Le sud-est français est un espace particulier pour le Paléolithique supérieur récent : il forme l’interface entre les domaines nord-occidental d’une part et méditerranéen et oriental d’autre part, entre la séquence Solutréen-Ba¬degoulien-Magdalénien-Azilien et l’Épigravettien.Alors que cette région forme encore un angle mort de la Pré¬histoire pour cette période, cette thèse s’intéresse aux industries lithiques épigravettiennes de l’arc liguro-provençal dans une perspective techno-économique qui permet un réexamen en profondeur de l’évolution des traditions techniques entre la fin du Gravettien (circa 23 000 cal. BCE) et le début du premier Mésolithique (circa 9 500 cal. BCE). Deux grands axes structurent ce travail : (1) La question chronologique. Il s’agit de réintégrer les industries étudiées dans un modèle chronocul¬turel en cours de redéfinition. Pour ce faire, l’étude des séries et l’obtention de dates par radiocarbone sont discutées avec une synthèse des connaissances concernant l’Épigravettien.(2) Les systèmes de mobilité et les stratégies d’approvisionnement. Le contexte régional est particulière¬ment favorable pour des raisons intrinsèques (domaine géologique compartimenté et espace géogra¬phique contraint) et extrinsèques (recherches effectuées depuis les années 1980 autour des ressources siliceuses régionales). Les résultats obtenus dans une perspective techno-économique sont mobilisés pour appréhender la structuration des territoires et son évolution dans le temps.Partie prenante d’une dynamique de renouvellement des connaissances sur l’Épigravettien dans sa globalité, cette thèse propose, en conclusion, un état des comparaisons possibles avec la séquence occidentale. / Southeastern France is a particular area as regards the late upper Palaeolithic as it lies between the northwestern prehistoric domain on one side, and the Mediterranean and eastern one on the other side; between the Solutrean-Badegoulian-Magdalenian-Azilian sequence and the Epigravettian one. This PhD work focuses on the techno-economic study of lithic industries originating from the Liguro-Provencal corridor, an area weakly-known for its upper Paleolithic industries. The aim is to re-assess in detail the evolution of technical traditions from the end of the Gravettian (circa 23 000 cal. BCE) to the beginning of the Mesolithic (circa 9 500 cal. BCE).This work addresses two primary objectives : (1) The Chronological framework. The industries studied are replaced in a newly defined chronocultural model. To do so, the results of the techno-economic studies and radiocarbon dates are combined and discussed in parallel with a synthesis of existing knowledge concerning the Epigravettian.(2) Mobility patterns and raw material provisioning strategies. The regional background is a particu¬larly favorable research context due to intrinsic factors (a compartmentalized geological domain and a constraining geographical area) and extrinsic ones (intensive research conducted since the 1980’s on lithic raw material availabilities). The results obtained are then mobilized to infer on ter¬ritorial organization and its evolution through time.

In the last ten years it has become apparent that the radiocarbon dating method can significantly underestimate the age of samples > 25 ka BP because routine pre-treatment protocols may not remove sufficient contaminants. In response, new pre-treatment protocols have been proposed, and two in particular, ultrafiltration of bone collagen and ABOx-SC of charcoal, show promise. This thesis has tested whether these methods effectively remove contaminants without adding carbon in the laboratory. Subsequently it used them, alongside careful selection of humanly modified material and Bayesian statistical analysis, to test the radiocarbon-based chronology of the Iberian Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. Both protocols were found to effectively remove environmental contaminants, but add small amounts of laboratory-derived carbon. Using known age standards, a correction has been calculated for the ultrafiltration protocol to counter the effect of the laboratory-derived carbon. A similar correction could not be made for the ABOx-SC protocol due to uncertainties in the age of the standards and underlying chemical processes. However, the effect of such contamination did not have a significant effect on the chronologies developed for the sites examined in this thesis. 96 new radiocarbon dates have been obtained from the Iberian Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. A further 50 dates recovered from the literature and are regarded as reliable. The most alarming finding of this thesis is that routine pre-treatment protocols may cause dates to be underestimated by more than 10 ka ¹⁴C years. The implication of offsets of this magnitude in Iberia is significant: whereas a prolonged survival of Neanderthals south of the Ebro valley has been observed in the published dataset, this study could not replicate such ages. Preservation did not allow the arrival of anatomically modern humans to be dated in the south. However, using typological arguments and the chronology constructed for the north of the Peninsula, it is unlikely that they were present in this region before 38,080 – 36,680 cal BP (95% probability). This implies a temporal gap of at least 4,490 – 12,740 cal years, although it is unclear whether this is due to taphonomic factors or is a real period of abandonment. This pattern contrasts to northern areas of the Peninsula where the Aurignacian appears at 42,330 – 40,980 cal BP, shortly postdating the start of the Châtelperronian and end of the Mousterian. It is hoped that the chronology produced will warn against the use of radiocarbon dates produced using poor pre-treatment protocols and has laid the foundations from which a more accurate and more precise chronology can be built in the future.

