Inventaire archéologique à Hiva Oa (Marquises)

L’inventaire archéologique de l’île de Hiva Oa a été commandité par le service de la Culture et du Patrimoine de Polynésie française. Cette île, autrefois très peuplée, a subi une dépopulation massive à la fin du XIXe siècle. Les survivants se sont groupés dans un petit nombre de villages situés en bord de mer autour des premières missions (catholiques et protestantes). Les vestiges des anciens aménagements des vallées ont été abandonnés à la forêt et à l’usure du temps. De nombreux objets (dalles sculptées, statues, pétroglyphes, pierres à cupules et aiguisoirs) sont restés en place. Notre objectif est de répertorier ces pièces dans leur contexte archéologique et de tenter de recomposer, sur la carte de l’île, l’organisation du paysage ancien de certaines vallées (les grands sites cérémoniels, les habitations dispersées sur les pentes aux alentours, les terrasses de cultures, les fosses silos, les me’ae1 et les sites défensifs) avant que ces témoins ne disparaissent complètement. Les statues et dalles sculptées sont taillées, pour la plupart, dans un tuf volcanique tendre, sensible à l’érosion et aux dégradations d’origine végétale, animale ou humaine. Cet inventaire est encore très incomplet, mais il s’enrichit au fil du temps à travers les prospections et les relevés des sites de secteurs encore inexplorés, trop rapidement aperçus ou menacés de destruction à court terme. Il est urgent de gérer au mieux ce patrimoine marquisien afin qu’il trouve la place qu’il mérite au sein du patrimoine mondial.The French Polynesian Service of Culture and Heritage has been financing the archeological inventory of the island of Hiva Oa. Once densely populated, this island suffered a huge depopulation at the end of the nineteenth century. The survivors regrouped in a small number of coastal villages around the first (catholic and protestant) missions. What remained of the original developments was abandoned to the forest and weathering. Numerous objects (sculptured slab stones, statues, petroglyphs, cup stones and sharpening stones) can be found in situ. Our objective is to catalogue these pieces in their archeological context and to try and reconfigure, on a map of the island, the organization of the former landscape of specific valleys (the great ceremonial sites, the scattered dwellings on the neighbouring slopes, the cultivated terrasses, the silos pits, the meae, and the defensive sites) before this body of evidence completely disappears. In particular, the statues and sculptured stones are, in the main, cut out of tender volcanic tuff which is sensitive to erosion and to plant, animal and/or human degradation. This inventory, still in the making, expands through the prospections and site-surveys of sections as yet unexplored, overlooked or threatened with short- term destruction. We must urgently manage our Marquesan heritage as best as we can so that it finds the place it deserves in the world heritage

Ichnological and archaeological evidence from Gombore II OAM, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia: An integrated approach to reconstruct local environments and biological presences between 1.2 and 0.85 Ma

New ichnological data are available at the prehistoric site of Melka Kunture, Upper Awash Valley in Ethiopia. Excavation of new test pits enabled us to explore the volcanic and fluvio-lacustrine sequence at the Gombore II Open Air Museum archaeological site (ca. 0.85 Ma). This has allowed a detailed reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment and of the fauna present in the time interval between 1.2 and 0.85 Ma. Various-sized mammals, birds, molluscs as well as hominins left tracks throughout the sequence, and document a varied fauna and associated behaviours. Most of the hominin tracks were made by young individuals on the basis of size and are some of the earlier child tracks to be reported. The mollusc traces document the presence and orientation of water streams which, according to the associated vertebrate traces, were visited by hominins, mammals and birds. Most of these traces were found within levels traditionally considered barren for archaeology, yet they all document life activity and are always in situ. This confirms the potential of the ichnological research as an important complementary tool for archaeological investigations

Archaeology, Hydrogeology and Geomythology in the Stymphalos Valley

This paper uses the results of recent excavations of the city of Stymphalos and environmental studies on the floor of the Stymphalos polje to examine the role of both the lake and springs in the history of the classical city. Associated with Artemis and famed for Herakles' sixth labour (killing of the Stymphalian birds), the city has a rich (geo)mythology. While this narrative has been associated solely with the lake, it is argued here that this geomythology was part of the city's relationship to environmental unpredictability and the relationship between water supply and water loss. Seen in this context, the construction of the fountain-house above the contemporary lakeshore is symbolic of the importance of springs to the foundation and sustainability of the classical city during both the Greek and Roman Periods. Through these archaeological and environmental analyses, we seek to illustrate the complimentary, but complex nature of archaeological, hydrogeological and palaeoenvironmental data that intersect in the geomythological landscapes of Mediterranean antiquity

