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In the Haute-Saone department, studies of surface collections and the few rare preserved stratified open air-sites demonstrate the presence of handaxes whose typology indicates Lower and Middle Palaeolithic. Here, raw materials are mostly high quality and characterized by its diversity and availability across the landscape. In this one small region 125 km by 75 km, one can find many geological formations containing metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary formations rich in both siliceous (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Oligocene) and non-siliceous (Carboniferous, Permian, terraces contexts, fluvio-glacial contexts) rocks. In this context, hominids occupied the region and established complex relationships with the diverse raw materials. Five major sedimentary complexes provide at least 17 different types of raw materials such as flint, chert, quartz, quartzite, radiolarite and sandstone that have been knapped since the beginning of the Palaeolithic. Among these, 11 were chosen and appropriated for handaxe shaping, while only three were selected for leafpoint shaping. Although prehistoric knappers were adapted to the morphometric constraints of their raw materials; among leafpoints, a clear selection was made towards tabular, ovular, and plano-convex flint nodules and flake blanks.

Resume Plusieurs sites de plein air du Nord de la France, notamment dans le bassin de la Somme, ont fourni de nombreuses donnees concernant l’âge et l’environnement des occupations humaines pour la periode comprises entre les stades isotopiques 12 et 8. La composition des industries lithiques des gisements situes a la confluence de la Somme et de l’Avre (Cagny-la Garenne, Cagny-l’Epinette, Ferme de l’Epinette, Gentelles) depend en grande partie de la qualite de la matiere premiere et de la fonction des differents sites. Les caracteristiques des industries lithiques de Gouzeaucourt montrent la complexite de la nature de la transition du Paleolithique inferieur au Paleolithique moyen.