Bone Retouchers and site function in the Quina Mousterian: the case of Les Pradelles (Marillac-le-France, France) - HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2018

Bone Retouchers and site function in the Quina Mousterian: the case of Les Pradelles (Marillac-le-France, France)

Résumé

The over-representation of faunal remains, the particularity of the carcass processing and the lithic industry suggest that the Les Pradelles Mousterian site was used as a task specific location dedicated to the exploitation of reindeer, killed in large number during their migrations. This study focuses on Facies 4a, where almost 500 retouchers were recovered. We discuss the place of retouchers in the technical equipment of the hunter-gatherers of Les Pradelles and the significance of their abundance in the context of a site involving short-term occupations for secondary butchery activities. The relatively stringent selection of blanks is most likely related to constraints caused by the use of reindeer bones whose intrinsic qualities were not necessarily optimal for use as retouchers. Despite the high number of available bone remains, some types of bones were routinely exploited, which leads us to suggest a selection of some blanks during the butchery stage rather than a selection of appropriate remains among the butchery waste. Based on comparisons with published experimental data, three major groups of retouchers have been identified and their roles in the preparation of lithic equipment have been established. The over-representation of retouchers compared to the number of abandoned scrapers in the cave attests to the exportation of a significant proportion of the scrapers. The "exported" tools were used either for activities carried out near the site or were part of the toolkit taken away during travel to other locations. These results demonstrate how retouchers help in characterizing the interconnections between the animal exploitation and the lithic tool production technical subsystems .
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Dates et versions

hal-01891155 , version 1 (09-10-2018)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-01891155 , version 1

Citer

Sandrine Costamagno, Laurence Bourguignon, Marie-Cécile Soulier, Liliane Meignen, Cédric Beauval, et al.. Bone Retouchers and site function in the Quina Mousterian: the case of Les Pradelles (Marillac-le-France, France). Retouching the Palaeolithic: Becoming Human and the Origins of Bone Tool Technology, International Workshop, Oct 2015, Hannover, Germany. pp.165-195. ⟨hal-01891155⟩
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