Neanderthal selective hunting of reindeer? The case study of Abri du Maras (south-eastern France)

Fieldwork was supported by the Regional Office of Archaeology Rhône-Alpes, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and the Ardèche Department through several scientific programs. M.G.Chacon, F. Rivals and E. Allué research are funded by ‘CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya’. Thanks to Jean-Jacques Hublin, Annabell Reiner and Steven Steinbrenner from the Max Planck Institute (MPI-EVA) for analytical support (isotope analysis). We are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive remarks on this manuscript. The English manuscript was edited by L. Byrne, an official translator and native English speaker.Peer reviewedPostprin

The origin of early Acheulean expansion in Europe 700 ka ago: new findings at Notarchirico (Italy)

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 these occupations between 695 and 670 ka (MIS 17), penecontemporaneous with the Moulin-Quignon and la Noira sites (France). These new data demonstrate a very rapid expansion of shared traditions over Western Europe during a period of highly variable climatic conditions, including interglacial and glacial episodes, between 670 and 650 (i.e., MIS17/MIS16 transition). The diversity of tools and activities observed in these three sites shows that Western Europe was populated by adaptable hominins during this time. These conclusions question the existence of refuge areas during intense glacial stages and raise questions concerning understudied migration pathways, such as the Sicilian route

The origin of early Acheulean expansion in Europe 700 ka ago: new findings at Notarchirico (Italy)

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 these occupations between 695 and 670 ka (MIS 17), penecontemporaneous with the Moulin-Quignon and la Noira sites (France). These new data demonstrate a very rapid expansion of shared traditions over Western Europe during a period of highly variable climatic conditions, including interglacial and glacial episodes, between 670 and 650 (i.e., MIS17/MIS16 transition). The diversity of tools and activities observed in these three sites shows that Western Europe was populated by adaptable hominins during this time. These conclusions question the existence of refuge areas during intense glacial stages and raise questions concerning understudied migration pathways, such as the Sicilian route

Neanderthal Use of Fish, Mammals, Birds, Starchy Plants and Wood 125-250,000 Years Ago

Neanderthals are most often portrayed as big game hunters who derived the vast majority of their diet from large terrestrial herbivores while birds, fish and plants are seen as relatively unimportant or beyond the capabilities of Neanderthals. Although evidence for exploitation of other resources (small mammals, birds, fish, shellfish, and plants) has been found at certain Neanderthal sites, these are typically dismissed as unusual exceptions. The general view suggests that Neanderthal diet may broaden with time, but that this only occurs sometime after 50,000 years ago. We present evidence, in the form of lithic residue and use-wear analyses, for an example of a broad-based subsistence for Neanderthals at the site of Payre, Ardèche, France (beginning of MIS 5/end of MIS 6 to beginning of MIS 7/end of MIS 8; approximately 125–250,000 years ago). In addition to large terrestrial herbivores, Neanderthals at Payre also exploited starchy plants, birds, and fish. These results demonstrate a varied subsistence already in place with early Neanderthals and suggest that our ideas of Neanderthal subsistence are biased by our dependence on the zooarchaeological record and a deep-seated intellectual emphasis on big game hunting

Were human populations competing with carnivores along the Moroccan Atlantic coast during the Upper Pleistocene?

International audienceTaphonomic analyses of faunal remains from numerous Upper Pleistocene sites along the Moroccan Atlantic coast suggest that carnivores took a great part in the bone accumulations and modifications. The Grotte des Gazelles and Grotte des Félins near Casablanca and the sites of El Harhoura 2 and El Mnasra located in the Témara region contain many mammal remains tooth-marked and/or semi-digested associated with carnivore remains and coprolites, but also with lithic industries. Why carnivores had such impact on faunal accumulations while the anthropogenic activities seem to have been sometimes anecdotic? What were the main carnivores in competition with humans for prey hunting and/or cave occupation? What were the modalities of niche partioning by the various predators and carrion eaters? Thanks to neotaphonomicreferentials and comparative analyses of some fossil assemblages, we aim to assess the taphonomic signatures of various possible carnivore agents. We will also test the hypothesis of climate and sea level shift influence on Moroccan Atlantic coastal occupations on a larger scale. Finally, we will compare our results on the Atlantic Moroccan carnivore occupations with some other data from Northwestern, Southern and Eastern Africa, in order to include them in the broader context of the African Upper Pleistocene

New data on the Late Mousterian in Mediterranean France: First radiocarbon (AMS) dates at Saint-Marcel Cave (Ardèche)Nouvelles données sur le Moustérien final de la France méditerranéenne : premières datations radiocarbone (SMA) à la Grotte de Saint-Marcel (Ardèche)

This article presents new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates of cutmarked ungulate remains from one of the uppermost archaeological layers (f) at the Grotte de Saint-Marcel, Ardèche, France. This site is situated in a key location regarding population dispersal and potential interaction between Neanderthals and modern humans, as it lies at the crossroads of two main routes of passage. Attributing the upper sequence of this site to a precise chronological period within the Mousterian was difficult until now. Previous conventional 14C analyses done on bulk samples over twenty years ago were considered too young (23,000–30,000 BP). Our new AMS radiocarbon results give two statistically identical dates of 37,850 ± 550 BP and 37,850 ± 600 BP, thus confirming the Late Mousterian attribution of the upper levels of this site. A third date overlaps them at two standard deviations. These are among the very few chronometric dates available for the Mousterian (especially its late phases) in Mediterranean France. The Late Mousterian of this zone, a key region in recent debates about late Neanderthal behaviour, is discussed in light of these results

A GIS based approach to long bone breakage patterns derived from marrow extraction

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Neandertal long bone breakage process: Standardized or random patterns? The example of Abri du Maras (Southeastern France, MIS 3)

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