Jean-Jacques Bahain

Jean-Jacques Bahain
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle · Homme et Environnement

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475
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Publications

Publications (475)
Article
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The site of LuneryRosieres la-Terre-des-Sablons (Lunery, Cher, France) comprises early evidence of human occupation in mid-latitudes in Western Europe. It demonstrates hominin presence in the Loire River Basin during the Early Pleistocene at the transition between an interglacial stage and the beginning of the following glacial stage. Three archaeo...
Article
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The Iranian Central Plateau (ICP) with the Alborz and the Zagros Mountains is located at the crossroads between the Levant and the Caucasus to the west and Central Asia and East Asia to the east. These two regions yielded key paleoanthropological and archaeological sites from the Middle Pleistocene period. These discoveries highlight a large human...
Article
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The calcareous tufa sequence and associated Palaeolithic site of Caours were discovered in 2002 during a test‐pit campaign aimed at identifying last interglacial (MIS 5e) archives in the fluvial terrace system of the Somme basin, northern France. The presence of an outstanding stratigraphical succession with four in situ Palaeolithic layers within...
Article
The Mousterian of the Grotta Grande (Southern Italy) is here subject to new dating, which provide a surprisingly high-resolution on the stratigraphic sequence. Overall, the deposit in the Trench F appears framed in the MIS 5, into a brief chronological time span immediately after the Last Interglacial, between ∼116 ka and 109 ka. Significant archa...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The ages of the geomorphological and sedimentary records from the Peniche coastline are characterised and calculated by absolute dating and identified 5 marine terraces below the culminating platform, attributed to marine incursion dating back to ~3.7 Ma. The terraces located above the current marine abrasion platform are correlated with periods of...
Article
In the Basilicata region, located in southern Italy and known for hosting among the first occurrences of the Acheulean culture in southwestern Europe, the Lower Paleolithic site of Loreto at Venosa is located less than a kilometer from the emblematic site of Notarchirico and less than 25 km from Cimitero di Atella. The Loreto site has not been stud...
Article
Full-text available
The Early to Middle Pleistocene Transition (EMPT) is characterised by major environmental changes and evolutionary innovations within the genus Homo but the scarcity of the African EMPT fossil and archaeological records obscures its palaeoecological context. Here, we present archaeological and faunal evidence from a newly excavated West-Turkana EMP...
Chapter
Goda Buticha is located some 30 km west of the Dire Dawa city in eastern Ethiopia and is one of the rare stratified archaeological sites in the Horn of Africa that documents Late Pleistocene human occupation from at least c. 63 ka. To date, c. 5 m3 of sediments have been excavated from a surface of 2 m2 at the entrance of the cave. The Goda Buticha...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This study focuses on two marine terrace staircases of central Portugal: Cabo Raso (west of Lisboa) and Cabo Espichel (western Arrábida chain). Four emerse marine terraces were found in the Cabo Raso area, while twelve were found at Cabo Espichel, according to geomorphological and stratigraphical studies. Electron Spin Resonance and luminescence da...
Article
The Pongo fossil record of China extends from the Early Pleistocene to the Late Pleistocene, but to date, no late Middle Pleistocene samples of Pongo with precise absolute dating have been identified in southern China. Here, we report the recovery of 106 fossil teeth of Pongo from Ganxian Cave in the Bubing Basin, Guangxi, southern China. We dated...
Article
Full-text available
Long considered on the margins, far from the major cultural traditions, the Sechura Desert is situated at the crossroads between the cultures of southern Ecuador and those of the northern Peruvian coast and preserves a large number of varied archaeological sites. Despite this evidence, little is known about the societies that inhabited this region...
Article
Des analyses par uranium-thorium (U-Th-TIMS), par résonance de spin électronique combinée à l’U-Th (ESR/U-Th) et par luminescence stimulée optiquement (OSL) ont été réalisées sur des échantillons provenant de la formation de Waziers, en France septentrionale. Ces trois méthodes ont été respectivement appliquées sur un échantillon de gyrogonite prov...
Article
Full-text available
As the northernmost locality yielding one of the most representative Early Pleistocene Gigantopithecus–Sinomastodon faunas in southern China, the Longgupo site has preserved valuable geological archives that have significantly improved our understanding of Pleistocene biostratigraphy and biogeography. A convincing chronological framework of this lo...
Article
Full-text available
Most archaeological and palaeo-environmental archives are preserved in specific environments (buried sediments, rock shelters, cave environments). Hence, the information we can obtain is usually incomplete, and lacking spatial and morphological significance. Studying landscape evolution can help us to understand the location and distribution of pas...
Article
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The Three Gorges region (TGR) located in the geographic center of China, is a transition zone between mountain and plain areas, and a probable migration corridor for hominins and other mammals between South and North China. Detailed chronological information of paleoanthropological evidence in this area could help us better understand the human evo...
