The U/Th dating method has been applied to five archeological sites in France. The U/Th method relies upon the co-precipitation of uranium with calcium carbonate in speleothems formed in caves. Because 230Th forms in the calcite from the decay of 234U a radiometric clock is begun in the newly deposited calcite. Dates are derived from measuring the isotopic abundances of the uranium and thorium in the calcite. For many archeological samples, preroasting of the sample before analysis is necessary to improve the yields. Normally, relative dates for archeological sites are derived from the comparison of paleoclimatic interpretations determined from sedimentological, faunal, and palynological studies of the cave sediments with global climatic records. These methods have established that the Mousterian culture and Neanderthals appeared in Europe at the beginning of the Würm, 80 Ka BP. Absolute dates determined for samples from Lachaise, Montgaudier, Pech de l'Aze, Abri Vaufrey, and Grotte 13, where archeological or faunal material is associated stratigraphically with speleothems sampled, have established that there were several regional climatic phenomena experienced in southern France. These events are dated at 80 to 120 Ka BP, interpreted to be the Riss/ Würm interglacial, and at 38 to 50 Ka, interpreted to be the Würm I/II interstadial. Furthermore, archeological materials and human skeletal remains associated with these sites and the speleothems therein, have proven that the Nean~erthals must have evolved prior to 150 Ka BP, but that they did not develop their Mousterian culture until about 125 Ka BP. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The economic life of Europe's Middle Paleolithic inhabitants is poorly known; at only a few sites have the relationships between subsistence behavior and other variables been studied in any detail. The deeply stratified site of Combe Grenal, Dordogne, France, provided an opportunity to study one part of this problem in one of the archaeologically best-known areas of Western Europe. Three aspects of animal exploitation (species preference, carcass use, and butchering techniques) were examined in relationship to each other and to three other variables (climate, associated lithic assemblages, and time). The results of this study, supported by data from Middle Paleolithic sites in the rest of Europe, provide an overall picture of the nature of Mousterian subsistence systems. Middle Paleolithic economies were based on a purposeful, eclectic, and internally diversified set of activities. These show a remarkable persistence through time and a remarkable independence from changes in both climate and lithic industry, while showing little evidence of evolutionary development. The striking conservatism in behavior has implications both for our evaluations of the efficiency of Mousterian technologies and for our concepts of the nature of Middle Paleolithic culture.

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.

Nos recherches se sont orientées vers l'étude des niveaux correspondant aux dernières phases du Moustérien de deux sites en grotte, Grotta del Cavallo et Grotta Mario Bernadini, situées sur le versant ionique des Pouilles dans la province de Lecce . Les deux sites en question ont fait l'objet de nombreuses études à partir des années 1960 (Palma Di Cesnola, 1963 ; Borzatti, 1970). Le choix de se concentrer spécifiquement sur les phases finales de cette période a été d'abord motivée par la nécessité de combler un vide de connaissance dans l'aire prise en compte concernant les aspects technologiques. L'objectif premier a été par conséquence de reconstituer les éléments liés à la production afin d'en comprendre la spécificité technologique et, dans une certaine mesure, les comportements techno-économiques. Ensuite, le choix des collections s'inscrit dans la volonté d'établir le point de départ pour évaluer à travers une confrontation entre les séries, les rapports phylogénétiques entre les dernières phases du Moustérien et les industries uluzziennes qui dans les deux sites succèdent à la séquence moustérienne. Enfin, le choix des deux sites repose sur une raison d'ordre géographique. Si les Pouilles constituent déjà un contexte particulier lié à l'isolement de l'extrême sud-est de l'Italie, la région de Salento qui est située dans sa partie méridionale se présente comme une insularité dans l'insularité. Cette position géographique singulière pourrait avoir revêtu un rôle d'isolement potentiel par rapport aux autres régions limitrophes et avoir comme conséquence laconstitution de phénomène locaux qui se sont traduit dans l'expression de caractères culturels, au sens plus large du terme, originaux. / The puzzles arising from the fragmentation of the Mousterian expressions in their late phases, as emerged fromthe archaeological evidence, have always been of interest for prehistoric research, as far as they are concerned with both cultural and biological aspects of human evolution. The cultural complexity that can be observed between 40.000 and 28.000 years ago in Europe depends onthe variety of Neanderthal economic and symbolic attitudes, in relation to both the advent of new technical expressions (Castelperronian, Uluzzian and sensu lato, transitional complexes) and to the persistente of productions that are still rooted in to the traditional variability of theMousterian groups. At the same time the appearing of techno-complexes attributed to the Upper Palaeolithic has been related by some authors to the emergence of particolar cognitive abilities, ascribed to the arrival of the anatomically modern humans (AMH) in Europe. In the last years the recognition of blades and bladelets productions in Mousterian context in France, Italy and in the Near East has mitigated this hypothetical relationship between these productionsand the spread of the AMH. This paper reports the results of the study of Mousterian lithic industries of Grotta del Cavallo and Grotta Mario Bernardini (Nardò, Lecce). The technological study shows the development of an autonomous schèma opératoire (along with other types of productions) oriented in the direction of blades and bladelets production bymeans of a volumetric exploitation. The recognition of this type of production - not recorded until now in the Salentin area - gives us the possibility to review the production systems that we can attribute at the Mousterian terminal phases of the southern Italy.