Modeling the Past: The Paleoethnological Evidence

This chapter considers the earliest Paleolithic, Oldowan (Mode 1), and Acheulean (Mode 2) cultures of the Old Continent and the traces left by the earliest hominids since their departure from Africa. According to the most recent archaeological data, they seem to have followed two main dispersal routes across the Arabian Peninsula toward the Levant, to the north, and the Indian subcontinent, to the east. According to recent discoveries at Dmanisi in the Caucasus, the first Paleolithic settlement of Europe is dated to some 1.75 Myr ago, which indicates that the first “out of Africa” took place at least slightly before this date. The data available for Western Europe show that the first Paleolithic sites can be attributed to the period slightly before 1.0 Myr ago. The first well-defined “structural remains” so far discovered in Europe are those of Isernia La Pineta in Southern Italy, where a semicircular artificial platform made of stone boulders and animal bones has been excavated. The first hand-thrown hunting weapons come from the site of Scho¨ningen in north Germany, where the first occurrence of wooden spears, more than 2 m long, has been recorded from a site attributed to some 0.37 Myr ago. Slightly later began the regular control of fire. Although most of the archaeological finds of these ages consist of chipped stone artifacts, indications of art seem to be already present in the Acheulean of Africa and the Indian subcontinent

Zooarchaeological reconstruction of newly excavated Middle Pleistocene deposits from Elandsfontein, South Africa

The current study provides the first zooarchaeological account of systematically excavated faunal material from Elandsfontein, South Africa (ca. 1.0 – 0.6 Ma). Archaeological assemblages of this age typically lack well-preserved faunal remains recovered in primary association with artifacts, and thus studies have primarily focused on lithic technology. The sizeable faunal sample from Elandsfontein, South Africa is a rare exception and has dramatically influenced the way that we interpret early hominin foraging behavior during this time. Surface collections, starting in the 1950s, recovered ~13,000 mammalian fossils and more than 160 Acheulean artifacts. The Elandsfontein faunal assemblage was interpreted as having accumulated through natural mortality and subsequent scavenging by carnivores and hominins, with hominins playing a very minimal role in carcass modification. Low frequencies of stone tool cutmarks were taken as evidence that Acheulean hominins had limited ability to obtain large carcasses. However, this interpretation contrasts with a growing body of evidence suggesting that many Acheulean hominins across sub-Saharan Africa not only had access to large mammal carcasses but were often the primary agents of accumulation and modification. The majority of the original Elandsfontein faunal material was collected from deflation surfaces and lacks sufficient contextual information. We conducted a detailed zooarchaeological analysis of faunal remains from four recent excavations within the Elandsfontein dune field. Our results differ from those based on surface collections and suggest multiple agents of bone accumulation with varying degrees of hominin and carnivore activity across the paleolandscape. Frequencies of hominininduced butchery are higher (up to 3.6% NISP) than reported for previously collected samples (<1% of limb surfaces) and demonstrate butchery of megafauna on at least two occasions. Our findings indicate that earlier zooarchaeological studies at Elandsfontein underestimate the degree of hominin contribution to the fossil assemblage and do not take into account the complicated taphonomic history across the paleolandscape. The results of this analysis are congruent with recent studies suggesting that Acheulean hominins and their Oldowan producing predecessors had regular access to large carcasses and that megafauna were an essential component of the diet for early Homo

Présence d'industries acheuléenne, atérienne et néolithique dans les alluvions du Kheneg et Tlaia (Sahara Nord-Occidental)

Chavaillon Jean, Chavaillon Nicole. Présence d'industries acheuléenne, atérienne et néolithique dans les alluvions du Kheneg et Tlaia (Sahara Nord-Occidental). In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique de France, tome 54, n°10, 1957. pp. 636-644

Rapports stratigraphiques de l'Acheuléen final et de l'Atérien (Sahara Nord-Occidental)

Chavaillon Jean, Chavaillon Nicole. Rapports stratigraphiques de l'Acheuléen final et de l'Atérien (Sahara Nord-Occidental). In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique de France, tome 59, n°7-8, 1962. Travaux en retard. pp. 440-444

Une industrie paléolithique du Péloponnèse : le Moustérien de Vasilaki

Chavaillon Jean, Chavaillon Nicole, Hours Francis. Une industrie paléolithique du Péloponnèse : le Moustérien de Vasilaki. In: Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. Volume 88, livraison 2, 1964. pp. 616-622