Upper Palaeolithic cave art research has tended to focus on the images themselves, rather than the physical and social circumstances of their production. This dissertation explores and develops new practice-based ways of investigating cave art. A method analysing features of the cave environment, such as light, space and accessibility, internal conditions etc., and how these relate to traces of human activity, is developed and applied to three decorated caves from Upper Palaeolithic in southern France: Marsoulas (Haute-Garonne), Chauvet (Ardèche) and Rouffignac (Périgord). New insights are suggested into the underlying practice of cave art and its significance in Upper Palaeolithic societies. / La recherche l’art rupestre Paléolithique supérieur a eu tendance à se focaliser sur les images elles-mêmes, plutôt que les circonstances physiques et sociales de leur production. Cette dissertation explore et développe des nouvelles formes d’investigation de l’art rupestre basées sur la pratique. Une méthode pour analyser des caractéristiques de l’environnement de la grotte, comme la lumière, l’espace et l’accessibilité, des conditions internes etc., et comment ceux-ci sont associés à des traces de l’activité humaine, est développée et appliquée à trois grottes de l’époque Paléolithique supérieur dans le sud de France: Marsoulas (Haute-Garonne), Chauvet (Ardèche) et Rouffignac (Périgord). Une nouvelle vision est suggérée pour la pratique sous-jacente de l’art rupestre et son importance dans les sociétés paléolithiques.

The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition is seen as an important research focus and key to understanding issues surrounding Neanderthal and modern human interactions. Because of this focus upon human type transitional industries without associated human fossil evidence have been marginalised within the debate. This perspective can be termed etic, looking at overall patterns and millennial timescales to answer ‘big’ questions. In contrast my research could be termed emic, using a small collection of ‘transitional’ stone tools to explore the perspective of the producers and users. Human type is not considered relevant here. This approach has allowed a shift in scale; from millennial and pan-European to seasonal and the uplands that now constitute Britain. To explore this emic perspective experimental production has been used to make material a manufacturing process. Metrical, formal and typological analysis has been applied to the archaeological type fossil corpus to more fully comprehend variability. Together these approaches have been used to construct a nuanced and comprehensive châine operatoire model for the industry. This model allowed comparative analysis to derive new understandings from old and new archaeological collections from three sites. Resultant material and behavioural patterns have been interpreted within their particular landscape and general faunal contexts. Emergent themes have been integrated into a seasonal structure to create the desired emic narrative. This process has revealed a maintainable, repairable and adaptable technology used to manage the predictable unpredictability associated with the hunting of migrating large fauna through a long summer season and in uplands of known and unknown stone resources.

This research reconstructs site formation processes and activities of the inhabitants of two cave sites in south China, Xianrendong and Yuchanyan, where the earliest pottery in the world has been discovered. The goal is to broaden existing understandings of human behavior of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Chinese hunter-gatherers, through the production of data types rarely gathered at a Chinese Palaeolithic site. I use the geoarchaeological technique of micromorphology – microscopic observation of thin sections of oriented intact sediment samples to identify their components and nature – and micro-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (μ-FTIR) a technique used to obtain the molecular composition of materials used here to detect changes associated with fires. In this study, I reconstruct occupational patterns over time and show how flooding events as well as cave-specific climatic patterns, such as freeze/thaw and dripping water affected human choices of living spaces. Analysis of sediments derived from human use clarify details of such activities as building and cleaning fires, and constructing clay surfaces. Analytical results indicate that the inhabitants of Xianrendong maintained fires with consistently low temperatures, while at Yuchanyan through control of oxygenation and preference of wood fuel humans could maintain their fires between 500 and 700 Co for long periods of time. The low temperatures support the hypothesis from a preliminary study of the ceramics that pottery at Xianrendong was made without the use of kilns. Thoroughly consumed wood fuel at Yuchanyan indicates sophisticated pyro-technological knowledge and a possible preference for boiling as a cooking method. Finally, micromorphological analyses confirm the undisturbed nature of the sediments and so corroborate the reliability of a recent radiocarbon date of 20 ka cal BP for the earliest pottery-bearing layers. Micromorphological research reveals these early peoples’ knowledge of the physical properties of fires and clays, as well as their behavior of separating usable space into activity areas. In combination with the published systematic analysis of the faunal and botanical remains and of the material culture from these sites, my results provide a high-resolution account of life in these two sites. This study will be an important precedent for the further, systematic use of these geoarchaeological techniques in Chinese archaeology. / 2020-02-14T00:00:00Z

