LES RESTES HUMAINS DE LA GROTTE DE L'ADAOUSTE DU
NEOLITHIQUE ANCIEN FINAL (BOUCHES DU RHÔNE, FRANCE) :
CANNIBALISME OU RITUEL FUNERAIRE ?

摘要

The Adaoust cave is located in southeastern France, in Provence, on the left bank of the Durance River (commune de Jouques, Bouches-du-Rhône). This Pliocene karstic network contains a stratigraphic sequence of human occupation from upper Paleolithic to Chalcolithic. The excavation of Neolithic deposits revealed human remains at two levels. In the epicardial level (ancient Neolithic) aninhumation in a fosse contained the complete skeleton of an old woman without any cutmarks on bones. The upper level is dated from end of ancient Neolithic (Pré-Chasséen) (C14, wood coal, 7219-6903 BC, cal. 1 sigma). Some human remains with intentional fractures and cut marks on someone had been discovered. The human remains are five fragments of mandible, five fragments of maxillary and a phalanx belonging to more than 5 people of different age (one adolescent, two young adults, two adults) with the same state of conservation than the animal bones of the site. Some cut marks are clearly visible on the external side of the ascending ramus of each fragment of mandible with a near horizontal direction and on the left side of the mental protuberance of one mandible. This cut marks are characteristic of defreshing bone action. No one cut marks are present on maxillary and phalanx fragment. No percussion impact scars are observed. These humanbones had been broken after they have been defleshed; some cut marks are interrupted by the fracture. Similar ground and calcite deposits on cut marks and sections. This archeological level contains few material but of rare quality as calcareous bangle, scissors in bone. Somehuman bones were in a small fosse full with ashes and associated to millstone, a red colored pebble and some wild boar bones. The similarity of chronological, archeological and anthropological data with Fontbregoua Neolithic cave, less than 60 Km far, for which aninterpretation of cannibalism had been proposed, imply a cultural proximity of these two Neolithic groups. We discuss the hypothesis of the existence of a funeral burial practice than cannibalism in middle Neolithic groups in the southeastern France.