilian process happens very early (before 12?500 BP) the Magdalenian, in its fundamental features, never disappears completely and it has never been substituted by classic Azilian. After Alleröd appears a culture characterised by the recovery of Magdalenian features similar to the Epimagdalenian defined by D. Sacchi in Gazel. The described evolution can be compared, as regard to its upper stages, to that of several sites of Rhone region as well as of the North West of France, which allow to define a culturally homogeneous province having the Rhone corridor with Ardèche as its Southern border. At the end of Palaeolithic this province broke up and Ardèche opened to the South and the Mediterranean from where seems to come the retouched large blade facies and endscrapers attested by the Colombier rock shelter dating back to 12?150 BP.     

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.     

Étude de la matière colorante de la grotte d'Arenaza (Galdames, Pays Basque, Espagne)

The present work completed the research that we have developed during the last years in the cave. The analysis of the painting matter has been made to recognize the anthropic origin of certain figures, to compare the natural iron oxide deposits with one of the paintings with the purpose of establishing the supply area, and to compare the pictorial matter of the different figures to characterize the technical process of the cave. Nineteen samples were taken, from the painted figures and from natural depots. The analysis made in the C2RMF have confirmed the anthropic origin of two figures and have shown the preparation of different pigments for a same painting.     

La grotte ornée Mayenne-Sciences (Thorigné-en-Charnie, Mayenne) : grotte-limite aux marges du monde anté-magdalénien

The decorated cave of Mayenne-Sciences (Thorigné-en-Charnie, Mayenne) is one of the eight caves or shelters attributed to the Upper Paleolithic in the North of France, with the caves of Gouy and Orival in Normandy, Boutigny, Le Croc-Marin and Les Trois Pignons in the Essonne Department, the Grotte du Cheval and the Grande Grotte of Arcy-sur-Cure in Burgundy. There are about 50 stylised representations in this cave, the chrono-cultural attribution is rather difficult because the archeological context is poor and the site of the cave excentric, far from the great areas like Perigord. After a short statement of what you may guess about the style of the representations in Mayenne-Sciences we try to draw up a synthesis of the sites of parietal art and furniture near Mayenne-Sciences, and to analyse further how to place Mayenne-Sciences within a figurative tendance flourishing during the ante-magdalenian era in Europe which we propose to call art de la silhouette. We show that the style of Mayenne-Sciences is not 50 particular, but that the originality of the style may be explained by the isolation of the cave at the border of the main prehistorical cultural tendances, as this is the case for other decorated caves, we list up. In conclusion this leads us to define the concept of grotte-limite (border-cave), I mean a decorated cave which represents the vision at distance, with caricatural character or not, of the parietal art of one specific region, as for example you must admit that there are similitude’s between Mayenne-Sciences and the caves of Pech-Merle and Cougnac, in the Lot Department.     

Coliboaia is not Chauvet

The decorated cave of Coliboaia in Romania has been claimed to date to the Aurignacian period, and to supply support for the Aurignacian attribution of France's Chauvet cave. In this paper, we examine the evidence and show that neither the radiocarbon dates obtained at Coliboaia nor the style and content of its cave art correspond to the Aurignacian period, and that comparisons with Chauvet cave – itself badly dated and erroneously attributed – are equally ill-founded. We also show that both caves are in regions which are bereft of Aurignacian occupation, and neither cave contains any artefacts from the period.     

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.     

Not only Chauvet: Dating Aurignacian rock art in Altxerri B Cave (northern Spain)

The discovery and first dates of the paintings in Grotte Chauvet provoked a new debate on the origin and characteristics of the first figurative Palaeolithic art. Since then, other art ensembles in France and Italy (Aldène, Fumane, Arcy-sur-Cure and Castanet) have enlarged our knowledge of graphic activity in the early Upper Palaeolithic. This paper presents a chronological assessment of the Palaeolithic parietal ensemble in Altxerri B (northern Spain). When the study began in 2011, one of our main objectives was to determine the age of this pictorial phase in the cave. Archaeological, geological and stylistic evidence, together with radiometric dates, suggest an Aurignacian chronology for this art. The ensemble in Altxerri B can therefore be added to the small but growing number of sites dated in this period, corroborating the hypothesis of more complex and varied figurative art than had been supposed in the early Upper Palaeolithic.     

