François Djindjian

Université de Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne & CNRS UMR7041

francois.djindjian@wanadoo.fr

Abstract

In the Middle Palaeolithic, raw material supply of the settlements was typically solved within a radius of 10 to 20 kilometres from the site. The Moustérian hunter continuously exploited the relatively tiny area (extending over some hundred square kilometres), both as a source of nutrients and different raw materials. The territory and the habitation site was changed when the source of nutrients had been exhausted. The source of food was composed basically of herding animals (bison, deer, dámvad horse and wild goat).

In the Upper Palaeolithic period, the procurement of raw materials involved a much larger area, up to the distance of 200 kms from the site, covering a few thousand square kilometres. The Upper Palaeolithic hunters made use of a relatively large territory, obtaining their necessities in an ad-hoc or planned way. They would follow migrating herbivores (e.g., reindeer, bison or mammoth). Therefore the hunters were often compelled to set up temporary camps for a longer or shorter period of time.

Migration forced the Upper Palaeolithic hunter to stock deposits of prepared raw materials. The trend of technical development, consequently, followed the direction of producing crested blades in large series, inventing and using the prismatic core, opposed to Middle Palaeolithic Levallois, discoid and La Quina techniques.

On the basis of raw material provenance research in France concerning siliceous raw materials and shells we can indicate the use of the territory by different cultures of the Upper Palaeolithic. The easy accessibility and near-surface outcrop of flint deposits explain why the distances involved in raw material acquisition were much shorter (with only some exceptions) than in Central and Eastern Europe.

The most spectacular exception from under this rule is offered by the sites around Auvergne. The raw material reached these sites from a distance of 2-300 kilometres from the North, the Cher-Basin (results of A. Masson). It proves contacts with an area that was not accessible during the Würm cold peak, only across the valleys of the Loire and the Allier, probably on a seasonal basis (during the summer). Hunters from the Middle-Loire Basin arrived to these sources, belonging to various Upper Palaeolithic cultures (Gravettian, Badegoulian, Upper and Middle Magdalénian).

Most regions of France are definitely well provided with flint. This is especially true for the Aquitanian Basin, including famous sorts of raw material like the Bergeracois-flint or Fontmaure-jasper. Consequently, the distances involved in raw material acquisition are short. This is typical for the complete Aquitanian Basin extending from Périgord to Quercy, across the Pyrenees till the Basque territories and the Gironde). We can also sort here the Cantabrian coast. (R. Seronie-Vivien, A. Morala, M. Simonnet, P.Y. Demars). In the Paris-Basin, the distribution of flint in the Upper Magdalenian period (M. Mauger) indicate the existence of independent supply zones. This hypothesis, however, should be checked by archaeozoological arguments on seasonality as well.

A special example is furnished by the raw material procurement of Old Solutréan or Badegoulian communities during the cold maximum, when they returned to flake technology and the use of inferior quality raw materials (quartzite, Tertiary chert). This can be interpreted that local subsistence strategies, especially for the acquisition of food, must have been different.

The origin of shells used as trinkets was also most variable, extending to 500 km in distance. The different kinds of shells used included pieces of Atlantic, Mediterranean and fossil origin. Furthermore, it is difficult to judge whether the items travelled direct from the place of origin or they were handed over from group to group in an ever decreasing distance. In the opinion of Y. Taborin, the largest distances were covered by the amelioration of climatic conditions. Such is the case, with objects of Mediterranean origin, in the time of the developed Aurignacian (d’Arcy climatic phase), the Gravettian culture in the Tursac period, or during the existence of the Middle and Upper Magdalenian.