La présence de hachereaux au sein de nombreux sites du Paléolithique moyen pyrénéo-cantabrique a conduit F. Bordes à définir en 1953 un faciès régional, le Vasconien. Par la suite, des analyses typologiques centrées sur la représentativité des outils retouchés ont remis en question la validité de ce faciès tandis que la présence récurrente mais sporadique de hachereaux dans des ensembles du Paléolithique moyen a entraîné l’idée d’une perduration depuis l’Acheuléen ibérique. Dans ce travail de ré-évaluation du Paléolithique moyen récent pyrénéo-cantabrique, une large gamme de données issues de plusieurs champs disciplinaires a été mobilisée. Ce renouveau du cadre contextuel se voit consolidé par l’obtention récente de datations absolues permettant de proposer un cadre chronologique précis pour le Moustérien à hachereaux de l’OIS 3. L’analyse de près 450 hachereaux provenant de neuf sites est fondée sur une caractérisation technologique, morphométrique et fonctionnelle de ces outils du Paléolithique moyen récent. Cette première étape de caractérisation est ensuite complétée par la comparaison avec un corpus de près de 200 hachereaux acheuléens provenant de sites localisés au sein de la même aire géographique. Les différences perçues entre ces deux populations, corrélées à un cadre chronologique redéfini, permet d’écarter l’idée d’une perduration ponctuelle de ces outils depuis l’Acheuléen et de les identifier comme l’expression d’une réinvention, leur octroyant de la sorte une nouvelle signification culturelle. Parallèlement, les séries lithiques provenant de 7 sites localisés au nord de la zone vasco-cantabrique ont été analysées selon les principes classiques de la technologie lithique. Ces ensembles sont issus de contextes topographiques variés (grotte, abri, plein air) et de milieux diversifiés (montagnard, littoral, aride). Bien qu’une variabilité attendue soit perceptible entre ces ensembles, le même fond technologique est présent et les différences perçues sont évaluées à l’aune de la fonction présumée des occupations. Interprétées en termes de complémentarité, ces différences autorisent à proposer l’hypothèse d’un modèle d’organisation territorial à faible mobilité impliquant cependant une structuration sociale complexe de ces sociétés de la fin du Paléolithique moyen. Un premier essai de construction d’une archéoséquence pour la région pyrénéo-cantabrique permet de mieux cerner l’homogénéité et la place du Vasconien au niveau régional ainsi que vis-à-vis des technocomplexes qui l’encadrent. Des comparaisons avec les différentes traditions techniques évoluant en synchronie (principalement le Moustérien de Tradition Acheuléenne) permettent également d’aborder la question de leur autonomie respective et de proposer de nouvelles aires d’influences techniques auxquelles elles sont soumises. / The presence of cleavers in numerous Pyrenean-Cantabrian Middle Paleolithic sites led to the creation of a regional facies called Vasconian (Bordes, 1953). Later, typological analyses based on shaped tool classes’ cumulative frequency have questioned the very existence of this facies (Cabrera Valdés, 1983). The recurrence of cleavers within Middle Paleolithic assemblages was then interpreted as a long perdurance of the Iberian Acheulean. The present research was aimed to re-evaluate the Pyrenean-Cantabrian Late Middle Paleolithic through the comparison of a large variety of data. It is supported by a detailed and renewed chronological framework for the Mousterian with cleavers of OIS 3 based on newly obtained radiometric data. The analysis included technological, morphometric and functional characterization of over 450 cleavers from nine sites attributed to the Late Middle Paleolithic. Our results were then compared to ca. 200 Acheulean cleavers from the same area. The differences between these two populations and a revised chronological framework allow us to reject the hypothesis of a sporadic persistence of cleavers after the Acheulean. We rather propose that these tools have resulted of a new invention and fully were a cultural marker. Meanwhile, the whole lithic ensembles from seven sites located north of the Basque-Cantabrian area were analyzed with the conventional methods of lithic technology. These sites correspond to various topographic contexts (caves, rock shelters, and open air sites) and to diverse environments (alpine, coastal, and arid). Despite an expected variability between these ensembles, we identified a shared technological tradition and propose that differences could be the result of different site functions. If we consider the different sites as being complementarity, we can propose the hypothesis of a low-mobility territorial structuration and thus a social complexity of the Late Middle Paleolithic societies. A first attempt to build a cultural-stratigraphic sequence for the Pyrenean-Cantabrian region is being made in order to properly assess the Vasconian location and homogeneity as for the constraining techno-complexes. Comparisons with contemporaneous techno-complexes (and more particularly with the MTA) allow us to address their respective autonomy within a newly defined technical are of influence.

