ABSTRACT Diversity in the used bone found in the European Middle Paleolithic is very low, but bon... more ABSTRACT Diversity in the used bone found in the European Middle Paleolithic is very low, but bone retouchers are the most abundant and the most common. This paper focuses on the detailed study of numerous bone retouchers found in nine Middle Paleolithic sites bordering the French Massif Central in Southeastern France. Multidisciplinary and recent data on chronology and biostratigraphy on the archaeological sequences and the great number of bone retouchers have permitted a meaningful comparative regional analysis. Their occurrences and characteristics allow us to speculate about the skills and choices of the knappers using these bone tools, for instance deliberate selection or opportunistic choices within the butchery remains, as well as commenting on the length of time and the way that sites were occupied. Furthermore, in most of the studied layers we observed a strong disparity between the abundance of bone retouchers and the number of retouched lithic products presents, raising questions about their function and their role within the stone tool reduction sequence (primary retouching, resharpening stone tool cutting-edges, producing marginal and micro-retouch or in some cases semi-Quina retouch). Results are compared with a large European database, allowing us to discuss the characteristics of the bone retouchers in the Neanderthal world.
Résumé: Les auteurs examinent la question du volcanisme contemporain de la Préhistoire récente d’... more Résumé: Les auteurs examinent la question du volcanisme contemporain de la Préhistoire récente d’Australie et de Nouvelle Guinée par le biais des témoignages conservés par la mémoire aborigène sous la forme de mythes d’aquisition du feu. FIRST COLONIZATION OF AUSTRALIA The occupation of greater Australia took place at least 60 KYA and possibly earlier if human burning can be shown to be the cause of increased depositional frequency of ash in some eastern Australian lacustrine deposits dating about 120 KYA (Singh et al. 1981). Fires lit by lightning strikes may account for these depositional events, but no satisfactory explanation has been offered for the exponential increase in the frequency of these ash layers after that date. Lightning remains a significant cause of wildfires in Australia and from evolutionary floristic evidence, even in pre-human times has contributed greatly to the structure and composition of the
No one can deny that the beverage known as “absinthe” has a sinister reputation. It has been impl... more No one can deny that the beverage known as “absinthe” has a sinister reputation. It has been implicated in the deaths of many celebrities from the second half of the 1800s up until the present. But was absinthe the culprit? In this paper the authors describe their discovery of the plant that imparts the special bitterness to absinthe, and consider the likely explanations for it occurring in a monastery garden in a remote part of the Velay, an old province today part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region of France. As no strictly applicable botanical indicators were discovered on the plants (flowers, fruits, etc.), the authors proceed to examine the possibility of identifying their specimens through a review of the known uses of the plants. The various uses of each species of the Artemisia family that are found in the region are discussed, along with the likelihood of each of these species being cultivated during the eighteenth century in an enclosed monastery garden. A short section of...
The Beagle: Records of the Museums and Art Galleries …, 1995
The Kimberley spear point as a typological entity has always been problematical. A brief discussi... more The Kimberley spear point as a typological entity has always been problematical. A brief discussion on some types of ethnographic and rehistoric biface points from the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia seeks to clarify some of these problems. A hitherto unrecognised, but distinct, form of stone biface point with dentate margins from the Kimberley is described, and a clarification of terms used for margin treatment of stone points is presented.
A-In the southern French Massif Central and on its southeastern border but at different altitudes... more A-In the southern French Massif Central and on its southeastern border but at different altitudes, open-air sites, rock-shelters and caves have yielded artefacts ranging from isolated finds to abundant series that date from MIS 9 to at least MIS 3, representing Lower Palaeolithic (sensu Acheulean bifacial production) and diverse Middle Palaeolithic facies. From the upstream part of the gorges of the Allier and Loire Rivers to the Chassezac and Ardèche Rivers surveys, excavations and detailed analyses of the material from these sites offer data on subsistence behaviours including among others raw material acquisition, lithic reduction sequences, hunted species and carcass treatment. This information has been gathered during a Collective Research Program (PCR Espaces et subsistance au Paléolithique moyen dans le sud du Massif central) and enables discussion of the mobility of human groups, the size of the territory they occupied, duration of site occupation, landscape cognition and re...
