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The Badegoulian of northern Aquitaine: New means of interpretation
Abstract
Any attempt at a synthesis of the Badegoulian in the northern Aquitaine basin is a risky undertaking. Firstly, the sample of sites and the quality of available data are highly variable and diverse. Moreover, the analysis of lithic industries is often complicated by a diversity and variability expressed both in finished tools and modes of knapping, which in turn condition the degree of elaboration of the industries themselves. In this context, and in the absence of a body of well-dated assemblages, even the seriation of the Badegoulian is a delicate matter. Nonetheless, the resurgence of work on the subject since the beginning of the 1990s should allow us, perhaps more securely in this region than in others, to advance a certain number of propositions capable of increasing our knowledge of Badegoulian typology, technology and economy. Given this state of affairs, we have chosen to underline certain general features that, on a regional scale, we see as stable and invariant characteristics of the Badegoulian: lithic production often dominated by flakes but in which blades remain an intangible component, and a typology characterized by the significant presence of raclettes or transverse burins. We then go on to identify traits that are either unsystematically associated with these invariant, defining characteristics, or which are constantly present but sometimes in very small quantities; and we raise the question as to their significance. Is the extreme diversity that we observe the expression of real variability? If so, is not this in itself a strong characteristic of the Badegoulian? We believe that this bipartite structure of primary and secondary characteristics enables us to better characterize and understand the Badegoulian in the northern Aquitaine basin. To this end, this first attempt at a synthesis needs to be evaluated against other available data (archaeozoology, bone industry, ornaments, portable art).
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 Badegoulian, Protosolutrean) that afford a particular importance to this sequence. Results of a previous dating program that focused on the Badegoulian levels were obtained in 1994 but were neither extensively published nor discussed. Five AMS 14C ages obtained for the Gravettian and Solutrean assemblages in the early 2010s served to complement the site’s chronology. However, since the beta counting ages for the Badegoulian levels were in conflict with the accepted AMS chronology for the region’s late Pleniglacial archaeological record, a new AMS dating program was implemented to renew the radiometric framework of this specific portion of the sequence. Compared to the previous beta counting measurements, the seven newly obtained AMS ages are about 1000 years older (23.3–20.5 cal ka BP) and congruent with other AMS-dated Badegoulian sequences. These results thereby restore the inter-site chronological coherence of the Solutrean–Badegoulian and Badegoulian–Magdalenian transitions.
This work presents the results of the analysis of the lithic industry from a Badegoulian open air site located in the north of the Loire département The artefacts were found in several test excavations, carried out at the end of the 1970s. The lithic industry presents general characteristics known in most Badegoulian sites, in particular those in south-western France. The raw materials used are mainly local and exploited according to three distinct chaînes opératoires (knapping of blades, bladelets and flakes). Allochthonous raw materials are especially used for the production of bladelets devoted to the preparation of backed bladelets. The main characteristics of the different types of knapping are comparable to those observed on other sites with in particular the unipolar production of blades made mainly with soft stone and a standardized production of short flakes used as blanks for raclettes.
A series of 36 radiocarbon AMS ages produced from separate bone fragments has prompted a new appraisal of the archaeological sequence of the Rond-du-Barry Cave (Polignac, Haute-Loire). A huge rock-fall of unknown age underlies Unit H, which contains evidence of the oldest human occupation of the site consisting of a Middle Palaeolithic assemblage dated to between 40 and 33 kyr. The first Upper Palaeolithic occupation of the Cave occurred later. In Unit F, three Badegoulian occupation sectors can be identified that are dated to between 20 and 17.5 kyr. The uppermost units, E and D yielded Middle and Upper Magdalenian dates of between 15.4 and 12.4 kyr. Within Unit E, a tephra related layer (E6) is likely to belong to a distal southern lobe of an eruptive event that was centred in the Chaîne des Puys, 100 km to the north. Unit D shows evidence of being re-worked at least during Mesolithic/Neolithic times, circa 6.5/4.9 kyr. The sum of this new evidence demonstrates the existence of a previously unrecognised stratigraphic and spatial complexity within the Rond-du-Barry archaeological deposits, which demands that new investigations be made in this cave.
The paper examines the Upper Solutrean–Archaic Magdalenian/Badegoulian succession on the base of lithic and bone tool production, chrono-stratigraphic data and radiocarbon dates from the Cantabrian and Mediterranean regions of Iberia, mainly the areas of Asturias and Valencia (Spain). The discussion considers a reduced number of variables (characteristic stone tools, bone points and decoration techniques) and highlights the elements in common. The analysis concerning the transformation of lithic production at Cova del Parpalló provides new data for the Upper Solutrean–Archaic Magdalenian/ Badegoulian transition.