No / Excavation of the Schöningen lignite mine in Germany produced the earliest examples of hunting spears to date, and a large assemblage of anthropogenically fragmented faunal remains deposited in anaerobic lacustrine silt sediments during the Middle Pleistocene. The exceptional preservation of the assemblage makes the site of prime importance to our understanding of the behavioural, social and economic patterns of hominins in the Lower Palaeolithic of the Middle Pleistocene in Europe. This chapter describes the digital refitting analysis, part of the AHRC-funded Fragmented Heritage project, undertaken to address the logistical challenge posed by manually comparing individual bone fragments within the assemblage to identify refitting sequences. This logistical refit challenge uses the Schöningen assemblage to investigate the effectiveness of a digital refit approach to the analysis of large faunal assemblages. We describe the process from digitisation of the bone fragments by macro structured light scanning, digital segmentation of refitting surfaces, and digital comparison of the refitting and non-refitting surfaces to produce statistical matches. We discuss how taphonomic data can be visualised from the analysis and can be used to inform interpretation of the taphonomic histories of these faunal remains and the human behaviours associated with the formation of this unique assemblage. / The research was funded through an AHRC doctoral award as part of the AHRC Digital Transformations funded Theme Large Grant Fragmented Heritage (AH/L00688X/1) and through in-kind contributions from MONREPOS.

In many cases in the past fish bones recovered during archaeological excavations at Upper Palaeolithic sites were often assumed to result from human activity without any consideration for alternate accumulation processes. Many of these assemblages had not been analysed in a scientifically rigorous manner, with some receiving no consideration at all. A review of current evidence and results of new analyses indicate that salmonids (salmon and trout) are the most frequently recorded fish at the European Palaeolithic cave sites. Two potential accumulation agents for fish remains were explored: brown bears (Ursus arctos) and eagle owls (Bubo bubo). Controlled feeding experiments integrated with ecological studies indicate that salmonid remains survive the digestive systems of both species and result in distinctive patterning in assemblage characteristics. Post-depositional taphonomic processes, such as trampling, also produce distinct taphonomic signatures and are an agent of differential inter-species preservation. A thorough consideration of depositional and post-depositional processes of archaeological assemblages in central Italy (Grotta di Pozzo, Maritza, La Punta and Ortucchio) and Spain (El Juyo, Altamira, Salitre, Castillo and Rascaño) shows that the fish remains from these sites result from human activity. The overrepresentation of cranial elements at the Italian sites suggest that fish were processed by removing the head to perhaps smoke or dry before transportation to other locations for consumption. This research lead to improved methods of analysis, and thus enhanced understanding of the role of fishing and fish consumption in Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer societies.

Ce travail s'intéresse à l'organisation saisonnière des activités de la fin du Moustérien, avant l'arrivée de l'Homme anatomiquement moderne dans le Sud-Ouest de la France. Il propose une réflexion sur les capacités d'anticipation et de planification des Néandertaliens dans la gestion de leurs ressources animales par l'étude des saisons d'abattage. Pour déterminer la saisonnalité de prédation, l'étude des dépôts de cément dentaire, qui permet l'analyse d'un grand nombre d'individus, a été retenue pour ce travail. Cette thèse propose, dans une optique archéozoologique, de mettre les données saisonnières en perspective avec l'ensemble des informations disponibles portant sur les populations animales chassées. Une revue critique est proposée de la cémentochronologie et des différents biais qui peuvent affecter cette méthode dans la détermination de la saison de mort des animaux en contexte préhistorique. Un protocole d'étude tenant compte, en particulier, des remobilisations post-mortem des structures du cément et traitant des problèmes d'échantillonnage par une approche probabiliste est alors mis en oeuvre. L'analyse archéozoologique et cémentochronologique d'un site d'habitat (Pech de l'Azé I) et l'analyse cémentochronologique d'un possible camp de chasse (La Quina) ainsi que d'un site d'abattage (Mauran) permettent d'aborder différents aspects de la subsistance moustérienne. Les résultats sont comparés à ceux obtenus sur le gisement d'Isturitz, daté du début de l'Aurignacien. Ce travail conclut à l'existence au Moustérien d'économies de subsistance complexes, avec une planification des activités au sein du territoire visible au travers de la spécialisation de certains gisements. La présence d'abattage en masse à la saisonnalité marquée confirme l'existence d'une anticipation dans la gestion des ressources carnée.

