The Martinet, the eponymous site of the Sauveterrian, offers quite an interesting climatic sequence, related to the end of the Würm IV and to the beginning of the Post-Glacial. The undermining of the rock-shelter started in the middle of the Würm IV, first along an horizontal line. Then it went on, vertically, at the expense of the vault, during the Magdalenian VI and the Sauveterrian. Eight climatic stages have been set up. To the upper Magdalenian corresponds a milder climate towards the end of the Würm {Alleröd ?). Then, in the midst of a glacial environment, comes a succession of regressive oscillations leading to the first temperate Post-Glacial stage which tends to get damper and damper (Sauveterrian). Right after this stage, a sudden change for a bitter cold takes place (« Tardenoisian I »). After a pause in the sedimentation, together with the coming of the iron-age men, we register an important warming-up of the climate.
The chemical analysis of quaternary deposits allows us to bring extra information and to make more exhaustive the various and usual sediment ologic analyses. The techniques which are used in order to extract the chemical elements are simple and easily earned out. The study of the variation of the amount of iron, manganese, aluminium, silicon, calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium of the different levels of a prehistoric site may provide many information as regards the conditions under which a level has been formed (paleoclimatology). This method, when applied to two different materialized examples, proved to be of a great use and allowed us to suggest a paleoclimatic interpretation of the Würm III in the area of Gavaudun (Lot-et-Garonne).
The oasis of El Kowm, with the sixty Palaeolithic sites located in the basin, gives an exceptional opportunity of following in details the evolution of the late Acheulian and the transition towards the Middle Palaeolithic. A sounding in the spring mound of Nadaouiyeh I suggests the possibility of a typological gradual change from the late Acheulian to a final one. Four superposed living floors, apparently well preserved, exist in the surroundings of the spring, offering a good typological sequence, and at the same time an occasion for ethnoarchaeological remarks. Such a favourable situation should be adequatly exploited.
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