International audienceNumerous periglacial features (polygons, nets, soil stripes, ice-wedge pseudomorphs and sand-wedge casts, involutions) have been recorded in France by examining bibliographical sources and aerial photographs. These data show that a large part of France was affected by permafrost during the Pleistocene and only the southern Aquitaine Basin and Languedoc seem to have been beyond its maximum extent. The first OSL ages obtained from the aeolian infill of wedge structures indicate that at least two phases of thermal contraction cracking occurred in southwestern France between ∼25 and 36 ka. Chronostratigraphical data from loess in northern France indicate that these episodes correspond to the formation of ice-wedge networks associated with tundra gleys. In the latter region, two additional permafrost episodes probably occurred during the Last Glacial, the older one corresponding to the end of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 around 60 ka and the more recent one to MIS 2 around 19-16 ka. Although stratigraphical data indicate that these episodes were relatively short (about one millennium), relict permafrost may have existed for longer periods in northern France

International audiencehe Land Use and Cover Area frame Statistical survey (LUCAS) database on topsoil properties inEurope was used to map aeolian deposits. The points which satisfy the grain-size criteria of coversands, loess andtransitional facies were extracted from the rasters of predicted soil texture established by kriging of the LUCAS databy Ballabio et al. (2016). A comparison with already available maps, derived from a conventional field approach,shows a good fit in most of the tested areas. The new map, however, suggests a greater extension of loess, whichseems related to the inclusion of thin loess covers, usually omitted by conventional mapping, and the presence ofpreviously unmapped areas due to lack of survey or misinterpretation. The main source of aeolian particlescorresponds to glacio-fluvial sediments at the margin of the Scandinavian and Alpine ice sheets. Coversands andloess form a broad band across northern Europe, and in the Rh^one, Rhine and Danube valleys. Large areas on theoutskirts of these deposits also received a significant loess contribution, which has been reworked in slope deposits.Conversely, southern Europe is characterized by much less loess accumulation. The Atlantic coast has transgressivedune fields that penetrate inland to varying degre

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This paper presents a geoarchaeological study of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic (Châtelperronian, Aurignacian and Solutrean) occupations preserved at the Bordes-Fitte rockshelter in Central France. The lithostratigraphic sequence is composed of near-surface sedimentary facies with vertical and lateral variations, in a context dominated by run-off and gravitational sedimentary processes. Field description and micromorphological analysis permit us to reconstruct several episodes of sediment slope-wash and endokarst dynamics, with hiatuses and erosional phases. The archaeostratigraphic succession includes Châtelperronian artefacts, inter-stratified between Middle Palaeolithic and Aurignacian occupations. Systematic refitting and spatial analysis reveal that the Châtelperronian point production and flake blanks retouched into denticulates, all recovered in the same stratigraphic unit, result from distinct and successive occupations and are not a 'transitional' Middle to Upper Palaeolithic assemblage. The ages obtained by (14)C place the Châtelperronian occupation in the 41-48 ka cal BP (calibrated thousands of years before present) interval and are consistent with the quartz optically stimulated luminescence age of 39 ± 2 ka and feldspar infra-red stimulated luminescence age of 45 ± 2 ka of the sediments. The Bordes-Fitte rockshelter sequence represents an important contribution to the debate about the characterization and timing of the Châtelperronian, as well as its affinities to earlier and later industries.

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Base de données des structures périglaciaires pléistocènes en France : description de la version accessible en ligne

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Transformation in technological patterns associated with the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition between 50 and 40 ka in Western Europe and their relationship with the Neanderthal and Anatomically Modern Human populations and behaviors are issues that continue to stimulate heated debate. In this article we use the Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic archaeo-stratigraphic record from the Bordes-Fitte rockshelter (les Roches d'Abilly site, Central France), a Bayesian analysis of the ages obtained by accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon on ultrafiltered collagen and by luminescence on quartz and feldspar grains, to establish a timeline for material culture and sedimentary dynamic changes during the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition. Technology, refitting studies and taphonomy of lithic artifacts recovered in the geoarchaeological field units D1 and D2 permit to characterize 3 reduction strategies (Levallois, Discoidal and Châtelperronian blade) that took place between the cold Heinrich events 5 and 4. We discuss the implications of the results to characterize the end of the Middle Palaeolithic, and for distinguishing anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic factors in Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic assemblage's variability.