Article
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Current data seem to suggest that the earliest hominins only occupied the Northwest of Europe during favourable climatic periods, and left the area when the climate was too cold and dry, in the same way as Neandertal and even Homo sapiens. However, several sites in England and the North of France indicate that the earliest hominins, possibly Homo a...
Article
Curation of archaeological materials often leads to carrying out multi-analytical methodologies that combine non-invasive and invasive elemental analyses. Such materials are often analysed with different techniques. It results in the production of complementary but apparently non-compatible compositional datasets that cannot be easily compared. In...
Article
Curation of archaeological materials often leads to carrying out multi-analytical methodologies that combine non-invasive and invasive elemental analyses. Such materials are often analysed with different techniques. It results in the production of complementary but apparently non-compatible compositional datasets that cannot be easily compared. In...
Article
Palaeolithic sites associated with the Eemian Interglacial (MIS 5e) are very rare in NW Europe, and especially in Northern France, where their preservation is restricted to very specific geological contexts, in association with carbonated tufa (Caours) or peat deposits (Waziers). In order to check the reliability of ESR/U-series method to date teet...
Article
Yumidong (Corn Cave) is a newly discovered Paleolithic site in the Three Gorges region of central China. Numerous Paleolithic artifacts have been excavated from the sedimentary deposits of the cave in association with faunal remains attributed to the Middle-Late Pleistocene Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna of southern China. To establish the chronology of...
Article
The Three Gorges and Western Hubei area in the geographic central part of China was a potential migration corridor for early hominin and mammals linking South and North China during the Pleistocene period. Some key early hominin sites are known in this region where limestone cave and fissure sites are numerous but difficult to date as beyond the da...
Article
Full-text available
The paper provides new data on the age and formation processes of Garba I (Melka Kunture, Upper Awash, Ethiopia). The site, one of the largest handaxe accumulations of the African Acheulean, was extensively excavated in the 1960s of the last century by J. Chavaillon but left largely unpublished. The chronology was also poorly constricted. Quartz gr...
Article
Mirak is a Palaeolithic site in Iran comprising several localities ("mounds") scattered over a dry floodplain environment extending from the southern foothills of the Alborz Mountains to the northern edge of the Central Desert in the Semnan area. The area has been studied since 2015 by an Iranian-French archaeological mission. The archaeological ex...
Article
Previous studies have suggested that the Lower-to-Middle Paleolithic transition was associated with the earliest Neanderthals, but recent research has established that the oldest Neanderthal fossils and the first signs of their technologies and behavior appear from MIS 11 or possibly earlier. To understand these changes, re-evaluation of the eviden...
Article
Full-text available
As the northernmost locality yielding one of the most representative Early Pleistocene Gigantopithe-cus-Sinomastodon faunas in southern China, the Longgupo site has preserved valuable geological archives that have significantly improved our understanding of Pleistocene biostratigraphy and biogeography. A convincing chronological framework of this l...
Article
Full-text available
L’Acheuléen et la technologie de façonnage bifacial qui lui est associée sont, en Europe occidentale, caractéristiques des assemblages lithiques du Pléistocène moyen, période comprise entre environ 780 000 et 130 000 ans pour laquelle l’obtention d’âges numériques a longtemps été difficile. Depuis le début des années 1980, grâce au développement de...
Article
The middle Rhône valley, located at the southeastern margins of the Massif Central in France, produced a large number of Middle Palaeolithic sites, most of which dated to the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Due to its position, connecting northern Europe and the Mediterranean basin, this corridor and the surrounding plateaus are of particular interest...
Article
Full-text available
Carbonated rocks constitute one of the main lithologies of the southeastern Tibet area, China, a tectonically very active zone. However, due to the lack of suitable dating materials, it is difficult to carry out chronological studies of the local tectonic evolution in such carbonate areas. In the present study, electron spin resonance (ESR) method...
Chapter
The Paleolithic site of Mutzig, discovered by chance in 1992 (Sainty 1992), has been the focus of several excavations since 2009. Located in Alsace (Bas-Rhin, France), it is presently one of only a handful of sites reliably attributed to the Mid- dle Paleolithic in this area, thus providing rare evidence for a zone still relatively unknown for Earl...
Article
The Bytham River was one of the major pre-Anglian (MIS 12) rivers of eastern England. Flowing from the Midlands to the East Anglian coast, it has been recognised at numerous sites by its distinctive lithological suite, containing significant quantities of quartzite, quartz and Carboniferous chert that originate from central England. In the Brecklan...
Conference Paper
This study provides new geomorphological and geochronological data (Electron spin resonance dating, ESR), allowing the characterization and correlation of the fluvial terrace staircases of the Lower Tejo River at reach IV with the marine terracesadjacent to the river mouth, namely at the Raso and Espichel capes (western central Portugal). The terra...
