Les derrieres occupations mousteriennes de Saint-Cesaire (Charente-Maritime, France) diversite des techniques utilisees et comportements economiques pratiques

摘要

The western European Late Middle Palaeolithic is marked by a mosaicof lithic industries that often have very different technical characteristics.The lithic industry pertaining to the latest levels of Mousterian occupationon the site of Saint-Cesaire falls within this context. In order to better un-derstand the factors that are at the origin of such lithic diversity, it is ne-cessary to characterize the technical and economic aspects of Neanderthalbehaviour for each stratigraphic level studied. The latest Mousterian levelsat Saint-Cesaire, dated to around 40900 BP (OIS 3), are predominantly characterized by a local raw material complemented by small quantities ofimported raw materials. These levels are also characterized by a Discoidform of knapping that enabled the production of relatively thin blanks witha peripheral cutting edge and thicker flakes with a projecting back sensulato. Lithic production on the site is not oriented towards the secondarytransformation of blanks. Nonetheless, there are a large number of retou-ched pieces dominated by a diversity of denticulates. One of the interestingaspects of this particular assemblage is the evidence we have for the useof different hard hammer percussion techniques for both knapping andretouching. The combination of zooarchaeological, socio-economic andtechnological data permits us to place Saint Cesaire within its larger ter-ritorial context and in the category of a dwelling site. While the levelsstudied lie immediately below the Chatelperronian period of occupationand could possibly have shed light on technical relationships between theMousterian and Chatelperronian periods, our analysis of the Mousterianindustry has shown no relationship to subsequent technological develop-ments in the Late Palaeolithic period.