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THE USE OF ANIMAL RESOURCES IN THE MOUSTERIAN OF COMBE GRENAL, FRANCE.

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.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/185970
Date January 1983
CreatorsCHASE, PHILIP GRATON.
ContributorsFish, Paul, Jelinek, Arthur, Olsen, Stanley
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic)
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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