Ossas-Suhare – Grotte Gatzarria

La grotte Gatzarria a été initialement fouillée par G. Laplace entre 1951 et 1976. Des études récentes concernant les vestiges issus de différents niveaux archéologiques ont permis de remettre en question certaines attributions chrono-stratigraphiques et culturelles (Deschamps, Flas sous presse). Afin de tester nos hypothèses de travail, une nouvelle opération de terrain a débutée en mai 2017. Des sondages ont été ouverts et plusieurs niveaux archéologiques ont pu être identifiés et fouillés ..

La diversité culturelle au paléolitique moyen récent : le vasconien et sa signification au sein des faciès moustériens

The presence of cleavers in numerous Pyrenean-Cantabrian Middle Paleolithic sites led to the creation of a regional facies called Vasconian (Bordes, 1953). Later, typological analyses based on shaped tool classes’ cumulative frequency have questioned the very existence of this facies (Cabrera Valdés, 1983). The recurrence of cleavers within Middle Paleolithic assemblages was then interpreted as a long perdurance of the Iberian Acheulean. The present research was aimed to re-evaluate the Pyrenean-Cantabrian Late Middle Paleolithic through the comparison of a large variety of data. It is supported by a detailed and renewed chronological framework for the Mousterian with cleavers of OIS 3 based on newly obtained radiometric data. The analysis included technological, morphometric and functional characterization of over 450 cleavers from nine sites attributed to the Late Middle Paleolithic. Our results were then compared to ca. 200 Acheulean cleavers from the same area. The differences between these two populations and a revised chronological framework allow us to reject the hypothesis of a sporadic persistence of cleavers after the Acheulean. We rather propose that these tools have resulted of a new invention and fully were a cultural marker. Meanwhile, the whole lithic ensembles from seven sites located north of the Basque-Cantabrian area were analyzed with the conventional methods of lithic technology. These sites correspond to various topographic contexts (caves, rock shelters, and open air sites) and to diverse environments (alpine, coastal, and arid). Despite an expected variability between these ensembles, we identified a shared technological tradition and propose that differences could be the result of different site functions. If we consider the different sites as being complementarity, we can propose the hypothesis of a low-mobility territorial structuration and thus a social complexity of the Late Middle Paleolithic societies. A first attempt to build a cultural-stratigraphic sequence for the Pyrenean-Cantabrian region is being made in order to properly assess the Vasconian location and homogeneity as for the constraining techno-complexes. Comparisons with contemporaneous techno-complexes (and more particularly with the MTA) allow us to address their respective autonomy within a newly defined technical are of influence.La présence de hachereaux au sein de nombreux sites du Paléolithique moyen pyrénéo-cantabrique a conduit F. Bordes à définir en 1953 un faciès régional, le Vasconien. Par la suite, des analyses typologiques centrées sur la représentativité des outils retouchés ont remis en question la validité de ce faciès tandis que la présence récurrente mais sporadique de hachereaux dans des ensembles du Paléolithique moyen a entraîné l’idée d’une perduration depuis l’Acheuléen ibérique. Dans ce travail de ré-évaluation du Paléolithique moyen récent pyrénéo-cantabrique, une large gamme de données issues de plusieurs champs disciplinaires a été mobilisée. Ce renouveau du cadre contextuel se voit consolidé par l’obtention récente de datations absolues permettant de proposer un cadre chronologique précis pour le Moustérien à hachereaux de l’OIS 3. L’analyse de près 450 hachereaux provenant de neuf sites est fondée sur une caractérisation technologique, morphométrique et fonctionnelle de ces outils du Paléolithique moyen récent. Cette première étape de caractérisation est ensuite complétée par la comparaison avec un corpus de près de 200 hachereaux acheuléens provenant de sites localisés au sein de la même aire géographique. Les différences perçues entre ces deux populations, corrélées à un cadre chronologique redéfini, permet d’écarter l’idée d’une perduration ponctuelle de ces outils depuis l’Acheuléen et de les identifier comme l’expression d’une réinvention, leur octroyant de la sorte une nouvelle signification culturelle. Parallèlement, les séries lithiques provenant de 7 sites localisés au nord de la zone vasco-cantabrique ont été analysées selon les principes classiques de la technologie lithique. Ces ensembles sont issus de contextes topographiques variés (grotte, abri, plein air) et de milieux diversifiés (montagnard, littoral, aride). Bien qu’une variabilité attendue soit perceptible entre ces ensembles, le même fond technologique est présent et les différences perçues sont évaluées à l’aune de la fonction présumée des occupations. Interprétées en termes de complémentarité, ces différences autorisent à proposer l’hypothèse d’un modèle d’organisation territorial à faible mobilité impliquant cependant une structuration sociale complexe de ces sociétés de la fin du Paléolithique moyen. Un premier essai de construction d’une archéoséquence pour la région pyrénéo-cantabrique permet de mieux cerner l’homogénéité et la place du Vasconien au niveau régional ainsi que vis-à-vis des technocomplexes qui l’encadrent. Des comparaisons avec les différentes traditions techniques évoluant en synchronie (principalement le Moustérien de Tradition Acheuléenne) permettent également d’aborder la question de leur autonomie respective et de proposer de nouvelles aires d’influences techniques auxquelles elles sont soumises