The Earliest Occupation of Europe Proceedings of the European Science Foundation Workshop at Tautavel France 1993 Edited By Wil Roebroeks and Thus Van Kolfschoten, 1995
Barremian-Bedoulian flint humanly transported from the west bank of the Rhône to the Massif-Centr... more Barremian-Bedoulian flint humanly transported from the west bank of the Rhône to the Massif-Central Highlands-A diachronic perspective Le transport des silex du Barrémo-Bédoulien de la rive droite du Rhône jusqu'au coeur du Massif central franç ais, approche diachronique
Dans la partie méridionale du Massif central et sur sa bordure sud-orientale, de nombreux sites d... more Dans la partie méridionale du Massif central et sur sa bordure sud-orientale, de nombreux sites de plein air, des abris et des grottes sont connus pour avoir livré d'abondants assemblages archéologiques ou parfois de simples objets isolés de tout contexte. Ces ...
-In the southern French Massif Central and on its southeastern border but at different altitudes,... more -In the southern French Massif Central and on its southeastern border but at different altitudes, open-air sites, rock-shelters and caves have yielded artefacts ranging from isolated finds to abundant series that date from MIS 9 to at least MIS 3, representing Lower Palaeolithic (sensu Acheulean bifacial production) and diverse Middle Palaeolithic facies. From the upstream part of the gorges of the Allier and Loire Rivers to the Chassezac and Ardèche Rivers surveys, excavations and detailed analyses of the material from these sites offer data on subsistence behaviours including among others raw material acquisition, lithic reduction sequences, hunted species and carcass treatment. This information has been gathered during a Collective Research Program (PCR Espaces et subsistance au Paléolithique moyen dans le sud du Massif central) and enables discussion of the mobility of human groups, the size of the territory they occupied, duration of site occupation, landscape cognition and resource exploitation and allows some speculation about the way these humans perceived the landscape in which they lived and how these ethnographic perceptions may have changed over time.
In late 1977, our attention was drawn to walled rock shelters in the Pilbara Region of Western Au... more In late 1977, our attention was drawn to walled rock shelters in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia where a spear was discovered behind an intact wall section. Although the age of the spear is not firmly established, we suggest that it is of post-contact origin. This paper considers walled rock shelters and their relationship to various other Aboriginal stone structures reported throughout Australia. We also describe the spear, and compare it to other pieces in the ethnographic collection of the Western Australian Museum. Finally, we suggest a possible use for walled rock shelters.
Following a request from the Building Management Authority, archaeologists from the Anthropology ... more Following a request from the Building Management Authority, archaeologists from the Anthropology Department of the Western Australian Museum agreed to undertake a watching brief on excavations of historical fills in parts of the Fremantle gaol complex. Archaeologists attended the site on six different occasions to supervise work, to excavate and to examine sediments and fills which were to be removed. Discussions on techniques and methods to be followed were held with B.M.A. staff and contractors and advice was given concerning the procedures to be followed. This report describes some of the methods used and discoveries made during the attendance of the archaeologists, however there has been no attempt made in this report to interpret the numerous portable cultural objects found during excavation
ABSTRACT Diversity in the used bone found in the European Middle Paleolithic is very low, but bon... more ABSTRACT Diversity in the used bone found in the European Middle Paleolithic is very low, but bone retouchers are the most abundant and the most common. This paper focuses on the detailed study of numerous bone retouchers found in nine Middle Paleolithic sites bordering the French Massif Central in Southeastern France. Multidisciplinary and recent data on chronology and biostratigraphy on the archaeological sequences and the great number of bone retouchers have permitted a meaningful comparative regional analysis. Their occurrences and characteristics allow us to speculate about the skills and choices of the knappers using these bone tools, for instance deliberate selection or opportunistic choices within the butchery remains, as well as commenting on the length of time and the way that sites were occupied. Furthermore, in most of the studied layers we observed a strong disparity between the abundance of bone retouchers and the number of retouched lithic products presents, raising questions about their function and their role within the stone tool reduction sequence (primary retouching, resharpening stone tool cutting-edges, producing marginal and micro-retouch or in some cases semi-Quina retouch). Results are compared with a large European database, allowing us to discuss the characteristics of the bone retouchers in the Neanderthal world.
