1. Identification de nouveaux percuteurs en bois de cervidé dans quelques gisements solutréens de Dordogne-Charente, approche tracéologique
- Author
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Baumann, Malvina and Maury, Serge
- Subjects
Solutréen ,Solutrean ,Sud-Ouest de la France ,knapping tools ,use-wear analysis ,experimentation ,soft hammer ,industrie osseuse ,tracéologie ,outils de taille ,bois de cervidé ,antler ,South-western France ,expérimentation ,percuteur tendre ,bone industry - Abstract
L’usage au Paléolithique d’instruments de taille en matériaux organiques fut entrevu très tôt par les préhistoriens, d’une part au travers des retouchoirs moustériens sur éclats d’os et d’autre part par l’expérimentation. La systématisation de celle-ci conduisit à identifier sur les pièces lithiques des caractères propres à différentes techniques de taille mises en œuvre avec des instruments en matière dure animale, non seulement pour la retouche, mais aussi pour le débitage et le façonnage. Cependant, il fallut attendre 1974 pour que soit publié le premier percuteur paléolithique en bois de cervidé identifié, dont on ne connait, un demi-siècle plus tard, qu’une quarantaine d’exemplaires, du Paléolithique ancien à la fin du Paléolithique récent, tandis que commencent juste à être identifiés les compresseurs en os et bois de renne. Retrouvés dans les restes de faune, la reconnaissance de ces instruments de taille repose essentiellement sur l’arrondi et l’usure particulière de leur extrémité active.Pour l’analyse de 22 percuteurs en bois de cervidé, dont 19 inédits, découverts dans les collections de fouilles anciennes de cinq gisements solutréens de référence du Sud-Ouest de la France, présentés ici, nous proposons, dans le prolongement de travaux antérieurs, un cadre expérimental qui détaille les traces d’usage en fonction des modes opératoires. The use of organic knapping tools during the Palaeolithic was considered early on by prehistorians based on the discovery of Mousterian bone retouchers and experimental tests. Systematic experiments have since demonstrated that various organic knapping tools can be used not only for retouching but also for the complete shaping of lithic artefacts and debitage, and that these uses leave specific, identifiable traces. The first mention of a Palaeolithic antler hammer, however, dates to no later than 1974. Fifty years later, only forty examples are currently known and date from the Lower Palaeolithic to the end of the Upper Palaeolithic, while bone and reindeer antler pressure flakers have only recently been identified. These tools can be identified in faunal assemblages given the characteristic rounded shape and particular wear on their active end. Here we analyse 19 new antler hammers identified in previously excavated faunal collections from five Solutrean sites in south-western France and, building on previous research, present an experimentally based framework for identifying use-wear according to the knapping method used.A skilled knapper used nine experimental antler hammers to shape bifacial laurel-leaf points and produce blades and bladelets. Removals were prepared by abrading platforms, and in some cases impact points were delimited by the creation of a small spur. Laurel-leaf points were mainly shaped using direct semi-internal percussion, whereas blade and bladelet production was carried out with direct tangential percussion.Use-wear is limited to the medaillon, which is due to the repeated nature of the percussion motion for each of knapping operation. Accumulated impacts, spalling and compaction resulted in surfaces with a chewed appearance. The density of use-related wear is lower around the edges, and the outline of the isolated impacts are readily identifiable. There is no significant difference in the extent of use-wear (in proportion to the surface of the medallion) between hammers used to shape laurel-leaf points and those used to produce blades. Although use-wear generally tends to cover the central and lower part of the medallion, adjacent to the posterior face of the antler, there is no direct correlation between the type of operation carried out and the location of the use-wear, which appears to depend more on the curve of the antler beam.Impressions are the most common form of use-wear. Their morphology is linked to the shape of the point of percussion, which may vary during the chaîne opératoire. When shaping laurel-leaf points, the knapper prepares more and more sophisticated removals as thinning progresses. The first removals have a relatively straight platform as the lithic edge is prepared uniquely by abrasion. The thinner the tool blank, the more precise the percussion point. Accordingly, the platforms of the products display a more balanced width/thickness ratio and a roughly lozenge-shaped or triangular outline. After several series of removals, the edge of the preform takes on a serrated appearance. The ridge formed by the junction of two removal scars is used as percussion points, resulting in flakes that tend to have a V-shaped platform.Blade production with a soft organic hammer necessarily requires the preparation of the edge, either by reducing the pre-existing overhang or by raising the percussion point. In these cases, platforms are either wide and relatively narrow, or have a width/thickness ratio close to 1 and a relatively complex shape, depending on the microrelief formed during preparation. On our experimental hammers, the imprints of the percussion point on the medallion tend to be rectilinear, straight or semi-circular, in the first case, and roughly oval, triangular or trapezoidal in the second. Bladelet platforms are roughly triangular or trapezoidal and generally leave imprints on the medaillon that appear punctiform to the naked eye due to the small size of the products. The same knapping operation can therefore produce several types of imprints on the medallion: relatively deep and extended, depending on the size of the removals, rectilinear, V-shaped, oval, triangular, lozenge-shaped or trapezoidal, according to the preparation method, which in turn depends on the overall knapping process to be carried out.In most of the archaeological samples (75% of occurrences), use-wear covers the entire preserved surface of the medallion, as well as a part of the posterior face, where the outer burr was removed. In the experimental model, the highly localised traces result from a single operation and a relatively short use. The extensive wear on the medallion that continues onto the burr on the archaeological samples could thus stem from prolonged use and/or different knapping operations carried out with the same hammer. The prolonged use of the archaeological antler hammers may also be deduced from the superimposition of use-wear with different degrees of preservation in the same area. The appearance of the spongiosa at the centre of the medallion on some specimens and/or the complete disappearance of the convexity of the burr reflect the active part of the hammer reaching exhaustion.The deepest use-wear, often associated with spalls, is generally concentrated at the junction between the medallion and the posterior face of the burr, which experimentally corresponds to the removal of the largest flakes during the first phases of shaping laurel-leaf points, the trimming of the cores, or the removal of the largest blades. However, the distribution of the use-wear traces on the archaeological and experimental samples is not similar, which could indicate different motions, with prehistoric percussion potentially being more tangential.The fact that our experiments were performed by a single knapper makes assessing inter-individual variability impossible (i.e. skill levels, knowledge and mastery of knapping techniques according to the archaeological context, knapper position, prehensile modes for lithic pieces and hammer, knapping motions). These important aspects will be explored in further research.
- Published
- 2023