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Human groups during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene in the Midi Toulousain region: contexts, resources and behaviors between the Massif Central and the Pyrenees
On line since Tuesday 22 June 2010 · Updated Tuesday 22 June 2010
The defense of Marc Jarry held September 21, 2010 at 14h at the University of Toulouse Le Mirail (Room TBD).
Keywords
Paleolithic, Acheulean, Mousterian, lithic technology, resources, settlement.
Abstract
The Garonne Basin is the axial geomorphological entity of the Aquitain. In recent years, the data of the Midi Toulaisain region, corresponding to the middle valley of the Garonne River, has been greatly revised with aid from the resources and methods of preventive archaeology. New sites and indications, particularly from the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, have thus been discovered and studied.
The lithic industries yielded by these operations now provide us with robust reference bases, finally allowing comparisons of the behaviors of human groups during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. It has thus been determined that during this long period, the selection and management of raw materials, studied with the aid of a new inventory of lithological contexts, evolved toward a certain diversification, though cobbles and quartzites remained the preferred materials of these prehistoric artisans. Through time, the debitage methods and modalities evolve toward a complexification, with the appearance, though not systematic, of Levallois debitage during the Upper Acheulean. This complexification is accompanied by a standardization of productions. « Light » tools remain scarce, perhaps due to the dominant raw materials. Shaping is common during the Middle Acheulean, and rarer during the Upper Acheulean. It then returns unobtrusively in the Mousterian, but in a much more distinctive manner. Bifaces and unifaces are always dominant relative to cleavers, which can be very rare.
It has been shown that the occupations are usually located as close as possible to the edges of terrace cuts. They were mostly multi-functional residential occupations associated with debitage activities.
Geomorphologic and stratigraphic studies, along with the first dating elements and their correlations, allow the proposal of a first chrono-stratigraphic and chrono-cultural scheme, integrating the Midi Toulousain region in the general context of the occupation of Europe. It is possible that occupations of the Garonne valley by Acheulean groups did not become permanent until oxygen isotope stage 12.
Upper Paleolithic and Late Middle Paleolithic occupations were almost totally absent, other than a few rare elements corresponding to temporary climatic warming periods. We thus deduct that environmental factors, which were harsh during glacial periods, rendered the Garonne valley particularly inhospitable, pushing prehistoric populations into the more protected areas surrounding the valley (karst). By projection, it is imaginable that the same phenomenon occurred during earlier glacial phases. The Garonne valley would therefore have alternately constituted a hub favoring circulation and a frontier limiting north/south contacts, depending on the succession of environmental conditions during the climatic fluctuations of the Pleistocene. Open-air archaeology is gradually revealing this aspect of ancient Prehistory, which therefore cannot be reduced to occupations during phases of retreat into karstic zones.
The lithic industries yielded by these operations now provide us with robust reference bases, finally allowing comparisons of the behaviors of human groups during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. It has thus been determined that during this long period, the selection and management of raw materials, studied with the aid of a new inventory of lithological contexts, evolved toward a certain diversification, though cobbles and quartzites remained the preferred materials of these prehistoric artisans. Through time, the debitage methods and modalities evolve toward a complexification, with the appearance, though not systematic, of Levallois debitage during the Upper Acheulean. This complexification is accompanied by a standardization of productions. « Light » tools remain scarce, perhaps due to the dominant raw materials. Shaping is common during the Middle Acheulean, and rarer during the Upper Acheulean. It then returns unobtrusively in the Mousterian, but in a much more distinctive manner. Bifaces and unifaces are always dominant relative to cleavers, which can be very rare.
It has been shown that the occupations are usually located as close as possible to the edges of terrace cuts. They were mostly multi-functional residential occupations associated with debitage activities.
Geomorphologic and stratigraphic studies, along with the first dating elements and their correlations, allow the proposal of a first chrono-stratigraphic and chrono-cultural scheme, integrating the Midi Toulousain region in the general context of the occupation of Europe. It is possible that occupations of the Garonne valley by Acheulean groups did not become permanent until oxygen isotope stage 12.
Upper Paleolithic and Late Middle Paleolithic occupations were almost totally absent, other than a few rare elements corresponding to temporary climatic warming periods. We thus deduct that environmental factors, which were harsh during glacial periods, rendered the Garonne valley particularly inhospitable, pushing prehistoric populations into the more protected areas surrounding the valley (karst). By projection, it is imaginable that the same phenomenon occurred during earlier glacial phases. The Garonne valley would therefore have alternately constituted a hub favoring circulation and a frontier limiting north/south contacts, depending on the succession of environmental conditions during the climatic fluctuations of the Pleistocene. Open-air archaeology is gradually revealing this aspect of ancient Prehistory, which therefore cannot be reduced to occupations during phases of retreat into karstic zones.
Jury Members
- Michel Barbaza, Professor at the University of Toulouse II (supervisor)
- Lawrence Brussels, in charge of operations and research, Inrap (examiner)
- Pascal Depaepe, Chief Scientific and Technical, Inrap (examiner)
- Jacques Jaubert, Professor at the University of Bordeaux I (Rapporteur)
- Manuel Santonja, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (Rapporteur)
- Alain Turq, curator of the Heritage at the National Museum of Prehistory (examiner)
Graduate School
Temps, Espace, Sociétés, Cultures (T.E.S.C.)
Research Unit
Travaux de Recherches en Archéologie, Cultures, Espaces, Société (TRACES)
UMR 5608 CNRS
UMR 5608 CNRS