Hugues Plisson

• University of Bordeaux

When they are occasionally found in Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthal settlements, lithic weapons heads are large and do not differ in size, shaping or type from those used for activities other than hunting, such as plant gathering or butchery. The presence in a same assemblage of various types of armatures, some of which are microlithic and designed...

Did Neanderthal produce a bone industry? The recent discovery of a large bone tool assemblage at the Neanderthal site of Chagyrskaya (Altai, Siberia, Russia) and the increasing discoveries of isolated finds of bone tools in various Mousterian sites across Eurasia stimulate the debate. Assuming that the isolate finds may be the tip of the iceberg an...

Did Neanderthal produce a bone industry? The recent discovery of a large bone tool assemblage at the Neanderthal site of Chagyrskaya (Altai, Siberia, Russia) and the increasing discoveries of isolated finds of bone tools in various Mousterian sites across Eurasia stimulate the debate. Assuming that the isolate finds may be the tip of the iceberg an...

The mountains systems of Central Asia are primary targets to study late Pleistocene climate evolution given their location at the crossroads of several atmospheric circulation systems. The timing of glacier extent during this period remains understudied, especially in the Altai Mountains. Here, we have reconstructed glacier extent during three main...

Did Neanderthal produce a bone industry? The recent discovery of a large bone tool assemblage at the Neanderthal site of Chagyrskaya (Altai, Siberia, Russia) and the increasing discoveries of isolated finds of bone tools in various Mousterian sites across Eurasia stimulate the debate. Assuming that the isolate finds may be the tip of the iceberg an...

During the MIS 4 in Southwestern France, Quina Neanderthal from the north of the Aquitaine was characterized by a hunting specialization on the reindeer and the lack of diversity in their diet. They developed task-specific locations dedicated to the capture, the butchery, and the consumption of reindeer, and the whole society seems, in this region,...

The Solutrean lithic industry is well-known for its pressure-shaped lithic points, however, for more than a century, only a few specimens of possible pressure-flakers have been mentioned in the literature. Ethnography, experimental pressure flaking and, by analogy, more recent archaeological contexts, provide samples of pressure-flakers. They are m...

This paper reflects on relationship between the fonctional characteristics of artifacts and their ultimate deposition in sites. As an example, stone projectile points used in hunting, specifically Solutrean shouldered points from Combe-Saunière, are considered in terms of the various factors of technology and function that influence the dispersion...

As part of an archaeological research project, we investigate the geomorphology of the cold and arid study area by combining field mapping with use of orthoimages and DEM. To the north of a broad trunk valley floor, gentle slopes continuously vegetated culminate around 3000 m, while to the south steep slopes reaching to 3500 m are deeply incised an...

For a long time, the rich bone industries of the Upper Palaeolithic were opposed to the opportunistic Neandertal bone tools among which the bone retoucher was the most common type. The recent finding of a few shaped bone tools into Mousterian contexts has been taken as an emergence of a “modern behaviour”. However, this outlook is based on biased c...

One of the most common problems encountered in research on open-air petroglyph sites is determining the age of the imagery. Most images are not covered by calcite or other deposits which can be directly dated. Archaeological layers located under petroglyph panels may allow connections between imagery and datable cultural contexts to be established....

For a long time, the rich bone industries of the Upper Palaeolithic were opposed to the opportunistic Neandertal bone tools among which the bone retoucher was the most common type. The recent finding of a few shaped bone tools into Mousterian contexts has been taken as an emergence of a “modern behaviour”. However, this outlook is based on biased c...

Numerous projectile experiments focusing on the replication and use of Stone Age spearheads and arrowheads made of bone or antler have been undertaken since the early 1980s. A survey of this literature is presented here, focusing on aspects of point resistance and breakage patterns, in order to provide a synthetic view of the experimentally-atteste...

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The grinding of stone to make sharp cutting edges did not evolve with the emergence of biologically modern humans in Africa, but late in the Pleistocene at the completion or nearcompletion of the Out-of-Africa 2 migration. Here we discuss the earliest securely-dated fragment of ground-edge axe from Australia, dated at 35,500 cal. bp, an age slightl...

