Jean-Marc PétillonFrench National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS · TRACES (UMR 5608)
Jean-Marc Pétillon
PhD
About
194
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Introduction
My main research interest is the technical and cultural evolution of Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, with an emphasis on their bone and antler hunting equipment. I mostly work on the Badegoulian and Magdalenian cultures in southwest France, where I have been directing excavations since 2012. In my research I addressed questions such as the appearance of the spearthrower and the bow, the invention of the harpoon, the evolution of antlerworking techniques, the use of whale bone, etc.
Additional affiliations
October 2008 - present
Education
September 2000 - December 2004
Publications
Publications (194)
Review of the 30th EAA congress in Rome: paper on maritime and seashore archeology
Various Palaeolithic tools can be attributed to the processing of skin and plant fibres for clothing production, such as smoothers, awls, and possibly "éplingles." However, the needle is the technological innovation that unequivocally marks the beginning of sewing in the Palaeolithic. It is a tool whose shape and mode of use have persisted to this...
The precise timing of the appearance of eyed needles in Southwest Europe (Solutrean, or later periods?) is still debated. The problem is made more complex by the fact that the distribution and representativeness of eyed needles vary, depending not only on the more or less intensive production of these objects but also on preservation hazards and on...
Previous studies of Magdalenian 14 C dates (ca. 19.5-13.5 cal. ka BP) in the western Aquitaine basin have found a disparity in continuity of occupation between the northern part of this western basin (Gironde) and the southern part (western Pyrenees), with a lack of occupation in the northern part ca. 17.5-15.5 cal. ka BP (corresponding to the Late...
Supplementary information 1 for the article 2023_Petillon_et_al_CPF_Magd_Aquit
Supplementary information 2 for the article "2023_Petillon_et_al_CPF_Magd_Aquit"
Cuzoul de Vers (Lot, France) is a key site for understanding the Last Glacial Maximum cultures in Southwest Europe. The monography of the site and the successive publications have extraordinarily amplified the knowledge on this site and on the Solutrean to Badegoulian transition. The osseous industry played an important role in these societies and...
Collagen glue has been used for nearly two centuries to consolidate bone material, although its prevalence in museum collections is only now becoming visible. Identifying and removing collagen glue is crucial before the execution of any geochemical or molecular analyses. Palaeolithic bone objects from old excavations intended for radiocarbon dating...
In southwestern France, Palaeolithic decorated caves have generally suffered from the ravages of commercial interests linked to their development as tourist attractions. The prehistoric living floors, which potentially contain a wealth of archaeological material, were sometimes destroyed to allow access to the painted and/or engraved walls. However...
La grotte de La Vache (Alliat, Ariège) est connue par la richesse du matériel tant lithique qu'osseux laissé par les populations du Magdalénien et de l'Azilien. La faune recueillie montre un spectre très diversifié comprenant une trentaine de taxons de mammifères et une vingtaine d'espèces d'oiseaux. Une récente visite de la collection Romain Rober...
Museum collections are extremely valuable sources of material for ongoing research, although the conservation history of some objects is not always recorded, which can be problematic for chemical analyses. While most contamination is removed using the acid-base-acid treatment, this may not be the case for cross-linked contamination. The XAD resin p...
The unworked bone industry encompasses a collection of domestic tools resulting from unplanned long-term production, primarily due to two main factors: first, their rapid production attributed to their low or nonexistent degree of transformation, and second, the abundance of available raw materials. In the case of retouchers, their expedient nature...
Abri Fritsch is located in the Indre area, in the centre of France. The site was discovered in 1957 by A. Fritsch, who directed the excavation first, followed by J. Allain and F. Trotignon over 18 years. The stratigraphy reached three metres and it is composed of rich Solutrean, Early and Late Badegoulian layers. Nowadays, the site is being restudi...
Summary of the results of the PAVO project (Préhistoire de la Vallée d'Ossau) in 2020.
Summary of the results of the 2020 excavation campaign at Tastet cave, Sainte-Colome, Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
The Magdalenian site of Courbet cave in the Aveyron valley is renowned for a significant contribution to the nineteenth century debate about human antiquity and an outstanding set of engraved and sculpted artworks. The typological content of the assemblage nevertheless remained poorly known, making it difficult to assess the place of Courbet cave w...
Au Paléolithique récent, les matières osseuses sont un support privilégié de l'invention de nouvelles formes. Deux exemples (pointe barbelée, propulseur) en sont présentés ici. Aborder ces innovations dans une perspective d'histoire comparée des techniques est une démarche classique mais qui reste, pour l'archéologie préhistorique, un programme de...
Interactions between prehistoric foragers and reindeer at the end of the Pleistocene are still poorly documented in northern Iberia, particularly the reasons and means by which their antlers were collected, processed and circulated. Here we review the main osseous industries dated to between 21 and 13 cal ka BP, focusing on the use and circulation...
L'équipement cynégétique tient un rôle essentiel dans les économies des chasseurs-cueilleurs largement basées sur l'exploitation des ressources animales, c'est pourquoi l'identification de cet équipement, la restitution de son design et de sa gestion sont riches d'informations sur les dynamiques de ce type de société du Paléolithique à nos jours. L...
