Approche technoéconomique et fonctionnelle des occupations de plein air du Paléolithique moyen récent autour de Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)

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2016

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Neanderthal ; Late Middle Palaeolithic ; lithic technoeconomy ; spatial analysis ; use-wear analysis ; site function ; territorial organization ; settlement dynamics Paléolithique moyen récent ; technoéconomie ; répartition spatiale ; tracéologie ; Néandertal ; fonction des occupations ; organisation territoriale ; dynamique de peuplement


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Marianne Deschamps et al., « Approche technoéconomique et fonctionnelle des occupations de plein air du Paléolithique moyen récent autour de Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) », Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, ID : 10.3406/bspf.2016.14683


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Over the past eight years, excavations performed by INRAP teams outside Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France) have updated our understanding of the Palaeolithic occupation of the Saint-Pierre-d’Irube plateau. The excavation of two open-air sites, Jupiter and Le Prissé, accompanied by test trenches and luminescence dating, have yielded a new understanding of the evolution of the landscape from the late Middle Palaeolithic. Several occupations dating to MIS 3 indicate that the plateau was heavily utilized during that period. The proximity of an abundant and high quality flint, from the Ibarbide source, probably played a role in the area’s attraction for Palaeolithic peoples. Optically stimulated luminescence was used to date the late Middle Palaeolithic occupations at Jupiter to between 50 ± 3 and 34 ± 3 ky BP. The dating at Le Prissé is still underway. Thus far, an artefact originating from the Upper Palaeolithic layers was dated via thermoluminescence to 44.3 ± 3 ky BP. It is thought that this artefact could have moved up from the Middle Palaeolithic layers but this conclusion awaits other TL samples currently being dated. However, these dates provide a preliminary time range for the late Middle Palaeolithic occupation of the plateau between 45 and 50 ky BP. This new chronological and stratigraphic framework has allowed the reevaluation of several older collections and surface finds in an attempt to characterize more precisely the use of the Saint-Pierre d''Irube plateau during the late Middle Palaeolithic. This work has focused on Basté, an open-air site excavated by C. Chauchat and C. Thibault in the late 1960s. Stratigraphic sequences from INRAP’s recent excavations and test trenches were compiled to create a schematic section of a north-south profile for the plateau. This makes it possible to propose stratigraphic correlations between level 4 at Basté to the late Middle Palaeolithic occupations of Le Prissé and Jupiter. We thus identify a relative contemporaneity between these three occupations. The spatial distribution of lithics at Le Prissé is non-random and the refitted lithics are concentrated in the site’s two high-density lithic clusters. This spatial patterning can be largely explained by anthropogenic activities, specifically the location of knapping events that produced the high-density clusters and use of flakes and tools in adjacent areas. Retouched flakes, bifaces and flake cleavers, and lithics with evidence for use-wear are over-represented in the medium and low density parts of the site, probably abandoned at their place of use. A similar spatial organization was found at Jupiter. The spatial patterning of artefacts at Basté is much more difficult to interpret due to the small area of excavation (16 m2 compared to hundreds of square metres at Le Prissé and Jupiter). The presence of refitted lithics may indicate relatively good spatial preservation. The lithic assemblages from Le Prissé and Jupiter are both characterized by the Discoid method and low proportions of retouched tools. The cores are represented by a hierarchical unifacial structure, or less frequently, a bipyramidal structure, but are always directed towards the production of pseudo-Levallois points, accompanied by débordant flakes and other core trimming flakes. Flakes from the main part of the reduction sequence are under-represented in the refitted sample and were thus probably exported off-site. In contrast, large bifacial pieces, namely handaxes and flake cleavers, were not produced on-site but were imported and abandoned. Retouched flake tools are rare (about 3% of the assemblage) but mostly occur on large cortical flakes. These two occupations are interpreted as flake production sites where secondary activities compatible with butchery (based on use-wear analysis) were performed at the periphery of the lithic clusters. The assemblage from Basté presents a different picture. Cores with indications of the Discoid method are rare. The majority of flakes were the result of the manufacture of bifacial tools. The bifacial shaping flakes can be attributed to different stages in biface manufacture according to their size. Large flakes, with full or partial cortex, are present, along with small flakes that correspond to phases of sharpening or resharpening. The flakes are accompanied by 17 bifaces at different stages of reduction. Retouched flake tools are more abundant and diverse than at Le Prissé or Jupiter (12% of the assemblage). This occupation is focused on the production of bifacial tools for exportation and for use on-site (evidence for re-sharpening is present). The higher diversity of tools at Basté suggests that a higher diversity of activities may have occurred there as well. The Saint-Pierre-d’Irube plateau was therefore the setting for economically different and complementary occupations during the late Middle Palaeolithic. The area would have had several attractive features for Neanderthal groups, especially its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, the nearby confluence of two major rivers, the Nive and the Adour, and the abundant and high-quality local flint. Furthermore, occupation of the area was not limited to the Saint-Pierre-d’Irube plateau : further south on the opposite bank of the Nive River, a surface collection, the Lestaulan, contains technological elements similar to Le Prissé. Cores tend however to occur on flakes, rather than nodules as at Le Prissé, probably as a result of the greater distance from the flint source. The remaining archaeological potential of the area around Bayonne is increasingly threatened by rapid urbanization. Therefore, these recent archaeological excavations, and their incorporation with a study of old collections, is particularly timely in light of this destruction of cultural heritage.

