The Middle Palaeolithic of northern France

Northwestern France is characterized by the presence of many Middle Palaeolithic sites, covering the entire period. The Saalian phase is less documented, partly for taphonomic reasons. The lithic industries indicate mastery of all production systems for flakes, blades, points and to a lesser extent, bifaces. During the Upper Pleistocene, occupation of this territory by Neandertal groups is important. The vast majority of these lithic series cannot be attributed to cultural facies of Mousterian defined by Bordes, due to the low number of retouched tools. Aside from some typical Mousterian of Acheulean tradition bifaces and blade production characteristic of the Early Weichselian, which are stylistic and cultural markers, there is nothing to differentiate Mousterian groups. In an attempt to identify their cultural identities, lithic assemblages were apprehended globally, using the operative sequence concept from the acquisition of raw material to the final objectives of the different production systems, and abandonment of tools. The situation is considered from each chronostratigraphic phase to try to distinguish the settlement patterns of this region. This renewed approach to technical studies points to a wide diversity of Neandertal adaptive faculties, which can be interpreted in terms of cultural diversity.

The Lower to Middle Paleolithic Boundary: A view from the Near East, 2017

Northern France plays a central role in the debate around the Lower to Middle Paleolithic boundary since the first elaborations of the chronological timescale of Prehistory. Based the discussion around the discovery of the site of Biache-Saint-Vaast in the 1970’s, the onset of the Middle Paleolithic was pushed beyond the traditional Eemian limit (MIS 5e). Reinforced by other discoveries in the 1980’s and the 1990’s, the rich Saalian record of Northern France allowed for proposing a mosaic model of transition – mainly after A. Tuffreau’s works. Considering lithic industries, this model implied that during the MIS 8-6 period the coexistence of Upper Acheulean assemblages (numerous bifaces with little standardized retouched flakes), “Epi-Acheuléen” assemblages (rare bifaces and various retouched flakes) and Mousterian assemblages (Levalloisian industries). Since the 2000’s, progress in dating methods, the reanalysis of some sites with new views on the sedimentary sequences, the taphonomy, the lithic series as well as discovery of new key-sites like Therdonne or Etricourt-Manancourt provide new insights to our knowledge of this time period. A renewal in research themes has been done at the same time which not only focuses on lithic industries but includes a broader perspective incorporating other behavioural issues. What are the consequences of the new discoveries, studies and reanalysis concerning the previous transition model(s) established for northern France? Is our periodization still relevant considering new data on technological, behavioral and cultural changes ? What does the northern France record tell us about settlement and innovative dynamics compared to neighbouring areas (North-western Europe) and mire distant regions like the Near-East? After presenting a quick historical summary of the previous approaches on the Lower to Middle Paleolithic boundary, we will show that the current Saalian record of northern France is both rich and scarce. It implies some limits but the current record allows us to move forward on some current questions around the onset of the Middle Paleolithic. We will discuss some demographic issues considering low and high densities of humans in the region during the Saalian, taking into account chronoclimatic periods, geomorphological, taphonomic and archaeological data.

Crossing the Human Threshold Dynamic Transformation and Persistent Places During the Middle Pleistocene, 2017

Journal of Human Evolution, 2012

The sequence of Orgnac 3 in southern Europe is dated to MIS 9 and the beginning of MIS 8. The site contains records of Upper Acheulian occupations with evidence of Middle Palaeolithic technological strategies at the top of the sequence. In order to address the question of gradual versus punctuated changes in the onset of the Middle Palaeolithic, nine criteria on subsistence strategies and technological behaviour were selected throughout the whole stratigraphic sequence to describe behavioural patterns. Results indicate a mosaic of changes in hominin subsistence and technical behaviour and attest to both gradual and punctuated changes over time. For the most part, they cannot be explained by environmental factors such as site formation processes or climatic transitions. Thus, behavioural change at Orgnac 3 may be interpreted as 'multifaceted,' with a combination of gradual and punctuated shifts by hominins inhabiting the area. Orgnac 3 may be considered as a 'key-site' for understanding the basis of the Neanderthal material world and possibly the onset of clearly differentiated traditions in Neanderthal populations.

The Middle Palaeolithic in northwest Europe: multidisciplinary approaches

Characteristic features of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Eurasia, 2011

In the south west of France the majority of research concerning the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition tends to focus upon the Chatelperronian and Aurignacian at the expense of the end of the Middle Palaeolithic. This contribution attempts to rectify this shortcoming by demonstrating that the classic model of a direct MTA-Chatelperronian filiation is no longer valid as these two techno-complexes are in fact separated by two final Mousterian phases: a Discoid-Denticulate Mousterian followed by a Levallois Mousterian ...

7th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE UISPP COMMISSION ON FLINT MINING IN PRE- AND PROTOHISTORIC TIMES MONS AND SPIENNES 2016. Abstract Book, 2016

The petro-archaeology of flint defines the origin of the siliceous raw material found in archaeological sites. Recent methodological advances, like more precise facies definition, determining the flint supply routes in studied sites, the “evolutionary chain concept” and precise mapping of siliceous mineral domains, enable us to identify not only the location where any particular flint formed (primary outcrop), but also from where it was collected (primary or secondary outcrop). Exhaustive studies of Upper Palaeolithic flint collections from sites in the South of the French Massif Central (Recent and Final Gravettian: Le Blot and Le Rond-de-Saint-Arcons; Badegoulian: Le Rond du-Barry and La Roche-à-Tavernat; and Upper Magdalenian: Sainte-Anne II) reveal an unexpected diversity of raw materials indicative of huge mineral territories being exploited. Accordingly, we have developed a new figurative model for the origins of lithic raw material discovered in these archaeological sites, not as a site-centred radiant form, but more akin to an interrelated network of places, which is congruent with the ethnographic and geographic data.

Transformation in technological patterns associated with the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition between 50 and 40 ka in Western Europe and their relationship with the Neanderthal and Anatomically Modern Human populations and behaviors are issues that continue to stimulate heated debate. In this article we use the Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic archaeo-stratigraphic record from the Bordes-Fitte rockshelter (les Roches d'Abilly site, Central France), a Bayesian analysis of the ages obtained by accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon on ultrafiltered collagen and by luminescence on quartz and feldspar grains, to establish a timeline for material culture and sedimentary dynamic changes during the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition. Technology, refitting studies and taphonomy of lithic artifacts recovered in the geoarchaeological field units D1 and D2 permit to characterize 3 reduction strategies (Levallois, Discoidal and Châtelperronian blade) that took place between the cold Heinrich events 5 and 4. We discuss the implications of the results to characterize the end of the Middle Palaeolithic, and for distinguishing anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic factors in Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic assemblage's variability.