Contrary to what Zwyns et al. claim on a bibliographical basis, the lithic industry of Byzovaya cannot belong to the Streletskayan complex or be considered as Upper Palaeolithic (UP). Direct analysis of northern assemblages and of Streletskayan technologies reveals incompatible features between these industries. Byzovaya is structured on specific M...

Recent excavations at Nawarla Gabarnmang in Jawoyn country, southwest Arnhem Land have produced a long sequence of AMS radiocarbon determinations on individual pieces of charcoal reliably associated with stone artifacts dating back to 45,180±910 cal BP. It represents one of the earliest radiocarbon-dated archaeological sites in Australia. Here we r...

The technology of the European Upper Palaeolithic yielded abundant evidence of the use of composite projectile heads, in the form of osseous points on the side of which one or several (micro)lithic elements are attached. Yet, little experimental work has been devoted to testing and assessing the parameters of use of this type of composite tips. In...

Palaeolithic sites in Russian high latitudes have been considered as Upper Palaeolithic and thus representing an Arctic expansion of modern humans. Here we show that at Byzovaya, in the western foothills of the Polar Urals, the technological structure of the lithic assemblage makes it directly comparable with Mousterian Middle Palaeolithic industri...

Recent excavations at Nawarla Gabarnmang in Jawoyn country, southwest Arnhem Land have produced a long sequence of AMS radiocarbon determinations on individual pieces of charcoal reliably associated with stone artefacts dating back to 45,180±910 cal BP. It represents one of the earliest radiocarbon-dated archaeological sites in Australia. Here we r...

Evidence for the world's earliest stone tools dates to 3.4 million years ago and pre-dates the earliest known Homo species in eastern Africa. However ground-edged tools did not appear until the dispersal of cognitively fully modern Homo sapiens sapiens out of Africa. We report on the discovery of the earliest securely dated ground-edge implement in...

Un nouveau dolmen a été découvert dans les Bouches-du-Rhône à l’occasion de prospections et sondages réalisés par l’Inrap. Le potentiel archéologique de la structure a seulement été évalué et la modification du projet d’aménagement a permis d’en éviter la fouille. Au nord du département des Bouches-du-Rhône, en bordure de la vallée de la Durance, l...

A new dolmen was discovered in the Bouches-du-Rhône département during surveys and test trenches performed by Inrap prior to setting up a pipeline. The archaeological potential of the structure was only assessed and the project amendment allowed avoiding a complete excavation. The monument is located on a piedmont, in the Northern part of the Bouch...

FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF MACRO-LITHIC ARTEFACTS: A FOCUS ON WORKING SURFACES Abstract: Macro-lithic tools are among the most abundant artefact categories in the archaeological record. They are made from a wide range of rocks, worked through various techniques and served to carry out a large array of tasks, beginning in the Palaeolithic and continuin...

The child burial of the Figuier Cave provides not only one of the very few human specimens known in the Rhône valley for the whole Upper Paleolithic, but moreover, at a larger scale, a rare example of grave for the early Upper Paleolithic. It has been excavated by Maurice Veyrier in 1947 and briefly published in 1953. A technological and traceologi...

Microlithization is one of the most intriguing trends in the evolution of lithic industries. In Europe, studies of this phenomenon have particularly focused on the Sauveterrian, a major facies of the Mesolithic. In a recent synthesis of use-wear data, it has been suggested that the Sauveterrian flint industries reflect a minimal technical system pr...

Lapa do Anecrial is a small cave site located in central Portuguese Estremadura. Three field seasons (1992, 1993 and 1995) have provided a stratigraphic sequence spanning the transition from the Gravettian to the Solutrean, with three short-term occupations recognized (one in layer 1, and two in layer 2). In layer 2 (a surface which between ~23,500...

Lapa do Anecrial is a small cave site located in central Portuguese Estremadura. Three field seasons (1992, 1993 and 1995) have provided a stratigraphic sequence spanning the transition from the Gravettian to the Solutrean, with three short-term occupations recognized (one in layer 1, and two in layer 2). In layer 2 (a surface which between ~23,500...

