La Noira Site (Centre, France) and the Technological Behaviours and Skills of the Earliest Acheulean in Western Europe Between 700 and 600 ka
Résumé
New fieldwork and the revision of lithic collections during the past decade have
renewed our interpretation of the timing and characteristics of the earliest Acheulean
techno-complexes in western Europe. The lower level of the la Noira site is a crucial
snapshot for evaluating the technological abilities and strategies of Middle Pleistocene
hominins at 700 ka in Europe at the beginning of elaborate biface production and
associated behavioural changes. The site of la Noira is located in the central part of
France, where climatic conditions may have had a stronger impact on occupations than
in southern Europe. New excavations between 2011 and 2018, over a surface of
100 m2, yielded a large corpus of artefacts including cores, flakes, bifaces and a large
heavy-duty component. We analysed the lithic corpus composed of almost 1000
artefacts from a taphonomic perspective, identified the chaînes opératoires and all
the reduction processes involved at the site, and examined the spatial distribution of the
archaeological remains. The results offer a broad overview of the types of lithic
management and related cognition and skills of Middle Pleistocene hominins living
on a riverbank under cool conditions, at the beginning of a glacial stage. A comparison
with penecontemporaneous sites indicates that a technological shift possibly occurred
in western Europe between 700 and 600 ka. The technological strategies used indicate
(1) common abilities in core technologies including some sporadic independence from
stone shape, (2) a diversity of technical solutions and morphological results for biface
shaping with evidence of a bifacial or bilateral equilibrium and a preconceived form on
some tools, and (3) a large and diversified heavy-duty component. Biases related to
activities, raw material types and various traditions are discussed. The chronology of
the emergence of new behaviours, such as an early biface shaping ability, seems to have
been identical in the northwest and south of Europe.
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