Beginning in the late 2000s, a number of controlled projectile experiments with artificial targets (mostly ballistics gel) suggested that, as far as penetration depth is concerned, lithic points have little or no functional advantage over wooden points. Since this result was counter-intuitive, and seemingly contradictory with other experiments, a l...
The experimental study of prehistoric projectile points has been an active field of research over the last forty years. This contribution is an introduction to the discipline and presents an overview of its main issues, methods and results. Experimental protocols are routinely designed to address a particular archaeological question. This normally...
Un bilan des données archéologiques concernant l’exploitation du littoral dans le Paléolithique récent européen est dressé, afin de déterminer si ces données permettent d’envisager l’existence de sociétés correspondant au modèle des chasseurs-collecteurs stockeurs littoraux proposé par A. Testart. La hausse du niveau marin depuis cette époque a dét...
The authors organized a projectile experiment including the use of bow and spear-thrower in conditions replicating Palaeolithic hunting. Experimental copies of antler points from the Late Upper Palaeolithic showed proximal fractures characteristic of spear-thrower use. Similar fractures are found on archaeological specimens from the Upper Magdaleni...
Ancient human-whale relationships are difficult to study because, counterintuitively, whales have been virtually invisible in the archaeological record despite the immense quantities of valuable products they provide. In this review, we explain the reasons for this invisibility, and we also show how an interdisciplinary approach combining archaeolo...
Coastal adaptations of Palaeolithic foragers along the north Atlantic seaboard have received renewed attention in the last decade and include growing evidence for exploitation of whale bone by Late Glacial Magdalenian groups to the north of the Pyrenees. Here we present a systematic revision of Magdalenian osseous industries from the Cantabrian reg...
Les dix derniers millénaires d’occupation humaine paléolithique ont laissé d’abondants témoignages le long du versant nord-pyrénéen. Si les fluctuations climatiques et leurs conséquences environnementales ont pu conditionner l’exploitation de certains territoires en altitude, le piémont semble en revanche avoir constitué un vaste espace favorable à...
The Badegoulian technocomplex holds a special place among the West European Upper Paleolithic (UP) cultural traditions. Often understated or even bypassed by the main prehistorical overviews, caught between the fascinating Solutrean and the "classic" Magdalenian technocomplexes, it nonetheless probably marks a turning point in the evolving trajecto...
La révision de l’industrie osseuse de la grotte Gazel a permis d’identifier, dans un ensemble attribué à la seconde moitié du Magdalénien moyen, un type d’instrument dont on connaissait seulement deux ou trois exemplaires dans le Paléolithique récent européen : un fragment de propulseur androgyne (ou type 1, «à gouttière et éperon » ) façonné en bo...
Aujourd’hui, dans le domaine de l’Archéologie, et plus particulièrement en Préhistoire, la démarche expérimentale est au cœur des raisonnements scientifiques, pour la compréhension des processus techniques et des savoir-faire et au-delà pour la définition des traditions techniques et de leurs évolutions. Leur objectif est de tester, valider, réfute...
Discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Abri Casserole (Dordogne, France) was the subject of salvage excavations in the early nineties. The fieldwork revealed a sequence of 13 archaeological levels that document human occupations from the Gravettian to the Magdalenian, including very rare and poorly known assemblages (e.g. Early B...
For the Magdalenian, the Pyrenees are a "pre-historiographical border": the definition of the different phases of this culture are not similar on the French and Spanish sides. Our aim is to reevaluate the relevance of this dissimilarity by questioning the role of the Pyrenees as a diffusion route or as an obstacle to movement at that period. We foc...
The Cetacean bone artifact described in this paper is the result of excavations carried out in La Madeleine (Tursac, Dordogne) under the direction of D. Peyrony, between 1910-1913. It was discovered in the middle layer ("couche moyenne") of the stratigraphy described by Capitan and Peyrony and subsequently attributed to the "Magdalenian V" by H. Br...
Les montagnes sont souvent perçues comme des espaces peu et tardivement peuplés, en marge des grands axes d’échanges. Cependant, les recherches récentes ne cessent de faire reculer dans le temps et augmenter en altitude les plus anciennes traces de présence humaine en milieu montagnard. De nombreuses études environnementales et archéologiques ont p...
On the eve of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM: 23-19 cal ky BP), several profound changes occurred with respect to technical systems. These changes are illustrated in France by the transition between the Solutrean and Badegoulian complexes. In this geographical area, there is no evidence of the “desolutreanization” phenomenon documented in the Iberia...
Summary of the 12 radiocarbon dates (7 of which previously unpublished) made on horse, bison, rhino and reindeer from the Habarra natural trap in western Pyrenees. The majority are contemporary with the Recent Aurignacian (ca. 36-32 cal ka BP), a period which is not documented in anthropic sites in that sector of the Pyrenees.
Depuis une vingtaine d’années, l'importance et la diversité des ressources littorales exploitées au Paléolithique récent ont été revues à la hausse grâce à de nouvelles découvertes et révisions de collections anciennes. Plusieurs de ces indices se rapportent aux mammifères marins. Ce texte, écrit pour le catalogue de l’exposition "Animaux rares, gi...