Le Vasconien : révision de sa signification à partir des industries lithiques d’Olha I et II, d’Isturitz et de Gatzarria

En 1953, F. Bordes formalise la définition des faciès moustériens et en définit un nouveau, le Vasconien. Ce faciès se caractérise selon lui par la présence récurrente de hachereaux associés à un débitage Levallois et à des racloirs Quina dominants au sein de l’outillage. Le Vasconien a par la suite été remis en question par plusieurs auteurs qui ont mis en évidence une certaine hétérogénéité au sein de cet ensemble et ont proposé différentes interprétations. La question de la signification du Vasconien n’a pas été révisée depuis le développement des méthodes d’analyses liées à la technologie lithique. Nous présentons ici les études technologiques des industries d’Olha II (Cambo-les-Bains, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) et de Gatzarria (Ossas-Suhare, Pyrénées-Atlantiques). Les similitudes qu’elles révèlent et les comparaisons bibliographiques avec plusieurs séries des Monts cantabriques permettent de réévaluer le degré d’homogénéité des productions techniques anciennement attribuées au Vasconien sur des bases principalement typologiques. Une nouvelle interprétation de la signification de ce faciès au sein du Moustérien peut être proposée

Rapid response to the M_w 4.9 earthquake of November 11, 2019 in Le Teil, Lower Rhône Valley, France

On November 11, 2019, a Mw 4.9 earthquake hit the region close to Montelimar (lower Rhône Valley, France), on the eastern margin of the Massif Central close to the external part of the Alps. Occuring in a moderate seismicity area, this earthquake is remarkable for its very shallow focal depth (between 1 and 3 km), its magnitude, and the moderate to large damages it produced in several villages. InSAR interferograms indicated a shallow rupture about 4 km long reaching the surface and the reactivation of the ancient NE-SW La Rouviere normal fault in reverse faulting in agreement with the present-day E-W compressional tectonics. The peculiarity of this earthquake together with a poor coverage of the epicentral region by permanent seismological and geodetic stations triggered the mobilisation of the French post-seismic unit and the broad French scientific community from various institutions, with the deployment of geophysical instruments (seismological and geodesic stations), geological field surveys, and field evaluation of the intensity of the earthquake. Within 7 days after the mainshock, 47 seismological stations were deployed in the epicentral area to improve the Le Teil aftershocks locations relative to the French permanent seismological network (RESIF), monitor the temporal and spatial evolution of microearthquakes close to the fault plane and temporal evolution of the seismic response of 3 damaged historical buildings, and to study suspected site effects and their influence in the distribution of seismic damage. This seismological dataset, completed by data owned by different institutions, was integrated in a homogeneous archive and distributed through FDSN web services by the RESIF data center. This dataset, together with observations of surface rupture evidences, geologic, geodetic and satellite data, will help to unravel the causes and rupture mechanism of this earthquake, and contribute to account in seismic hazard assessment for earthquakes along the major regional Cévenne fault system in a context of present-day compressional tectonics