Fieldwork in the Zemplen Mountain area of north-eastern Hungary showed that there are at least eight geological sources of obsidian here, five of which have obsidian of a workable quality. There are a further three sources in the Slovak Zemplen, all of which provide workable obsidian. Sources in Central Slovakia are highly devitrified and not useable, and reported sources in Rumania had been discounted earlier (Nandris, 1975). Forty-six samples of obsidian from the Zemplen sources, and 293 pieces from 87 archaeological sites in Central and Eastern Europe, were analysed by neutron activation analysis for 15 trace and two major elements. The trace elements used included those which are geochemically likely to show the greatest variation between different obsidian sources, and which are not badly affected by devitrification and hydration of the obsidian, for example the rare earth elements. The analytical data was processed using Cluster Analysis. 242 of the archaeological samples came from Slovak sources, 22 from Hungarian sources, 9 from Lipari and 5 from Melos. In addition, 6 samples were tentatively assigned to Carpathian sources, and 9 could not be assigned to any source. Obsidian from the Zemplen Mountains was distributed up to a distance of approximately 480 km from the sources; it was used extensively in Slovakia and Hungary and reached southern Poland, Austria, Moravia, central Yugoslavia, north-east Italy and central Rumania. Obsidian use in central and eastern Europe began in the Mousterian period. The earliest pieces analysed were Aurignacian and came from Hungarian sources. Later, in the Gravettian, Slovakian sources began to be exploited and remained predominant until obsidian use declined sharply in the Later Neolithic, and Copper and Bronze Ages. The Carpathian obsidian distribution overlaps with the Liparian distribution at one site in north-east Italy. There is no evidence for an overlap with Aegean or Near Eastern sources. The rate of fall off of obsidian away from the sources suggests a down-the-line trading mechanism.

Le but de cette thèse est de fournir une nouvelle analyse relative aux industries lithiques du Paléolithique moyen venant des grottes de Shanidar et de Bisitun. Ces grottes sont situées dans le centre de la chaine de montagne du Zagros, à l’ouest de l'Iran (Middle Est). Les nombreuses chaines du Zagros s'étendent le long du sud et ouest de l'Iran et dans le nord de l'Iraq. Cette analyse sera effectuée en utilisant une approche techno-fonctionnelle incluant également une étude tracéologique (étude des traces d’utilisation du matériel archéologique au moyen à faible et fort grossissement au moyen d’une loupe binoculaire et d’un microscope optique à réflexion). Les industries lithiques de la région du Zagros ont été fréquemment étudiées par les chercheurs (Coon, 1951/1957; ((Skinner, 1965); (Lindly, 1997) (Dibble, 1984-1993). Cependant, leurs études sont basées sur une analyse typologique comparative offrant ainsi une vision fragmentaire des productions humaines et au-delà des outils qu’ils ont produits. Mes recherches ont pour objectif de reconsidérer les chaînes opératoires de production lithiques en mettant en place une méthode d’analyse techno-fonctionnelle. Ceci afin de percevoir les outils (bruts ou retouchés) dans toute leur dynamique conceptuelle et fonctionnelle c’est-à-dire en tant qu’objectif d’une chaîne opératoire de production et moyen d’une ou plusieurs activités. Le but étant : - dans une perspective synchronique, de repenser la chaîne opératoire en fonction de la finalité et des objectifs de l’outillage : - La variété et la forme des racloirs sont étroitement liées à leurs spécificités fonctionnelles. - Le modèle de réduction, proposé par Dibble, pour ces industries moustériennes est-il valide et fiable ? - dans une perspective diachronique, d’appréhender la singularité des comportements humains, leur diversité et/ou leur variabilité au cours du temps, tout en recherchant les facteurs à l’origine de cette diversité : - environnements : spécificités environnementales de la région du Zagros etc. ; - traditions techniques et culturelles ; - “savoir-faire” et/ou “manières de faire” etc. / The purpose of the dissertation is to provide a new analysis of Middle Palaeolithic industries from Shanidar, Bisitun caves and also Warwasi rockshelter. These sites are located in the center of the Zagros Mountain Range in western Iran (Middle East). Lithic industries in the Zagros region have been frequently studied by researchers (Coon 1951, 1957, Skinner 1965, Lindly 1997, Dibble 1984, 1993). These studies are often based on a comparative typological analysis, therefor for the reasons which are explained in the text, I think the studies are offering a fragmented view of lithic productions and consequently the prehistoric world of technic. This analysis is carried out using a techno-functional approach in the way to consider the chaîne opératoire and its technical