Jean-Pierre Chadelle

While Late Middle Palaeolithic industries are characterized by a well-documented diversity of stone tool types and blank production methods, the latter of which can at times be exclusively represented in certain assemblages, the bifacial tool component sometimes portrays clear similarities in use and manufacture method. Beyond sharing both comparable volumetric structures and arrangement of active and or prehensile areas, the recurrence in several assemblages of specific groups of bifacial tools used mostly for butchery is particularly striking. Here we address several techno-economic and cognitive aspects of biface production and use combined with a consideration of their context. Is the same degree of variability in function and manufacture method equally visible in the retouched tool component? What scales of mobility or technical use-lives do these different bifacial tools portray? Do certain highly elaborate flake tools also reflect equally complex behaviors? How to interpret the presence of carefully manufactured pieces in non-local raw materials alongside others made in local varieties that are hardly reduced but nevertheless equally functional? Finally, which components may have carried a symbolic value or shed light on technical abilities or functional objectives evident in the conception, elaboration, use, and ultimate fate of these bifacial pieces. Several recently analyzed assemblages with a relatively significant bifacial component from the Charente, Dordogne and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departements show certain similarities or important differences. In characterizing the coexistence of flake production and bifacial-shaping, we attempt to reveal to what extent and in which ways certain bifacial tools stand out. When combined with technological and cognitive considerations, this approach provides new insights on an important behavioral facet of Neanderthal groups who occupied the Aquitaine Basin after the Last Interglacial.

A deep sequence of Last Glacial peats and slope deposits at the foot of the Lascaux hillwas investigated using a large
array of methods (geology, geophysics, 14C and OSL dating, palynology, macro-remain analysis, entomology). The
peaty levels, OSL dated to between ~73 and 60 ka, are found within a doline developed in a fluvial terrace of the
Vézère River. These gyttja and chalky gyttja deposits covered by fen peat yielded abundant beetle and plant
(seeds, pollen) remains. Palaeoecological reconstructions suggest a cool steppe with willow stands compatible
with an interstadial of marine isotopic stage (MIS) 4, probably Ognon II (GI-19.2). Aquatic and hygrophilous plants
(sedges), which reflect local vegetation, and their dependent insects are equallywell represented in the record. The
peats are covered by a sequence of slope deposits: a coarse-grained lower unit deposited during lateMIS 4, overlain
by a heavily decalcified sandy unit with a boreal soil complex correlated with early MIS 3, and finally, a coarsegrained,
calcareous unit formed during lateMIS 3 and MIS 2 in connectionwith slope dynamics typical of periglacial
environments. The palaeosols yielded a small Middle Palaeolithic lithic assemblage.