Archaeological recontextualization and first direct 14C dating of a “pseudo-excise” decorated antler point from France (Pégourié Cave, Lot). Implications on the cultural geography of southwestern Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum

An application of hierarchical Bayesian modeling to better constrain the chronologies of Upper Paleolithic archaeological cultures in France between ca. 32,000–21,000 calibrated years before present

“…Without a critical assessment of the contextual reliability of chronological data, inferences pertaining to the timing of cultural events, adaptations, or changes may be misleading or incorrect (Pettitt and Zilhão, 2015). Furthermore, even if they are accurate, radiometric determinations from insecure or compromised archaeological contexts are of little value, and the recent literature contains a number of examples of archaeological interpretations being 5 refuted when the archaeological contexts on which they were founded were further evaluated and found to be compromised by natural formation processes, post-depositional processes, or stratigraphic misinterpretation during excavations (Bordes, 2003;Discamps et al, 2015;Ducasse et al, 2019;Klaric, 2007;Teyssandier and Zilhão, 2018;Zilhão et al, 2015). Thus, before building any chronology, the archaeological contexts of the radiometric age determinations to be used must be critically evaluated so that only 14 C ages with reliable archaeological associations are retained.…”

THE ABRI CASSEROLE (DORDOGNE, FRANCE): REASSESSING THE14C CHRONOLOGY OF A KEY UPPER PALEOLITHIC SEQUENCE IN SOUTHWESTERN FRANCE

“…bulk bone samples leading to averaged and younger ages; impact of pretreatment processes; taphonomic issues, etc.) as notably demonstrated for the Grotte de Pégourié (Ducasse et al 2019a). In the case of Casserole, in addition to the high typo-technological homogeneity of the lithic assemblages (Morala 1993), preliminary and ongoing work concerning archaeological stratigraphy (refitting studies) supports the high quality of the record, suggesting that the differences between the Casserole beta counting chronology and the current Badegoulian chronology founded on AMS measurements are methodological in nature, thus affecting their comparability.…”

“…It is important to note that direct dating of diagnostic GST-produced artifacts has systematically shown that this technology is not associated with Badegoulian or Solutrean assemblages (e.g. Pétillon and Ducasse 2012;Bourdier et al 2014;Raynal et al 2014;Chauvière et al 2017;Ducasse et al 2017aDucasse et al , 2017bDucasse et al , 2019a;…”

“…post-depositional fracture; for further details regarding this sampling method, see e.g. Pétillon and Ducasse 2012;Ducasse et al 2019a). Sampled masses ranged between 430 and 1000 mg.…”

“…According to current knowledge, this chronological interval and typo-technological association correspond to both Late Badegoulian (e.g. Lassac, locus 1: 17,530 ± 100 BP: 21.5-20.8 cal ka BP, Pétillon and Ducasse 2012; La Contrée-Viallet, layer 3: 17,610 ± 70 BP: 21,5-21 cal ka BP, Lafarge 2014) and certain Badegoulian-to-Magdalenian transition assemblages containing lamelles à dos dextre marginal (LDDM; Langlais et al 2010;Ducasse et al 2011, 2019a, Langlais et al 2018Langlais et al 2019;Primault et al 2020). These transitional assemblages are currently the object of a chronological and typo-technological characterization program being conducted in the framework of the DEX_TER project (S. Ducasse and M. Langlais coord.).…”