role in volumetric matrix (supports) production and the supports in action, in terms of normalized and non-normalized volumes and their potential to complete a task. My objective is also to conduct a technological analysis by synchronic and diachronic perspectives on the lithic industries unearthed from different archaeological sites in Middle East during end of MIS 5, 4 and 3. The two new definitions of the exploitations structures, it means Additional and Integrated structures are a part of structural approach to achive the purposes. The purposes of study are:- In a synchronic perspective, to rethink on the structures of exploitations according to the objectives of production and tools realisation. - From a diachronic perspective, to understand the singularity of past individual’s technical solutions, their diversity and / or their variability over the time, while looking for the factors at the origin of this diversity.The hypotheses;- The variability among the assemblages, including the scrapers are closely related to the subset of incising artifacts and cutting edge geometry.- The Reduction Model, proposed by Dibble, does present only one kind of reduction within Mousterian industries.

Le Moustérien se présente au Proche-Orient comme un technocomplexe qui associe des tendances générales dans la succession des industries lithiques, à une diversité technique difficile à cerner dans un cadre unitaire. Dans cette aire du bassin méditerranéen, témoin de dynamiques de peuplement complexes entre les continents, les modèles de la variabilité du Moustérien ont été élaborés à partir des sites de la zone côtière. Les sites de la zone steppique ont toujours été interprétés en relation à ces modèles. Pourtant, les données semblent témoigner d’une diversité technique plus importante. Nous proposons une lecture géographique de cette diversité à partir de la comparaison de trois séquences : Umm el Tlel, dans l’aire semi-aride de Syrie ; Yabroud I, dans les montagnes au nord de Damas ; et Ksar ‘Akil, sur la côte libanaise. A l’intérieur de la mosaïque paléoenvironnementale qui caractérise le Proche-Orient, chacun de ces sites rend compte d’un milieu particulier et permet d’appréhender la question des changements techniques dans différents contextes. L’analyse technologique met en évidence que, au-delà de la continuité d’un système de débitage unique, le système Levallois, chaque industrie témoigne d’objectifs et de méthodes différentes. La comparaison montre que les changements techniques ne se produisent pas partout de la même façon : à Umm el Tlel et Yabroud I, chaque couche présente une industrie différente, alors qu´à Ksar ‘Akil, une continuité technique est partagée par les industries de plusieurs couches, les changements se produisant à travers de grands ensembles successifs dans le temps. Nous proposons que ces différentes modalités de changements dans le temps soient liées à une diversité techno-culturelle plus importante des populations qui se sont succédées dans la zone steppique que dans la zone côtière. Des dynamiques d’occupation spécifiques de l’espace macro-régional sont alors proposées, qui peuvent expliquer ces différences. / The Near Easter Mousterian technocomplex shows some large chronological trends in the lithic industry changes, and also an internal technical diversity which is difficult to explain in a homogeneous framework. In this area of the Mediterranean basin, place of complex population dispersals between the continents, the first definitions and models of Mousterian variability, have been developed starting from sites in the coastal area. The steppic semi-arid area has always been interpreted using this model framework, but the data we have in this area suggest a deeper technical diversity. We introduce a geographical perspective to go through this technical diversity, based on the comparison of three Mousterian sequences: Umm el Tlel, in the semi-arid area of Syria, Yabroud I, in the mountainous area in the north of Damascus, and Ksar ‘Akil, on the Lebanese coast. In the paleoenvironmental mosaic which is the peculiarity of the Near Eastern region, each one of these sites belongs to a specific milieu, and documents the issue of technological changes in different contexts. Technical analyses show the continuity of the same production system, the Levallois débitage, shared by the industries of the three sites. In a comparative perspective, technical changes don’t appear at the same rhythm in the three sequences: in Umm el Tlel and Yabroud I, each layer has a different technological organisation; on the other side at Ksar ‘Akil a technical continuity is shared by several layers and changes appear following progressive trends during time. We suggest that these different change modalities are the result of a deeper techno-cultural diversity of human groups populating the steppic area. Specific settlement dynamics of the macro-regional space are suggested to explain these differences.