La variabilité des assemblages du Paléolithique inférieur dans l'ouest de l'Europe nourrit les débats actuels quant à leur relation avec les flux de populations, dans le contexte des changements environnementaux et paléogéographiques. Le faciès technique du Colombanien, localisé sur la façade atlantique bretonne, illustre cette variabilité. Selon la littérature, il diffère de l'Acheuléen, dominant dans les régions voisines, notamment par l'absence de bifaces. L'industrie du site de Menez-Dregan I (Plouhinec, Finistère) en constitue l'exemple dont le contexte géologique et paléoclimatique est le mieux documenté. Ce site a livré des traces de foyer qui sont parmi les plus anciennes d'Europe, ainsi qu'un abondant matériel, qui, dans les niveaux supérieurs, offre les prémices de la transition du Paléolithique inférieur vers le Paléolithique moyen. L'analyse des caractères techniques et typologiques des assemblages lithiques issus des couches 9 à 4 permettra de retracer l'évolution des stratégies d'approvisionnement et des comportements techniques et de replacer ce site dans le contexte régional et européen. La contemporanéité d’assemblages sans pièces bifaciales et à pièces bifaciales est attestée en Europe dès 700 ka. Si la plupart des sites européens présentent des assemblages à pièces bifaciales, les gisements à niveaux sans bifaces sont également assez nombreux. L’interstratification des niveaux à et sans pièces bifaciales sur certains sites est parfois interprétée comme le témoignage d’occupations liées à des activités spécialisées différentes, des matières premières différentes, ou des groupes humains aux traditions culturelles ou techniques différentes. De récentes publications de synthèse font état de la question : l’hypothèse de la coexistence de groupes humains aux traditions techniques différentes y est discutée, sur la base de modalités de débitage communes et d’utilisations similaires des territoires. Ainsi, seule la présence ou l’absence de bifaces tend à différencier ces occupations. Le travail engagé ici s’inscrit dans la lignée des études antérieures, mais a été entrepris dans le but de définir les systèmes techniques mis en œuvre au Paléolithique ancien dans l’ouest armoricain. Il permet ainsi de présenter des données nouvelles afin de caractériser les industries lithiques des sites dits « colombaniens ». Il ressort de notre étude que si le contexte paléogéographique et géologique ainsi que le type de gisement explique une certaine variabilité dans la composition des assemblages, cela n’explique pas les traditions techniques, et notamment la présence ou l’absence de pièces bifaciales ou de large cutting tools (LCTs). Si le type d’activité peut alors être mis en cause pour expliquer cette variabilité, une fréquentation répétée sur un même site, dans un contexte paléoenvironnemental globalement similaire, comme c’est le cas à Menez Dregan I indiquerait une visite régulière de groupes humains aux traditions techniques différentes, comme cela est aussi le cas sur d’autres gisements. Nous aboutissons ainsi à une révision du faciès Colombanien, qui s’avère être une variante régionale de l’Acheuléen. Ces résultats confrontés aux données paléoclimatiques et paléogéographiques contribuent à mieux comprendre la dynamique de peuplement de ce Finistère eurasiatique au Pléistocène moyen. / The variability in the Palaeolithic assemblages of western Europe feeds current debates about their relationship with population flows in a context of environmental and palaeogeographic changes. The technical Colombanian facies, located in the South Atlantic coast of Brittany, illustrates this variability. This facies differs from the Acheulean that is dominant in neighboring regions, especially in its lack of bifaces. The industry at the site of Menez-Dregan is an example where the geological and paleoclimatic context is the best documented in the region. Specifically, this site has yielded evidence of fireplaces that are among the oldest in Europe, and an abundance of lithic material, which, in the upper levels, evidences the beginning of the transition from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Middle Paleolithic. As for the analysis, the technical, typological and morpho-functional features of the lithic assemblages from layers 9 to 4 will trace the development of procurement strategies, techniques and behaviors to put this site into a regional and European context. The contemporaneity of assemblages with bifacial pieces and without bifacial pieces is attested in Europe from 700 ky. While most of the European sites display assemblages with handaxes, deposits without any bifacial components are quite numerous as well. On some sites, the interstratification of levels with bifacial pieces and without bifacial pieces is sometimes interpreted as a testimony of either specialized activities, different raw materials, or human groups with different cultural or technical traditions. Recent publications state the question: the hypothesis of a coexistence of human groups with different technical traditions is discussed, on the basis of similar modalities of debitage and similar use of landscape. Therefore, only the presence or absence of handaxes is left to differenciate these occupations. The work realised here joins in the lineage of the previous studies, but was undertaken with the aim of defining the technical systems operating during the Lower Palaeolithic in the western Armorican Massif. Therefore, it enables the presentation of new data in order to characterize the “Colombanian” lithic industries. It emerges from this study that if the palaeogeographical and geological context as well as the type of deposit explain a certain variability in the composition of the assemblages, it does not explain the technical traditions, especially the presence or absence of handaxes or large cutting tools. If the variability cannot be explained by activity alone then the repeated visits to a single site, given a globally similar palaeoenvironmental context as evidenced at Menez-Dregan I, likely indicates a regular occupancy by human groups with differing technical traditions. Therefore, we end up in a revision of the Colombanian facies, which turns out to be a regional variant of the European Acheulean. These results, when compared to paleoclimatic and palaeogeographic data, help develop a better understanding of the settlement dynamics of this region during Middle Pleistocene.