Un ensemble d’opérations d’archéologie préventive, réalisées par les équipes de l’INRAP ces huit dernières années sur les hauteurs orientales de Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France), permet de renouveler notre connaissance du peuplement paléolithique sur le plateau de Saint-Pierre-d’Irube. Les sondages de dix parcelles depuis 2008 et la fouille de deux sites de plein air en trois opérations distinctes permettent de poser un cadre stratigraphique et chronologique fiable inédit, grâce à un ensemble de datations absolues. Cela permet aussi d’appréhender l’évolution des paysages depuis la fin du Pléistocène moyen. Plusieurs occupations du Paléolithique moyen récent mettent en évidence une bonne implantation dans ce secteur au cours du MIS 3. La proximité du gîte de silex d’Ibarbide, l’un des plus riches et de meilleure qualité de la région, pourrait en partie expliquer la forte présence humaine dans cette zone. Ce nouveau cadre chronologique et stratigraphique a permis la réévaluation de plusieurs collections anciennes et issues de ramassage de surface afin de tenter de caractériser plus finement l’utilisation du plateau de Saint-Pierre-d’Irube durant le Paléolithique moyen récent. Le site de plein air du Basté, fouillé par C. Chauchat et C. Thibault à la fin des années 1960, a principalement fait l’objet d’une nouvelle étude. L’établissement de corrélations stratigraphiques entre le niveau 4 du Basté et les occupations du Paléolithique moyen récent du Prissé et de Jupiter permettent de proposer une relative contemporanéité entre ces trois occupations. Au sein de chaque site, l’analyse des remontages et de la répartition spatiale des vestiges ont mis en évidence la bonne préservation post-dépositionnelle des niveaux et la présence d’une répartition non aléatoire des différentes catégories de vestiges qui est interprétée comme le résultat d’une dispersion d’origine anthropique, au moins dans le cas du Prissé. D’un point de vue technoéconomique et fonctionnel, il ressort que ces occupations sont économiquement différentes et complémentaires, ce qui implique une organisation spatiale complexe et structurée à l’échelle locale de ces sociétés néandertaliennes. Le faible potentiel archéologique restant est particulièrement menacé par la forte urbanisation du secteur : la synthèse que peuvent fournir ces nouvelles données et la révision de collections anciennes, complétée par de nouvelles prospections, s’inscrit donc dans une démarche de valorisation scientifique de ce patrimoine en voie de destruction.

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