Différents modèles ont été proposés pour expliquer l’émergence de capacités cognitives complexes et de cultures modernes. Un nombre croissant de preuves révélant un comportement complexe et innovant au moyen Age de la Pierre en Afrique, mais aussi dans les cultures néandertaliennes, ont déclenché plusieurs changements de paradigme dans ce domaine au cours des dernières décennies. Une grande partie du matériel potentiellement pertinent pour ce domaine doit encore être documenté et étudié dans l'optique d’évaluer son importance et implication dans le débat sur les origines du comportement symbolique (SMB). L’Europe de l’Est (EE) en est un bon exemple. Bien que de découvertes aient été faites en EE, le matériel archéologique pertinent pour l’étude des origines du comportement moderne n’est généralement pas systématiquement et spécifiquement traité comme tel. Cette thèse représente une tentative globale de documenter et d’évaluer ce matériel, permettant une vue plus claire de la disponibilité de preuves potentiellement pertinentes, comme première étape nécessaire pour comprendre le temps et le mode d’émergence des SMB dans ces régions. Accompagnée d'une base de données décrivant les annales archéologiques, la thèse présente trois études de cas présentant l'analyse des objets ayant des implications pour l’émergence de comportements complexes en EE. Ces études élargissent la vision de l’émergence du SMB en EE. Elles identifient de nouvelles preuves de comportement complexe avant l’UP à partir d’une vaste région encore sous-représentée et apportent de nouvelles approches méthodologiques à leur analyse, contribuant ainsi à l’évaluation des modèles sur l’émergence du SMB. / A number of different models has been proposed to explain the emergence of complex cognitive abilities and cultures comparable to ours. A growing body of evidence revealing complex and innovative behavior in African MSA, but also in Neanderthal cultures, triggered several paradigmatic shifts in this field during the past decades. A lot of the possibly relevant material still needs to be documented and evaluated in order to assess its significance and implications it may have for the debate on the origins of symbolically mediated behavior (SMB). Eastern Europe (EE) represents a case in point. Although potentially relevant discoveries have been made, the archaeological material pertinent for the study of origins of modern behavior and culture generally is not systematically and specifically addressed as such. This dissertation represents an integrated attempt to document and evaluate such material, allowing a more balanced view of the availability of potentially relevant evidence from EE, necessary to understand the time and mode of the emergence of SMB in these regions. Along a database outlining possibly relevant archaeological record, the dissertation presents three specific case studies reporting the results of analysis of the objects bearing implications for the emergence of complex, possibly symbolic behavior in EE. The case studies that form a core of the dissertation broaden the view of the emergence of SMB in EE. They identify new evidence of complex behavior pre-dating the UP from a vast, usually underrepresented region, and bring new methodological approaches to their analysis, contributing thus to the evaluation of the models on the emergence of SMB.

This thesis concerns the relationship between research in experimental archaeology and the intangible of the past. Only a quarter of technological experiments in a sample of 100 studies addresses the intangible of technological practice, and this project sets out to explore if there are conceptual or practical obstacles for this low rate. The thesis begins with an in-depth examination of experimental archaeology and the criteria, paradigms and theories that determine its practice. Through this study, elements of the dichotomy positivism/postmodernism are uncovered and discussed. To resolve this dualism, a third paradigm – philosophical pragmatism – is introduced as an alternative. This conceptual debate represents Part I, and is subsequently collated into a methodological framework for the creation of a typified experiment. Part II consists of the experimental segment of this study, in search for practical obstacles for the exploration of the intangible. Through experimenting with Iron Age Bucket-shaped pots, Mesolithic faceted pebbles and Middle Palaeolithic birch bark tar production, different components of an experiment are highlighted for investigation. An element that comes forward as problematic is the relationship between experimental archaeologists and science ideals that is underscored by experimental tradition. Conclusively, the final discussion leaves the conceptual and practical barriers that may prevent archaeologists from studying the intangible aspects of technology overturned. In sum, this may enable experimental archaeologists to take a fuller view of their own practice and that of the people of the past.