Art and the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe: comments on the archaeological arguments for an early Upper Paleolithic antiquity of the Grotte Chauvet art

The spectacular art of the Grotte Chauvet stands out among all other examples of Aurignacian art, which are restricted to a handful of sites in other regions of western and Central Europe, which take the form of sophisticated carvings on organic materials and of simple engravings on rockshelter walls. Given its sophistication, Chauvet has understandably come to feature prominently in debates as to the nature of human symbolic origins, the behavioral capacities of Homo sapiens, the nature of the dispersal of modern humans across Europe, and the possibly contemporary extinction of Homo neanderthalensis. Significant objections to such an antiquity have, however, been made in recent years on the grounds of the style, themes, and technical practice of the art itself, and on the grounds of the AMS radiocarbon dating program that was first seen to suggest an early Upper Paleolithic age. To date, no attention has been paid to claims for an Aurignacian age on specifically archaeological grounds. Here, I undertake a critical examination of the archaeology of the cave and its wider region, as well as attempts to verify the antiquity of the art on the basis of comparison with well-dated Aurignacian art elsewhere. I conclude that none of the archaeological arguments withstand scrutiny and that many can be rejected as they are either incorrect or tautologous. By contrast, hypotheses that the art is of Gravettian-Magdalenian age have not been successfully eliminated. The age of the art of the Grotte Chauvet should be seen as a scientific problem, not an established fact. While it may prove impossible to prove an Aurignacian age for some of the Chauvet art I suggest a set of expectations that would, in combination, strengthen the robusticity of the ‘long chronology’ argument. The onus is upon Chauvet long chronologists to do this, and until they do, we must conclude that the art of the Grotte Chauvet is not dated, and very possibly much younger than claimed.     

Sur un poisson gravé magdalénien de la grotte Margot (Thorigné-en-Charnie,Mayenne)

An engraved fish that can be attributed to the final Magdalenian period was discovered in 2010 in the Margot cave (Thorigné-en-Charnie, Mayenne, France). It shows graphic details that allow us to propose some clues to taxonomic determination. It must be a freshwater fish; the hypothesis of a Cyprinidae such as a tench is acceptable, considering that the 3.1 layer of the nearby Rochefort cave, attributable to the Final Paleolithic, has yielded a branchial arch of another Cyprinidae (probably a chub or a dace). Fish is not a usual theme in Paleolithic wall art. Here it is associated with another engraved animal figure, which is not fully determinable (seal or other fish).     

Recherches dans le massif d’Ardines : nouvelles galeries ornées de la grotte de Tito Bustillo

During the year 2002 we have continued the works in the massive of Ardines at Ribadesella, Asturias, and especially in its fundamental cave, Tito Bustillo. Here the prospection has permitted us to find several new elements of great cultural and graphic value. A consistent deposit in four cutted contours in the form of head of hind and also two new galleries, called gallery of the Bisons and gallery of the Anthropomorphes, communicated with the Principal Gallery of the cave and mutually. In this last one exist remains of adaptation of the space, bony remains that we are yet digging and two figures of painted anthropomorphes with an exceptional interest. Finally, in the ensemble N XI, place where it is found the habitation deposit, and where we have found large masses of red colourings prepared for its use, exists a small final cave, where also it has been painted in its interior, and where the mouth is opened among the remains of a great deposit in surface that occupies all its northern part.     

Nouvelles découvertes d'art rupestre au Mato Grosso (Cidade de Pedra, Rondonópolis, Brésil)

Since 1983, Professor Agueda Vilhena-Vialou is conducting in Mato Grosso (Brazil) the French-brasilian archeological mission Fossil men and their paleo-environments in the Paraná basin. Its goal is the study of the first prehistoric settlements of Latin America's heart, in their economic, social, cultural and symbolic dimensions. Thanks to the complementary and comparative analysis of the habitats, the regional settlements and the rock art, our research targets a more precise definition of territories and cultures proper of the prehistoric human groups from the South of the actual Mato Grosso state. The study of rock art, the most revealing aspect of symbolic behaviours, is one of the strongest programs inside our multidisciplinary team. Today, thanks to systematic prospections led along the Rio Vermelho (between Pantanal swamp at West and Rondonópolis city at East), a hundred rock art sites (walls, shelters and caves), decorated with signs, animals and humans, have been discovered, and, for the most of them, studied. These figures are painted, engraved and more rarely sculpted. Along those pages, the author is presenting the preliminary analysis of ten new rock art sites, recently identified in a cliff on the right bank of the Vermelho River. He starts a comparative study with the sites of the Cidade de Pedra and of close micro basin, from the left bank of the River. This research is showing the symbolic identities, both common and specific, proper to different territories of this major rock art region of Brazil, which is divided in several areas and micro territories, shared but autonomous.     