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries(1,2). However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world(3) and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health(4,5). However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol-which is a marker of cardiovascular riskchanged from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million-4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world.Peer reviewe

Effects of eight neuropsychiatric copy number variants on human brain structure

Many copy number variants (CNVs) confer risk for the same range of neurodevelopmental symptoms and psychiatric conditions including autism and schizophrenia. Yet, to date neuroimaging studies have typically been carried out one mutation at a time, showing that CNVs have large effects on brain anatomy. Here, we aimed to characterize and quantify the distinct brain morphometry effects and latent dimensions across 8 neuropsychiatric CNVs. We analyzed T1-weighted MRI data from clinically and non-clinically ascertained CNV carriers (deletion/duplication) at the 1q21.1 (n = 39/28), 16p11.2 (n = 87/78), 22q11.2 (n = 75/30), and 15q11.2 (n = 72/76) loci as well as 1296 non-carriers (controls). Case-control contrasts of all examined genomic loci demonstrated effects on brain anatomy, with deletions and duplications showing mirror effects at the global and regional levels. Although CNVs mainly showed distinct brain patterns, principal component analysis (PCA) loaded subsets of CNVs on two latent brain dimensions, which explained 32 and 29% of the variance of the 8 Cohen’s d maps. The cingulate gyrus, insula, supplementary motor cortex, and cerebellum were identified by PCA and multi-view pattern learning as top regions contributing to latent dimension shared across subsets of CNVs. The large proportion of distinct CNV effects on brain morphology may explain the small neuroimaging effect sizes reported in polygenic psychiatric conditions. Nevertheless, latent gene brain morphology dimensions will help subgroup the rapidly expanding landscape of neuropsychiatric variants and dissect the heterogeneity of idiopathic conditions

Mise en évidence des technocomplexes Quina et Vasconien dans la grotte Gatzarria (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) à partir de la révision stratigraphique, taphonomique et technologique des collections Georges-Laplace

International audienceThe archaeo-sequence of Gatzarria Cave (Ossas-Suhare, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France), in the northwestern foothills of the Pyrenees, records several phases of the Middle Palaeolithic and the initial stages of the Upper Palaeolithic. This type of deposit in a karstic context enables us to characterize diachronic changes in industries and to demonstrate the relative preservation of the assemblages. This cavity was excavated by Georges Laplace between 1951 and 1976 and contains a complex stratigraphy that was exposed to significant post- depositional processes. It was thus essential to test that the archaeological levels were intact before any techno-economic analysis. Several recent studies have questioned the homogeneity of the archaeological remains in the back of the cave. This article focuses on the sequencing of the industries attributed to the Quina and the Vasconian, based on the correlation of different types of taphonomic and typo-technological analyses (density of remains, surface conditions, refits, spatial distribution, analysis of the fieldwork notebooks). Ultimately, this work sheds light on the sequencing of lithic technocomplexes at a macro- regional scale in a relatively poorly-documented key zone between northern Aquitaine and the Cantabrian mountains

Book review, Les plaines du Nord-Ouest. Carrefour de l’Europe au Paléolithique moyen ?, Depaepe, P., Goval, E., Koehler, H., and Locht, J.-L., eds., Mémoires de la Société Préhistorique Française, n°59, 2015, 318 pp.

International audiencePascal Depaepe, Emilie Goval, Héloïse Koehler and Jean-Luc Locht, eds. Les plaines du Nord-Ouest. Carrefour de l'Europe au Paléolithique moyen? Actes de la table ronde d'Amiens, 28–29 mars 2008 (Mémoires de la Société Préhistorique Française 59, Paris, Société Préhistorique Française, 2015, 318 pp., 141 illustr., ISBN 2-913745-58-X