Introduction du volume : « La percussion lancée au Paléolithique : identification de son usage, types d’outils associés et étendue chronologique » (original) (raw)

L’outillage façonné utilisé en percussion lancée du site paléolithique moyen du Bois de l’Hôpital (Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe, Tarn)

Comptes Rendus Palevol

The preventive archaeological excavation of the Bois de l’Hôpital site (Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe, Tarn, France), between November 2015 and April 2016 (Bernard-Guelle et al. 2016), uncovered several archaeological layers dating back to the Upper Pleistocene set in an unprecedented/original context for the Tarn’s lower valley’s Middle Paleolithic. The main level (archeological unit UA3) displays a lithic industry mainly manufactured on quartz, sometimes quartzite or flint, related to a Mousterian technological complex. The product of anvil discoid and Levallois debitage technique, the tools made from flakes (mostly scrapers and denticulates) coexist with pebble tools. Rarely the subject of a detailed study – particularly in Mousterian collections – the pebble tools’ operating chain (chaîne opératoire) has been described, functional purposes included. This technological, morphological and functional analysis identifies several tool groups and is able to link some of them to specific mod...

La percussion lancée dans l’Aurignacien ancien du Bergeracois : quelques exemples issus des sites de Barbas III, Vieux Coutets, Les Garris et Cantalouette II (Dordogne, France)

Comptes Rendus Palevol

In order to illustrate the launched percussion activities during the Early Aurignacian, we have selected four of the 15 sites appertaining to this technocomplex in the Bergerac region, in Southwestern France. The occupation of this territory, very rich in good quality flint nodules, some of which display imposing morphologies and dimensions, shows a certain functional complementarity between the different Aurignacian occupations, from the specialized occupation to the habitat site. In addition to technological particularities, such as the production of large blades (greater than 20 cm) or the coexistence of curved and straight lamellar production systems, this Early Aurignacian also illustrates some remarkable symbolic behavior expressed in body ornaments and artistic depictions. In these sites, the tools used in launched percussion, although always present, represent a marginal tool category, showing also a great diversity of functions. Three major classes of tools have been recogn...

L’outillage en quartz spécialisé utilisé en percussion lancée en contexte discoïde à Pointe pseudo-Levallois : l’exemple de Champs de Bossuet

Comptes Rendus Palevol

The quartz component of the Champs de Bossuet (CdB) industry has been the subject of technological and techno-functional analyses focused on the ergonomic characterization of percussive tools related to their morphologies, their dimensions and masses but especially on their Active Percussion Zone (APZ) (morphology, extent, location). After assessing the position held by the percussive tools in the quartz component, they will be described on the basis of a subdivision into two large families correlated to their function and mode of operation: sharp percussion tools and blunt percussion tools (Viallet et al. 2022). Among this last group, constituting the panoply of percutors (of sensu lato size), ergonomic specificities could be highlighted in a correlation with a specialization of the lithic flint production mode for which they were used: discoid debitage with pseudo-Levallois point and its ramifications (Bourguignon et al. 2000; Lenoble et al. 2000 ; Bourguignon & Turq 2003). Each o...