Owing to numerous characteristics, including its special geographical configuration and its archaeological wealth, the Vercors massif in the Alpine foreland constitutes a favourable sector for a settlement study on a regional scale. Recent research carried out in this mid-altitude massif allows a new perception of human frequentation of the mountain environment during the Middle Palaeolithic. Despite the general disparity of contextual data, there seem to have been several types of sites with different functions, which could belong to a single territorial settlement system. Seasonal hunting exploitation of the mountainous environment by very mobile groups perfectly aware of the resources of their territory could thus be evoked in this region whose specific aspects are particularly marked.
Known for a long time, the cave of Cotencher is among the rare high altitude Mousterian sites which have yielded an abundant lithic industry (approximately 450 artefacts) and Neanderthal remains (an upper maxilla). The lithic industry, collected in two distinct layers inside the cave, could finally correspond to a single archaeological level originally localized at the entrance to the cave. The horizontal and vertical dispersion of the artefacts probably results from various phenomena posterior to the human occupation. The sedimentological, palynological and palaeontological data situate the human occupations during a Würm interstadial corresponding either to the beginning of the Würm (end of isotopic stage 5) or following the lower Full Glaciation (isotopic stage 3). A recent study of the lithic industry made it possible to approach some still unknown aspects of the human fréquentation of this Jurassian cavity. This industry shows a mixed economic fades, with production and consumption of blanks at the site. The occupants drew widely on a flint outcrop close to the cave, even if raw materials represented on the site are numerous and from varied origins, sometimes more than 60 km away from the site. The main production system depends on Discoid knapping aimed at obtaining blanks with particular morpho-technical characteristics (blank with back opposed to a sharp edge) which can be presumed to be related to specialised activities practised on the site. Retouched tools are well represented (17.2% of the totality of the studied material) including an important proportion of scrapers, often convergent forms, sometimes thinned. The short semi-abrupt scaled retouch is predominant and the stepped retouch is rarer. The Discoid technology associated with the characteristics of the tools bring this industry closer to the family of Charentian Mousterians of the Eastern Quina type. The techno-economic analysis shows that Cotencher was a temporary dwelling, with diversified activities, perhaps frequented on several occasions by groups coming from zones located to the north of the Jura or by groups maintaining privileged contacts with this area. More than a simple hunting halt, this site was probably used as a seasonal camp related to the exploitation of the various biotopes present close to the cave.
Le site moustérien de plein air d’Andance (Saint-Bauzile, Ardèche) est perché sur un dôme basaltique isolé du plateau des Coirons par l’érosion, en rive droite du Rhône. Le site actuel, menacé par une exploitation à ciel ouvert de diatomites miocènes, a fait l’objet d’une fouille préventive en 2008 par la SARL Paléotime. Il correspond à une séquence de comblement de vallon qui livre à sa base une industrie du Paléolithique moyen en position secondaire au sein de mégaformes gélifluées à blocs de basalte. Les approches stratigraphiques, tracéologiques et pétroarchéologiques soulignent l’importance de l’impact des processus postdépositionnels sur le mobilier, témoignant de sa forte redistribution. L’étude technologique confirme le caractère remanié et trié de la série, mais également l’absence de pollution par des industries plus récentes. Les matières premières employées à Andance sont toutes importées sur ce plateau qui est dépourvu de gîte siliceux. Celles-ci sont constituées de quartz et quartzites collectés dans un ou plusieurs réseaux hydrographiques à proximité du site, mais surtout de silex barrémo-bédouliens prélevés dans les formations remaniées associées au conglomérat oligocène qui recouvre les formations calcaires du plateau de Barrès, à environ 5 km du site ; elles témoignent ainsi de la fréquentation régulière d’un domaine minéral proche. La chaîne opératoire principale, entièrement réalisée in situ, est orientée vers une production de supports non-Levallois, rarement retouchés. Les chaînes opératoires de façonnage de pièces bifaciales et de galets aménagés se manifestent essentiellement sur quartzite et sont probablement incomplètes et fragmentées dans l’espace. La série est rapportée à un technocomplexe moustérien à rares bifaces et à débitage Discoïde situé à la charnière entre Paléolithique moyen ancien et récent, probablement antérieur au stade isotopique 5. Ce promontoire naturel offrant de multiples avantages a sans doute joué un rôle déterminant dans le choix des installations moustériennes. Les différentes approches et analyses développées sur ce site permettent d’enrichir nos connaissances régionales sur les comportements néandertaliens et procurent une vision nouvelle sur les perspectives de recherche en contexte de plein air.
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