La question principale à laquelle nous avons tenté de répondre est la suivante : est-ce que la variabilité des matières premières (caractéristiques pétrographiques et morphologie des supports) a conditionné la production des hommes préhistoriques dans le temps et dans l’espace ? La mise en place de fiches descriptives technologiques spécifiques pour chaque catégorie d’objets nous a permis d’analyser les caractères techniques propres à chaque produit et de sélectionner les variables principales qui ont joué un rôle important dans l’évaluation des contraintes et ont guidé la production lithique. L’analyse critique des contextes lithostratigraphiques et la prise en compte des diversités techniques, technologiques ou chronologiques des industries permettent de reconsidérer les paradigmes à la base de la différentiation des techniques : produits du façonnage bifacial (biface, ébauche), système de production Levallois, système de production Discoïde. Ces termes ont trop longtemps masqué la variabilité exprimée par la production technique des tailleurs du Paléolithique. C’est vers l’analyse de la pluralité des comportements humains et des sociétés qu’il faut se diriger maintenant. / The use of geomaterials different from flint in Early and Middle Paleolithic. Economical technical and functional choices after the study of two sites : Sainte-Anne I (Haute-Loire, France) (MIS 5-7) and Notarchirico (Basilicata, Italy) (MIS 14-17).We tried to answer the question: has the variability of raw materials (from petrographical characteristics and morphological aspects) influenced prehistoric knappers during the production both in time and space? The creation and use of specific descriptive files for each category of objects allowed us to analyze the technical characteristics of the products and to select the variables that played a major role in the assessment of needs at the base of the lithic production. Critical analysis of the litho-stratigraphic contexts and consideration of technical, technological or chronological diversity allows to reconsider the paradigms underlying the differentiation of the techniques: products façonnage (double sided, ébauche), Levallois production system, discoid production system. These terms have for too long concealed the variability of the characters in Paleolithic lithic production. We have now to reconsider the purposes of lithic studies and to aim to decipher the plurality of individuals and palaeolithic societies behaviours. / L’utilizzazione delle rocce diverse dalla selce nel Paleolitico antico e medio : scelte economiche, tecniche e funzionali, sulla base dello studio dei siti di Sainte-Anne I (Haute-Loire, France) (SIO 5-7) e di Notarchirico (Basilicata, Italia) (SIO 14-17).La questione principale alla quale abbiamo tentati di rispondere è la seguente: la variabilità delle materie prime (caratteristiche petrografiche e morfologia dei supporti) ha condizionato gli uomini preistorici durante la produzione nel tempo e nello spazio? La creazione e l’utilizzo di schede di analisi specifiche per ogni categoria di oggetti ci ha permesso di analizzare i caratteri tecnici specifici dei prodotti e di selezionare le variabili principali che hanno giocato un ruolo importante nella valutazione delle necessità alla base della produzione litica. L’analisi critica dei contesti lito-stratigrafici e la considerazione delle diversità tecnica, tecnologica o cronologica delle industrie permette di riconsiderare i paradigmi alla base della differenziazione delle tecniche: prodotti del façonnage bifacciale (bifacciale, ébauche), sistema di produzione Levallois, sistema di produzione Discoide. Questi termini hanno per troppo tempo celato la variabilità dei caratteri che durante il Paleolitico era necessario prendere in considerazione nella produzione litica. Adesso bisogna dare un nuovo indirizzo agli studi, indirizzandoli verso la presa di coscienza della pluralità dei comportamenti umani e delle società paleolitiche.