The archeology of the foreshore in the Late Paleolithic is difficult to approach, because most of the current seashore lines are far removed from the position they had at that times. Since the 2000s however, the importance and diversity of the resources exploited in these regions in the Late Upper Paleolithic have been revised upwards. Part of the...
During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), very specific but rare osseous decorated artifacts were produced using the “pseudo-excise” technique. These artifacts present a large geographical distribution, extending at least from the Aquitaine basin to Asturias. While in France a Badegoulian age is traditionally accepted for the “pseudo-excise” technique...
The palaeontological and archaeological records provide a unique window of opportunity for researchers seeking to investigate the response of wild animals and human populations to environmental change in the long-term. In this vein, the DeerPal project hopes to acquire new fundamental knowledge on the palaeoecology of animal communities faced with...
For the Magdalenian, the Pyrenees are a “pre-historiographical border”: the definition of the different phases of this culture are not similar on the French and Spanish sides. Our aim is to reevaluate the relevance of this dissimilarity by questioning the role of the Pyrenees as a diffusion route or as an obstacle to movement at that period. We foc...
Report of a public conference at the GREP-Comminges (Saint-Gaudens) in March 2018.
Report of a public conference at the GREP-Comminges (Saint-Gaudens) in March 2018.
Dans le cadre du projet Magdatis, nous avons pu réévaluer la série emblématique de l’abri Morin (Gironde). Ce gisement, fouillé dans les années 1950 par R. Deffarge, est célèbre pour sa richesse en oeuvres d’art mais aussi pour ses industries lithique et osseuse et sa
faune aussi abondante que diversifiée. La séquence archéologique du Morin semblai...
http://cths.fr/ed/edition.php?id=7416#
Les littoraux paléolithiques nous sont inaccessibles, qu'ils aient été détruits par l'érosion lors de la remontée des eaux ou qu'ils s’étendent aujourd’hui à des dizaines de mètres de profondeur. Rien d'étonnant, dès lors, à ce que l'image systématiquement associée à l'homme du Paléolithique récent soit celle d'un chasseur de l'intérieur des terres...
While A. Testart attempted to construct a dialogue with specialists of the Paleolithic period many times, only a few of them responded. In this paper, we try to continue these exchanges by responding to A. Testart's invitation: organize the few archeological observations that would potentially allow us to reconstruct social facts, with the objectiv...
Il y eut de la part d’Alain Testart de nombreuses tentatives de dialogue avec les spécialistes du Paléolithique, auxquelles seuls quelques-uns ont répondu. Nous cherchons ici à poursuivre cet échange, en donnant suite à l’invitation de Testart à mettre en ordre nos quelques observations archéologiques permettant de reconstituer des faits sociaux en...
Le renne, Rangifer tarandus, tout comme les autres gibiers des chasseurs-collecteurs paléolithiques, fournit potentiellement de multiples matières premières à usage alimentaire, technique ou symbolique. Par une étude pluridisciplinaire des restes fauniques issus de l’ensemble Magdalénien supérieur de la grotte-abri de Peyrazet, nous nous sommes att...
The exclusive use of fracturing techniques is well established in the antler industries of numerous Upper Palaeolithic cultures (Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, Badegoulian). During the Magdalenian period (21–14 ka cal. BP) antler blanks production seems to be fully dominated by the double groove procedure (DGP). However, there are indications...
Because of its rich record of Magdalenian sites, the Arudy Basin is a key case for the study of resettlement dynamics in the Pyrenean valleys after the Last Glacial Maximum. Interpretations are, however, hampered by the ancient age of many excavations. The recently acquired data from Laa 2 cave contribute to filling this gap, although the excavatio...
Dans le cadre d'une étude expérimentale portant sur les armes de chasse du Magdalénien supérieur d'Isturitz, nous avons souhaité étudier les restes de faune qui leur étaient associés, témoignages du gibier chassé. Un premier examen de la série (MAN, collections Passemard et Saint-Périer, couches F1 et I) a révélé des manques flagrants par rapport a...
Haut lieu de la Préhistoire française, la grotte du Mas d’Azil est surtout connue pour la richesse de ses niveaux magdaléniens et aziliens (Ramis et al., 2015). Toutefois, d’autres phases y ont également été identifiées : quelques pièces lithiques et osseuses issues de la base de séquence de la galerie des Silex ont notamment été rat-tachées à l’Au...
The identification of an early phase of the Magdalenian (Lower Magdalenian) between the Badegoulian and the Middle Magdalenian has breathed new life into research concerning the emergence of Magdalenian societies in Western Europe. Moreover, the initial phase of the Middle Magdalenian, or "Early Middle Magdalenian" or EMM, plays a unique role for o...
According to some, the first part of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM: 23-19 ky cal. BP) in the Pyrenees appears to be a singular moment when the cultural trajectory of hunter-gatherer groups diverged from the frameworks defined further north. Similar to the Upper Solutrean of the Vasco-Cantabrian area with which it shares several typo-technological s...