Le gisement du Bois Pargas, situé sur la commune de Pageas en Haute-Vienne, fut identifié à la suite des violentes tempêtes de la fin de l'année 1999 par la découverte de matériel archéologique pris dans une souche de châtaigner renversée. La réalisation d'un sondage permit de montrer que cet arbre s'était enraciné sur une fosse préhistorique. Bien...

The circulation over large distances of particularly sophisticated lithic products is one of the outstanding phenomena of the close of the West European Neolithic; the flint daggers from Grand Pressigny are a particularly obvious example. Manufactured in Touraine throughout the III millennium BC, they are found in Brittany, Aquitaine, the Rhone val...

Le gisement du Bois Pargas, situé sur la commune de Pageas en Haute-Vienne, fut identifié à la suite des violentes tempêtes de la fin de l’année 1999 par la découverte de matériel archéologique pris dans une souche de châtaigner renversée. La réalisation d’un sondage permit de montrer que cet arbre s’était enraciné sur une fosse préhistorique. Bien...

L'analyse tracéologique de huit pièces de silex récoltées dans la grotte Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc a révélé des traces d'utilisation sur quatre d'entre eux. Une seule peut être mise en relation avec le travail des parois alors que deux pièces ont servi à découper des tissus carnés, dont une retrouvée au milieu d'ossements d'ours. Ces discrets indices, com...

The long-distance export of state-of-the-art lithic products from specialized workshops characterizes the end of the Neolithic in Western Europe. Discoveries of flint daggers from Grand Pressigny (Touraine), particularly in Switzerland but also in the Netherlands, Brittany, the Saône Valley or Aquitaine, are a good illustration of this phenomenon....

Parmi les phénomènes qui marquent la fin du Néolithique ouest-européen figure l'exportation à grande distance de produits lithiques particulièrement élaborés provenant d'ateliers spécialisés. Les innombrables découvertes de poignards du Grand-Pressigny (Touraine) aussi bien en Suisse, qu 'en Bretagne, aux Pays-Bas, dans la vallée de la Saône ou en...

La grotte dite Buraca Escura appartient à la bordure occidentale du massif de Sicó. Elle a été occupée à plusieurs reprises pendant la Préhistoire. La séquence stratigraphique, de l¿ordre des 3 mètres d¿épaisseur, qui contient des vestiges d¿occupation du Paléolithique supérieur et moyen est surmontée par de rares vestiges attribuables à la Préhist...

The aim of the experimental archaeological program TRANSIT is to improve the scientific study of Paleolithic sites. This program is based on studies and experiments carried out at high altitudes in the French Alps. One of its goals is to assess the effects of periglacial processes on spatial distributions within archaeological assemblages and on ar...

Le Mousterien du Proche-Orient est caracterise par un large developpement d'industries de debitage Levallois, axees majoritairement sur la production d'elements triangulaires (pointes Levallois, eclats triangulaires et subtriangulaires), resultant le plus souvent d'une modalite ď exploitation unipolaire convergente. Parmi les outils identifies dans...

Les resultats obtenus depuis 1994 sur le site des Maitreaux, localise a proximite d'une source de silex d'excellente aptitude a la taille et disponible en abondance, ont permis de dissocier plusieurs niveaux d'occupations attribuables au Solutreen. La repartition spatiale des vestiges est exceptionnellement bien preservee dans des limons argileux....

Excavations were resumed at Hayonim terrace in 1980. The uppermost structures are of Byzantine to Chalcolithic Age. Late Natufian layers were uncovered underneath. The remnants of a house and its surroundings, with one built pit, one large limestone mortar and two burials seem to pertain to the same stratigraphie horizon. Some wild barley was found...

Res. d'A.: L'analyse technologique des pointes a cran solutreennes revele un usage preferentiel en armatures de projectiles legers. Parmi ces pointes, deux types technomorphologiques bien individualises, A et B, resultent des chaines operatoires de fabrication differenciees. Ces objets coexistent cependant avec d'autres types d'armatures lithiques...