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O’Hara J. F., White R., Garrett Z. S., Higham T., Roussot A., 2015 - The Aurignacian Site of the Abri de la Souquette (commune de Sergeac, Dordogne): A History of Archeology, in White R., Bourrillon R. (eds.) with the collaboration of Bon F., Aurignacian Genius: Art, Technology and Society of the First Modern Humans in Europe, Proceedings of the International Symposium, April 08-10 2013, New York University, P@lethnology, 7, 98-117.
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... Such marks are quite common in portable art in northern Iberia (Barandiarán, 1972;Corchón, 1986), where they are limited to the Solutrean and Upper Magdalenian (La Riera, Cueto de la Mina). Parallels of this type of motif can be found in older chronologies, mainly in the Aurignacian, at such European sites as Gorges-d'Enfer (Chollot, 1962), Abri Blanchard (Bourrillon et al., 2018;White, 1992), La Souquette (O'Hara et al., 2015) (France) and Vogelherd (Conard et al., 2003). ...
A decorated ulna of a gannet (Morus bassanus) was found in 1966 during the exploration of the archaeological site of Torre cave (Gipuzkoa, northern Iberian Peninsula). The present study offers a new appraisal of this truly outstanding art object through a technological and stylistic analysis enriched by more recent finds. What makes this object extraordinary is the fact that it is one of the most complete specimens in the Iberian Peninsula. Moreover, the Torre tube is one of the few remains with peri-cylindrical decoration displaying a complex combination of motifs. It is profusely decorated with figurative representations (deer, horse, ibex, chamois, aurochs and an anthropomorph) and signs (single lines, parallel lines, zigzags, etc.) in two rows in opposite directions. The tube resembles objects from other Magdalenian sites in Cantabrian Spain and the Pyrenees, which corroborate the exchange of technical and iconographic behaviour.
La fouille récente (2005-2010, sous la responsabilité de R. White) des niveaux d’Aurignacien ancien de l’abri
Castanet (Sergeac, Dordogne), sur un site ayant déjà connu plusieurs opérations archéologiques successives [fouilles Peyrony, 1911-1913 (Peyrony 1935) ; fouilles Pelegrin, White, 1995-1998 (Pelegrin et White 1998, 1999)], nous confronte aux habituelles questions de représentativité de la zone fouillée, des séries archéologiques exhumées, des comportements observés, etc. Le recours aux collections anciennes (série Peyrony, conservée au Musée national de Préhistoire) permet cependant d’aider à résoudre ponctuellement une question sur une catégorie précise de vestige.
C’est le cas des pièces lithiques interprétées comme des mises en forme de grattoirs carénés, toujours trouvées en très faible nombre (ne dépassant jamais la dizaine) dans les séries de fouilles récentes. Ainsi, leur étude sur un effectif supérieur nous permet d’avancer l’existence d’un véritable schéma opératoire de mise en forme d’au moins une partie conséquente des grattoirs carénés de l’Aurignacien ancien de l’abri Castanet.
If radiocarbon measurements are to be used at all for chronological purposes, we have to use statistical meth-ods for calibration. The most widely used method of calibration can be seen as a simple application of Bayesian statistics, which uses both the information from the new measurement and information from the 14 C calibration curve. In most dating applications, however, we have larger numbers of 14 C measurements and we wish to relate those to events in the past. Baye-sian statistics provides a coherent framework in which such analysis can be performed and is becoming a core element in many 14 C dating projects. This article gives an overview of the main model components used in chronological analysis, their mathematical formulation, and examples of how such analyses can be performed using the latest version of the OxCal soft-ware (v4). Many such models can be put together, in a modular fashion, from simple elements, with defined constraints and groupings. In other cases, the commonly used "uniform phase" models might not be appropriate, and ramped, exponential, or normal distributions of events might be more useful. When considering analyses of these kinds, it is useful to be able run sim-ulations on synthetic data. Methods for performing such tests are discussed here along with other methods of diagnosing pos-sible problems with statistical models of this kind.
This paper addresses a common theme in lithic studies: are certain pieces cores, tools, or both? Common in lithic assemblages are pieces that have debatable typological and technological designations. Some would interpret them as cores for the production of microdebitage, while others would identify them as tools in their own right. While this study addresses this question utilizing an assemblage from a specific site during a specific time period, the results and the methods used have broader implications worldwide.Technology and function of scrapers and burins from the Aurignacian period dating to approximately 27,000 years ago have long been debated. It has been assumed, based on their typological form, that they were used to scrape or engrave. We investigate these scrapers and burins from the French Palaeolithic site Le Flageolet I (Dordogne, France) to propose an alternative hypothesis: these pieces were, in fact, cores. These cores were used for the production of bladelets with specific morphology (curved and twisted) that is required for the fabrication of “Dufour bladelets.” Technological and microwear analyses investigated the role of these scrapers and burins in a complex reduction sequence.
In this chapter, the author revisits, updates, and modifies an earlier study. Building on very current data pointing to the existence of raw material transfers over far longer distances than previously recorded for the Upper Paleolithic of Western Europe, in globally less exacting environments than those acknowledged for Eastern Central Europe, the chapter investigates the relevance of the cultural ecological paradigm for addressing issues relating to man's dealings with space on a macro-regional scale. Additionally, behavioral and cognitive implications for Paleolithic transitions are explored. While the recently collected data lead to toning down synchronic differences between western and eastern macro-regions, they reinforce previously stated diachronic differences between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Transfers greater than 100 km remain exceptional in the European Middle Paleolithic, suggesting differences of a socio-economic nature. Moreover, the recorded long-distance occurrences remain associated with a strategy of provisioning individuals, even when continuity in mobility patterns can be argued for the same region. Nevertheless, the fact that Middle Paleolithic people did not provision places with raw materials from afar need not necessarily be indicative of specific cognitive capacities, as opposed to those of Upper Paleolithic people.
During the past decade the chronology and hominin attributions of the Aurignacian have been revised or called into question. These controversies have coincided with an increased appreciation for the social complexity of Aurignacian culture in the realms of organic technologies and mobiliary and parietal manifestations of symbolic behavior. Lithic raw material procurement and reduction intensity evidence from Aurignacian occupations at the Vézère Valley sites of Abri Pataud, Le Facteur, and La Ferrassie may reflect complex group mobility strategies. The lithic components under consideration were always dominated by cherts available within a few kilometers radius. Assemblages associated with the early Aurignacian have elevated proportions of cherts from distant sources. Lithic retouch data indicate that some early Aurignacian assemblages reflect greater extent and/or intensity of marginal retouch compared with the later Aurignacian. Lithic reduction data, however, reveal evidence of greater core reduction intensity during the later Aurignacian. Flexible strategies of residential mobility, possibly in response to changes in the subsistence environment, may account for some of the variability between early and later Aurignacian assemblages. Similar shifts in raw material procurement were evidently associated with the Middle Paleolithic in southwestern France. However, Aurignacian populations may have acquired most lithic materials by movement directly to sources, while certain non-utilitarian materials were probably obtained via some form of indirect social exchange. This suggested coexistence of direct and indirect procurement mechanisms serves to distinguish Aurignacian assemblages from earlier Middle Paleolithic deposits and emphasizes that socially-directed intensification was one of the fundamental elements of the suite of cultural changes referred to as the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition.