Late Neanderthal short-term and specialized occupations at the Abri du Maras (South-East France, level 4.1, MIS 3)

Abstract

Level 4.1 from the Abri du Maras (Ardèche, France) is chronologically attributed to the beginning of MIS 3 and is one example of late Neanderthal occupations in the southeast of France. Previous work on the faunal and lithic remains suggest that this level records short-term hunting episodes of reindeer associated with fragmented lithic reduction sequences. During fieldwork, the high density of the material did not allow identification of clear spatial patterning of these activities. In order to try to decipher the palimpsest of these short-term occupations, we combined contextual micro-stratigraphic analysis with interdisciplinary and methodological approaches to obtain high-resolution intra-site spatial data. The former was performed by studying microfacies variability of occupation layers at meso to microscales. A combination of spatial techniques based on GIS and kernel density analysis, along with faunal and lithic refitting was used and focused on the horizontal distribution of the whole archaeological assemblage.The results demonstrate that quantitative approaches, associated with the interdisciplinary empirical processing of data, are suitable and adequate methods for describing the spatio-temporal formation of the archaeological assemblage. This integrated approach allowed us to identify a temporal succession of occupational events marked by distinctive anthropic imprints in the host matrix in well-preserved activity areas. The analysis of their spatial patterns reveals differential treatment of lithic and faunal remains. We describe the possible organization of the settlement patterns dynamics of these specialized short-term occupations.

What Are the “Costs and Benefits” of Meat-Eating in Human Evolution? The Challenging Contribution of Behavioral Ecology to Archeology

“…To illustrate the exploitation of reindeer by past societies, we will take the example of a Middle Paleolithic site from south-eastern France. The Abri du Maras yielded Neanderthal occupations dated to around 50-40 ka for layer 4.1 (Moncel et al, 2021). Like many other archeological records with monospecific assemblages from the Middle Paleolithic of Western Europe, a great number of reindeers were present in the layer (88% of the NISP, representing 16 individuals), which also includes horse, bison, giant deer, red deer, ibex, and lagomorphs.…”

Is a spatial investigation possible without long-distance refit/conjoin? Application to the MIS 11 lithic assemblage of levels E and J from La Cansaladeta site (Tarragona, Spain)

“…The spatial density demonstration of levels E and J was done by kernel density heat map (Alperson-Afil et al 2009, 2017Alperson-Afil and Goren-Inbar 2010;Clark 2016Clark , 2017Clark , 2019de la Torre and Wehr 2018;Lancelotti et al 2017;Moncel et al 2021;Sánchez-Romero et al 2020, 2021. This method was applied to see and show the location of lithic concentration clearer than usual point scatter view.…”

The Late Middle Palaeolithic Occupation of Abri du Maras (Layer 1, Neronian, Southeast France): Integrating Lithic Analyses, ZooMS and Radiocarbon Dating to Reconstruct Neanderthal Hunting Behaviour

“…In this area, Moncel only encountered rare artefacts in the upper layers (layers 1, 2 and 3), followed by a series of rich Mousterian levels (units 4.1, 4.2 and 5) (see Moncel et al, 1994Moncel et al, , 2021 for a detailed stratigraphic sequence and spatial grid of the Moncel excavations). Layer 4.1 is characterised by a Levallois Mousterian with points (Moncel et al, 2021), and it has been argued that these were hafted as projectile points (Hardy et al, 2013). While Moncel has studied the layer 1 lithics in detail in the 1990s (Moncel, 1996) Fig.…”

“…However, E. Debard went back to the remaining Combier section in the area in front of the rock shelter in 1981 (Debard, 1988) to conduct sedimentary analyses, and M.-H. Moncel did a small excavation campaign west of the section in 1993 (Moncel et al, 1994). Since 2006, Moncel has led a larger excavation campaign on the area in front of the current rock shelter (Daujeard et al, 2019;Moncel et al, 2010Moncel et al, , 2014Moncel et al, , 2021. In this area, Moncel only encountered rare artefacts in the upper layers (layers 1, 2 and 3), followed by a series of rich Mousterian levels (units 4.1, 4.2 and 5) (see Moncel et al, 1994Moncel et al, , 2021 for a detailed stratigraphic sequence and spatial grid of the Moncel excavations).…”

“…Since 2006, Moncel has led a larger excavation campaign on the area in front of the current rock shelter (Daujeard et al, 2019;Moncel et al, 2010Moncel et al, , 2014Moncel et al, , 2021. In this area, Moncel only encountered rare artefacts in the upper layers (layers 1, 2 and 3), followed by a series of rich Mousterian levels (units 4.1, 4.2 and 5) (see Moncel et al, 1994Moncel et al, , 2021 for a detailed stratigraphic sequence and spatial grid of the Moncel excavations). Layer 4.1 is characterised by a Levallois Mousterian with points (Moncel et al, 2021), and it has been argued that these were hafted as projectile points (Hardy et al, 2013).…”