Étude taphonomique et spatiale des associations de grands mammifères non analogues du Pléistocène supérieur de la Grotte XVI (Dordogne, France)

Abstract

The study of fossil bone assemblages has brought up evidence of the existence in the Pleistocene of faunal communities with no modern analogues. This is notably the case for Palaeolithic archaeological sites that have yielded, in the same stratigraphic layers, remains of species that are rarely sympatric in present-day ecosystems. The Mousterian – layer C – and Châtelperronian – layer B – of Grotte XVI (Dordogne, France) provide examples of such “composite” faunas: high proportions of Red deer (21 % and 34 % of the total number of identifiable remains of ungulates, respectively), Roe deer (17 % and 14 %) and Reindeer (42 % and 26 %) have been described in the same assemblages. In order to better interpret these no-analog communities, large mammal remains from layers B and C of Grotte XVI are reanalysed here. Taxonomic identifications, taphonomic data (cortical surface states, anthropic marks, evidences of carnivore activity, etc.), season-of-death estimates and bone refits (intra- and inter-layers) are combined and analysed as part of a three-dimensional spatial study of the faunal assemblages.

Breaking free from field layers: the interest of Post-Excavation Stratigraphies (PES) for producing reliable archaeological interpretations and increasing chronological resolution

“…As such, time is partitioned into discrete spatial units, namely layers, levels, assemblages, spits, phases or periods. These analytical units used to perceive and organise time have a dramatic impact on archaeological inference; they de ne its resolution and constrain the chronological grain, they in uence the way cultural assemblages or techno-complexes are de ned, interpreted and compared (e.g., Bordes, 2002Bordes, , 2012Gravina et al, 2018), as well as the manner in which past environments are reconstructed (e.g., Royer, 2014;Discamps & Dancette, 2022).…”