Figurations de l’amas stellaire des Pléiades sur deux roches gravées de la région du Mont Bego Z IX. GII. R 4 et Z IX. GIII. R 6

Two engraved rocks are situated 140 m from each other at an altitude of about 2250 m. One of them is called “female dancer”, and the other, “the Pleiads”, and both show a group of seven small pitted areas, of which one is smaller than the others and ‘ identified as the “Pleiads stellar cluster”, often depicted or mentioned during Antiquity and also throughout various historical periods.On each of these rocks, a large halberd, whose handle is oriented east-west, was traced along a natural fissure in the rock and engraved in the center of the composition. The “Pleiads stellar cluster” is represented on each of the two rocks beside the halberd : although situated to the west above the halberd blade on the “female dancer” rock, it is placed to the south and to the left of the halberd handle on “the Pleiads” rock. This difference may mark two distinct calendar data.The position of the different figures in the compositions illustrated on these two rocks, in particular inversions in the representation of some of them may indicate two distinct periods of the agricultural yearly cycle: on the rock called “female dancer”, the “heliacal raise” at summer's end, marking the beginning of the harvest and, on the rock called “the Pleiads”, the “heliacal setting”, just before winter, after the end of the harvest, when the rains soaks the ground and it is time to plow.     

Des sites à voir et à entendre : les abris à motifs schématiques de la falaise de Baume Brune (Vaucluse)

In the North of the plain drained by Calavon and at the foot of the mounts of Vaucluse, the cliff of Baume Brune is long about 900 m. We count 43 natural shelters of which only 10 are marked by painted figures belonging to the schematic iconography of the Neolithic period. The painted shelters are chosen, according among others, to four criteria, which are their dominant visual position, their southern exposure, the “red” tint of their walls and their episodic humidity. While a selection of these criteria might be present in the non-decorated shelters of Baume Brune, all of them are always found in the painted shelters. Yet, sometimes their presence if not so obvious, as there are shelters once painted in red tint whose walls are now covered by small carbonate flowstones formed by the flow of water after centuries of rain events. We also propose that iconography was perceived as a factor contributing to the placement of rock art, for single shelters were chosen by prehistoric artists to paint schematic key themes (male figures, idols, quadrupeds). Finally, we investigate the acoustic dimension of Baume Brune by comparing the distant and close auditory perception of painted and non-painted shelters. In this framework, we argue that shelters with rock art possess the greatest acoustic qualities of the whole cliff.     

Coraux du Barrémien du Sud de la France (Ardèche et Drôme)

Corals from the Barremian of southern France (dépt. Ardèche and Drôme) are described. The rather small fauna of colonial corals encompasses 23 species belonging to 18 genera of both Hexa- and Octocorals. The assemblages from the lower as well as upper Barremian show stratigraphic relationships to those of the Hauterivian and Aptian of the Tethys and the Caribbean province.     

Apports du site de Montclus (Gard) à l’origine et à la filiation du Montclusien (Mésolithique)

The Baume of Montclus is located in the Cèze valley (Gard). This site gave its name to a prehistoric tool-age, the Montclusian, which parted from the Sauveterrian. Middle and Upper Montclusian are present in Montclus, unlike the Lower Montclusian. The Montclusian industry, which starts here in about 8000 BP, includes a very high proportion of hypermicrolithes. It is followed by a Castelnovian industry from around 7000 BP. This one features very different Montclusian, showing thus a break. The Castelnovian survives in Montclus while the Cardial is already settled in Châteauneuf-les-Martigues and sites around the Ardèche river. After these Montclusian levels appear Cardial and Chassean layers. Neolithisation has been very gradual here, affecting tools first before the arrival of ceramic, around 6500 BP. What is the origin of Montclusian? And what could have become? Its origin might be further west with the Causses and Languedoc, where levels are rather similar. The Sauveterrian origin has long been established. But research shows a great diversity among the Sauveterrian originated industries. What the Montclusian was going to become is to discovered from the Lower Montclusian, quite original, and which should be found in other site. Montclusian might be on the geographic and cultural boderline of 2 districts: one being located west of the Rhône river, influenced by Sauveterrian, and which gave birth to Montclusian, the other east of the Rhône river bears witness to Castelnovian.     

Seasonal dynamics of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the Lower Ardèche River (France)

Seasonal sampling at six locations on the Lower Ardèche River was effected irregularly during 1982, 1983 and 1984. The seasonal structure of the taxa-sample matrix, much more important than sample location, is demonstrated using graphical interpretation.The Mediterranean aspect of the lower reaches of the Ardèche River is pointed out through its community structure which includes species often collected in other typical Mediterranean streams, e.g. Oligoneuriella rhenana, Ephoron virgo, Ecdyonurus dispar, E. insignis, Choroterpes picteti.Water temperature and day length were the determinant influences on seasonal variations in population structure of benthic macroinvertebrates. Three periods were distinguished: water (November to April), spring (May, June and beginning July) and summer (end of July to October). Spring and autumnal spates marked the limits of the summer and winter periods. Hence, annual fluctuations of this seasonal typology may occur in response to the hydrological regime.