La decouverte recente, a l'occasion des travaux d'agrandissement du Musee National de Prehistoire des Eyzies, de niveaux d'occupation stratifies, a permis l'analyse techno-economique de trois series industrielles de Magdalenien ancien (Badegoulien). Cette analyse fait apparaitre d'une part la coexistence au sein de chaque ensemble industriel de schemas operatoires distincts, soulignant une nette diversite des systemes de production et d'autre part la presence au niveau des trois ensembles etudies, de schemas de production sensiblement identiques relevant de memes traditions techniques.
L'etude techno-economique des niveaux magdaleniens anciens (ou badegouliens) des JAMBLANCS (Bourniquel, Dordogne) permet d'envisager sous un jour nouveau une industrie trop souvent consideree comme fruste, grossiere ou archaique. L'approvisionnement en matiere premiere, quoique essentiellement local, revele tout de meme des differences de traitement, tant economique que technologique, entre le silex du Senonien et les silex du Bergeracois et calcedonieux. Les activites techniques, quant a elles, apparaissent tres diversifiees, plusieurs chaines de debitage etant attestees, de complexite inegale: une laminaire, une lamellaire, une a tendance laminaire et deux d'eclats stricto sensu, dont l'une, faciale convergente, est particulierement caracteristique. Les resultats de cette etude, compares aux quelques autres travaux, permettent en fait de reveler une unite technique et economique que l'on etait loin de soupconner pour cette periode.
Le Badegoulien n'a pas encore trouve sa place dans la nomenclature du Paleolithique superieur, soit trop souvent considere comme un ancien Magdalenien, soit delicatement ecarte du diagnostic lorsque l'industrie est intermediaire entre Badegoulien et Magdalenien. Grâce a ses tres nombreux sites badegouliens et magdaleniens, la moyenne vallee de l'Isle (Dordogne) est un support ideal pour une etude des industries post-solutreennes de transition vers le Magdalenien. Le premier foisonnement culturel se produit a partir du Badegoulien ancien, autour du dernier maximum glaciaire ; dans la moyenne vallee de l'Isle il est a l'origine de l'individualisation de trois facies contemporains, le Magdalenien initial, le Badegoulien recent type Le Chatenet et le Badegoulien recent type La Croix-de-Fer. Ces quatre facies ont un meme schema operatoire en commun : un debitage d'eclats en tres courtes series isoaxes, effectue au percuteur dur, qui aboutit a l'abandon de nucleus polyedriques ou informes. Le Badegoulien ancien et le Magdalenien initial partagent en outre un meme schema operatoire, a l'origine de deux productions differentes : un debitage isoaxe frontal, dont la variante minoritaire produit des series de lames sans intervention du percuteur dur, et la variante majoritaire des pieces d'allongement variable (eclats, eclats laminaires et lames), generalement plus epaisses et moins regulieres. Le Badegoulien recent type Le Chatenet presente quant a lui une singularite, le debitage plan a tendance isoaxe, a l'origine des supports de raclettes. De tous ces schemas, seule la premiere variante du debitage isoaxe frontale existe au Magdalenien evolue, facies dont Solvieux et Plateau-Parrain sont les principaux representants dans la vallee de l'Isle.
II existe dans l'industrie du Chatenet (commune de Saint-Front-de-Pradoux, Dordogne) une production originale de supports de raclettes, effectuee a partir de petits volumes varies mais offrant tous au moins une surface plane, courte et large.
Les formes cryergiques identifiées en Aquitaine montrent que cette région de France a vraisemblablement été affectée par le développement d'un pergélisol. Celui-ci se serait manifesté au cours de deux épisodes climatiques distincts: l'un daterait de la partie supérieure du dernier Pléniglaciaire (Dryas ancien); l'autre, plus hypothétique, se situerait dans la deuxième moitié de l'avant dernier Glaciaire. Le type de ces pergélisols ne peut être défini avec une totale certitude. Par rapport à l'actuel, la baisse de température moyenne annuelle de l'air peut être estimée entre 13 et 19°C.
Relict periglacial features identified in Aquitaine suggest that this region of France is likely to have known two different permafrost episodes: the younger would date to the upper part of the last Pleniglacial (Lower Dryas); the other is more hypothetical and could be contemporaneous with the second half of the penultimate Glacial. The kind of permafrost is not well established. A mean annual air temperature reduction of 13–19°C is implied.