Résumé: Les auteurs examinent la question du volcanisme contemporain de la Préhistoire récente d’... more Résumé: Les auteurs examinent la question du volcanisme contemporain de la Préhistoire récente d’Australie et de Nouvelle Guinée par le biais des témoignages conservés par la mémoire aborigène sous la forme de mythes d’aquisition du feu. FIRST COLONIZATION OF AUSTRALIA The occupation of greater Australia took place at least 60 KYA and possibly earlier if human burning can be shown to be the cause of increased depositional frequency of ash in some eastern Australian lacustrine deposits dating about 120 KYA (Singh et al. 1981). Fires lit by lightning strikes may account for these depositional events, but no satisfactory explanation has been offered for the exponential increase in the frequency of these ash layers after that date. Lightning remains a significant cause of wildfires in Australia and from evolutionary floristic evidence, even in pre-human times has contributed greatly to the structure and composition of the
No one can deny that the beverage known as “absinthe” has a sinister reputation. It has been impl... more No one can deny that the beverage known as “absinthe” has a sinister reputation. It has been implicated in the deaths of many celebrities from the second half of the 1800s up until the present. But was absinthe the culprit? In this paper the authors describe their discovery of the plant that imparts the special bitterness to absinthe, and consider the likely explanations for it occurring in a monastery garden in a remote part of the Velay, an old province today part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region of France. As no strictly applicable botanical indicators were discovered on the plants (flowers, fruits, etc.), the authors proceed to examine the possibility of identifying their specimens through a review of the known uses of the plants. The various uses of each species of the Artemisia family that are found in the region are discussed, along with the likelihood of each of these species being cultivated during the eighteenth century in an enclosed monastery garden. A short section of...
The Beagle: Records of the Museums and Art Galleries …, 1995
The Kimberley spear point as a typological entity has always been problematical. A brief discussi... more The Kimberley spear point as a typological entity has always been problematical. A brief discussion on some types of ethnographic and rehistoric biface points from the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia seeks to clarify some of these problems. A hitherto unrecognised, but distinct, form of stone biface point with dentate margins from the Kimberley is described, and a clarification of terms used for margin treatment of stone points is presented.
A-In the southern French Massif Central and on its southeastern border but at different altitudes... more A-In the southern French Massif Central and on its southeastern border but at different altitudes, open-air sites, rock-shelters and caves have yielded artefacts ranging from isolated finds to abundant series that date from MIS 9 to at least MIS 3, representing Lower Palaeolithic (sensu Acheulean bifacial production) and diverse Middle Palaeolithic facies. From the upstream part of the gorges of the Allier and Loire Rivers to the Chassezac and Ardèche Rivers surveys, excavations and detailed analyses of the material from these sites offer data on subsistence behaviours including among others raw material acquisition, lithic reduction sequences, hunted species and carcass treatment. This information has been gathered during a Collective Research Program (PCR Espaces et subsistance au Paléolithique moyen dans le sud du Massif central) and enables discussion of the mobility of human groups, the size of the territory they occupied, duration of site occupation, landscape cognition and re...
The Earliest Occupation of Europe Proceedings of the European Science Foundation Workshop at Tautavel France 1993 Edited By Wil Roebroeks and Thus Van Kolfschoten, 1995
Barremian-Bedoulian flint humanly transported from the west bank of the Rhône to the Massif-Centr... more Barremian-Bedoulian flint humanly transported from the west bank of the Rhône to the Massif-Central Highlands-A diachronic perspective Le transport des silex du Barrémo-Bédoulien de la rive droite du Rhône jusqu'au coeur du Massif central franç ais, approche diachronique
Dans la partie méridionale du Massif central et sur sa bordure sud-orientale, de nombreux sites d... more Dans la partie méridionale du Massif central et sur sa bordure sud-orientale, de nombreux sites de plein air, des abris et des grottes sont connus pour avoir livré d'abondants assemblages archéologiques ou parfois de simples objets isolés de tout contexte. Ces ...
