1. Between Atlantic and Mediterranean: Changes in technology during the Late Glacial in Western Europe and the climate hypothesis
- Author
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Walter Finsinger, Pascale Ruffaldi, Nicolas Naudinot, Erwann Messager, Mathieu Langlais, Antonin Tomasso, Culture et Environnements, Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Age (CEPAM), Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) (UNS), COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA), Centre d'Études Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Age (CEPAM), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) (UNS), COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Environnements, Dynamiques et Territoires de la Montagne (EDYTEM), Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (UMR ISEM), École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD] : UR226, Laboratoire Chrono-environnement - CNRS - UBFC (UMR 6249) (LCE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Franche-Comté (UFC), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté [COMUE] (UBFC)-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté [COMUE] (UBFC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry]), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD] : UR226-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Culture et Environnements, Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Age ( CEPAM ), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis ( UNS ), Université Côte d'Azur ( UCA ) -Université Côte d'Azur ( UCA ) -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS ), Centre d'Études Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Age ( CEPAM ), Laboratoire Charles Fabry / Naphel, Laboratoire Charles Fabry ( LCF ), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 ( UP11 ) -Institut d'Optique Graduate School ( IOGS ) -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS ) -Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 ( UP11 ) -Institut d'Optique Graduate School ( IOGS ) -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS ), Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier ( ISEM ), Université de Montpellier ( UM ) -Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD] : UR226-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS ), USC 1379 LCE Laboratoire Chrono-Environnement. Centre de recherche Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, and Université de Franche-Comté ( UFC )
- Subjects
010506 paleontology ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,[ SDV.BV.BOT ] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics ,[SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes ,01 natural sciences ,[ SDV.SA.SF ] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Silviculture, forestry ,Paleontology ,Sequence (geology) ,Lithic technology ,[SDV.SA.SF]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Silviculture, forestry ,[ SDU.ENVI ] Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces, environment ,Glacial period ,Younger Dryas ,[ SDV.BIBS ] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Quantitative Methods [q-bio.QM] ,[SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces, environment ,Holocene ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Earth-Surface Processes ,[ SDE.BE ] Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology ,15. Life on land ,[SDV.BV.BOT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics ,[SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environmental and Society ,[SDV.BIBS]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Quantitative Methods [q-bio.QM] ,[ SDE.MCG ] Environmental Sciences/Global Changes ,Preboreal ,13. Climate action ,Upper Paleolithic ,Bladelets ,Physical geography ,[SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology ,Geology ,[ SDE.ES ] Environmental Sciences/Environmental and Society - Abstract
During the second half of the Upper Paleolithic, Europe seems to have been divided in two vast techno-cultural entities with their particular chronological sequence: the Western Europe “classical sequence” and the Epigravettian sequence in the South. Essentially because of an imbalance of data and differences in methodologies between these two regions, their Upper Paleolithic sequences have rarely been compared. Thanks to the development of lithic technology in Europe and a recent active research about the Late-Glacial, it is today possible to attempt such a challenging exercise of comparing these two long sequences. In this paper, we solely focus on the Late Glacial. If the rare existing attempts of comparison focused on typology of lithic assemblages, our paper aims for a more global approach of lithic industries, based on recent technological studies. This approach allows highlighting key elements in term of human behaviors. Our data suggest a similar process of change between Western Europe and the Epigravettian during GI-1 (Bolling–Allerod). All the criteria of the so called “azilianization process” are actually present in the Epigravettian evolution sequence. This similar trend within both evolution sequences stopped abruptly, during the GS-1 (Younger Dryas). During this period and the very beginning of the Holocene (Preboreal), a massive return of blades and bladelets with high qualitative standards occurred in Western Europe while the simplification process is still in course in the Epigravettian region. In this paper, we attempt to compare the various responses of vegetation to the major climatic instability of the Late Glacial across Europe using a critical survey of the available environmental data. Considering the boundary that could have represented the Alps between Epigravettian and the Western Europe sequence, two high-resolution environmental sequences from north and south of the Alps are especially examined. Are the differences in terms of environmental changes between these two areas significant? Did they play a role in human behaviors and motivate technological changes? The comparison of palaeoenvironmental data with archaeological results tends to comfort some hypothesis of environmental determinism proposed by scholars, but also provide new elements moderating regional models that cannot really be applied at a continental scale. Climatic correlations with socioeconomic changes highlighted in this paper are no more than one possible way of investigation that will need to be tested and discussed in further research.
- Published
- 2017