Article
Full-text available
New Caledonia was, until recently, considered an old continental island harbouring a rich biota with outstanding Gondwanan relicts. However, deep marine sedimentation and tectonic evidence suggest complete submergence of the island during the latest Cretaceous to the Paleocene. Molecular phylogenies provide evidence for some deeply-diverging clades...
Article
Some areas in Western Europe indicate hiatuses in human occupations, which cannot be systematically attributed to taphonomic factors and poor site preservation. The site of la Noira in the center of France records two occupation phases with a significant time gap. The older one is dated to around 700 ka (stratum a) with an Acheulean assemblage, amo...
Article
North‐West Europe yields few traces of early human occupation, in particular for the Acheulean. In this context, the Somme Valley in northern France offers a route to Britain during various Pleistocene low sea levels, and has provided numerous evidence of Lower Palaeolithic human occupation through fieldwork initiated during the 19th century. These...
Article
Résumé Les gisements paléolithiques associés aux formations fluviatiles fossiles de la Somme à Abbeville ont joué un rôle considérable dans la reconnaissance de l’ancienneté de l’Homme. Dès la fin du XVIIIe siècle, les travaux menés notamment par la Société d’émulation d’Abbeville furent à l’origine de l’émergence d’études dans la vallée de la Somm...
Article
Résumé De nouvelles prospections ont été entreprises à Abbeville en 2016 et 2017 à l’emplacement de l’ancien site du Moulin Quignon exploité de 1837 à 1868 par Boucher de Perthes, relocalisé grâce aux travaux archivistiques menés par des chercheurs du MNHN. Ces recherches ont conduit 150 ans plus tard à la redécouverte de ce site paléolithique embl...
Article
Full-text available
After the last interglacial [Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e] Europe was affected by several harsh climatic oscillations. In this context southern Italy acted, like the rest of peninsular Mediterranean Europe, as a 'glacial refugium', allowing the survival of various species, and was involved in the spread of 'cold taxa' (e.g. woolly mammoth and wool...
Preprint
Full-text available
New Caledonia was, until recently, considered an old continental island harbouring a rich biota with outstanding Gondwanan relicts. However, deep marine sedimentation and tectonic evidence suggest complete submergence of the island during the latest Cretaceous to Paleocene. Molecular phylogenies provide evidence for some deeply-diverging clades tha...
Article
Full-text available
The Chauvet cave (UNESCO World Heritage site, France) is located in the Ardèche Gorge, a unique physical and cultural landscape. Its setting within the gorge—overlooking a meander cutoff containing a natural arch called the Pont d’Arc—is also remarkable. Investigating possible associations between sites’ physical and cultural settings, chronologies...
Article
This study presents an overview of Middle Pleistocene loess–palaeosol sequences (LPS) in northern France and discusses the palaeoclimatic significance of the pedosedimentary record in the context of western European LPS and of global climatic cycles for the last 750 ka. In this area, the oldest loess deposits (early Middle Pleistocene) are preserve...
Article
The stratigraphic sequences of numerous Palaeolithic sites of Central and Southern Italy, very rich in both archaeological and palaeontological remains, have also recorded Pleistocene volcanic events through volcanic ash deposits (tephra). They allow the establishment of an accurate chronological framework by comparing results obtained by ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar...
Article
Usually referred to as ‘ochre’ or ‘pigment’ in archaeological contexts, ferruginous rocks were commonly exploited during the Later Stone Age (LSA) in southern Africa. While ochre could lead to crucial inferences about socio-cultural behaviours of past populations, the provenance and the procurement strategies of this material in LSA contexts, as we...
Article
Full-text available
Though many Middle Stone Age sites of Southern Africa document the use of ochre, existing literature about their use within archaeological contexts of Later Stone Age (LSA) rock art sites is scarce. Despite the discovery of several painted shelters rich in archaeological ochre assemblages within the Erongo Mountains (Namibia), no ochre studies have...
Article
Full-text available
New fieldwork and the revision of lithic collections during the past decade have renewed our interpretation of the timing and characteristics of the earliest Acheulean techno-complexes in western Europe. The lower level of the la Noira site is a crucial snapshot for evaluating the technological abilities and strategies of Middle Pleistocene hominin...
Article
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Abstract The long Grâce-Autoroute section, studied in 1994 during the excavation of the A-16 Paris-Amiens-Boulogne motorway trench, overlies an alluvial formation representing the oldest term of the Quaternary stepped terrace system of the River Somme valley (Alluvial Formation X or Grâce-Autoroute, relative altitude: + 55m). This fluvial formatio...
Article
Full-text available
Notarchirico (Southern Italy) has yielded the earliest evidence of Acheulean settlement in Italy and four older occupation levels have recently been unearthed, including one with bifaces, extending the roots of the Acheulean in Italy even further back in time. New 40Ar/39Ar on tephras and ESR dates on bleached quartz securely and accurately place t...