-In the southern French Massif Central and on its southeastern border but at different altitudes,... more -In the southern French Massif Central and on its southeastern border but at different altitudes, open-air sites, rock-shelters and caves have yielded artefacts ranging from isolated finds to abundant series that date from MIS 9 to at least MIS 3, representing Lower Palaeolithic (sensu Acheulean bifacial production) and diverse Middle Palaeolithic facies. From the upstream part of the gorges of the Allier and Loire Rivers to the Chassezac and Ardèche Rivers surveys, excavations and detailed analyses of the material from these sites offer data on subsistence behaviours including among others raw material acquisition, lithic reduction sequences, hunted species and carcass treatment. This information has been gathered during a Collective Research Program (PCR Espaces et subsistance au Paléolithique moyen dans le sud du Massif central) and enables discussion of the mobility of human groups, the size of the territory they occupied, duration of site occupation, landscape cognition and resource exploitation and allows some speculation about the way these humans perceived the landscape in which they lived and how these ethnographic perceptions may have changed over time.
In late 1977, our attention was drawn to walled rock shelters in the Pilbara Region of Western Au... more In late 1977, our attention was drawn to walled rock shelters in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia where a spear was discovered behind an intact wall section. Although the age of the spear is not firmly established, we suggest that it is of post-contact origin. This paper considers walled rock shelters and their relationship to various other Aboriginal stone structures reported throughout Australia. We also describe the spear, and compare it to other pieces in the ethnographic collection of the Western Australian Museum. Finally, we suggest a possible use for walled rock shelters.
Following a request from the Building Management Authority, archaeologists from the Anthropology ... more Following a request from the Building Management Authority, archaeologists from the Anthropology Department of the Western Australian Museum agreed to undertake a watching brief on excavations of historical fills in parts of the Fremantle gaol complex. Archaeologists attended the site on six different occasions to supervise work, to excavate and to examine sediments and fills which were to be removed. Discussions on techniques and methods to be followed were held with B.M.A. staff and contractors and advice was given concerning the procedures to be followed. This report describes some of the methods used and discoveries made during the attendance of the archaeologists, however there has been no attempt made in this report to interpret the numerous portable cultural objects found during excavation
7th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE UISPP COMMISSION ON FLINT MINING IN PRE- AND PROTOHISTORIC TIMES MONS AND SPIENNES 2016. Abstract Book, 2016
The petro-archaeology of flint defines the origin of the siliceous raw material found in archaeol... more The petro-archaeology of flint defines the origin of the siliceous raw material found in archaeological sites. Recent methodological advances, like more precise facies definition, determining the flint supply routes in studied sites, the “evolutionary chain concept” and precise mapping of siliceous mineral domains, enable us to identify not only the location where any particular flint formed (primary outcrop), but also from where it was collected (primary or secondary outcrop). Exhaustive studies of Upper Palaeolithic flint collections from sites in the South of the French Massif Central (Recent and Final Gravettian: Le Blot and Le Rond-de-Saint-Arcons; Badegoulian: Le Rond du-Barry and La Roche-à-Tavernat; and Upper Magdalenian: Sainte-Anne II) reveal an unexpected diversity of raw materials indicative of huge mineral territories being exploited. Accordingly, we have developed a new figurative model for the origins of lithic raw material discovered in these archaeological sites, not as a site-centred radiant form, but more akin to an interrelated network of places, which is congruent with the ethnographic and geographic data.
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Papers by Peter Bindon
of siliceous mineral domains, enable us to identify not only the location where any particular flint formed (primary outcrop), but also from where it was collected (primary or secondary outcrop).
Exhaustive studies of Upper Palaeolithic flint collections from sites in the South of the French Massif Central (Recent and Final Gravettian: Le Blot and Le Rond-de-Saint-Arcons; Badegoulian: Le Rond du-Barry and La
Roche-à-Tavernat; and Upper Magdalenian: Sainte-Anne II) reveal an unexpected diversity of raw materials indicative of huge mineral territories being exploited.
Accordingly, we have developed a new figurative model for the origins of lithic raw material discovered in these archaeological sites, not as a site-centred radiant form, but more akin to an interrelated network of places, which is congruent with the ethnographic and geographic data.