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Exploitation du cheval au Magdalénien supérieur dans le Sud-Ouest de la France : le cas de l’abri Faustin (Cessac, Gironde)
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Feyfant, Léa Cochard, David Mallye, Jean-Baptiste |
| Copyright Year | 2015 |
| Abstract | EnglishThe Late Magdalenian coincides with the end of the Heinrich 1 (Oldest Dryas) event and the Bolling interstadial. This period was marked by the recomposition of biotopes and the reopening of territories to human groups. The culture began to expand throughout Europe and territorial mobility models have been proposed for several regions (Paris Basin, Swiss Plateau, Rhineland). These models are based on the seasonal alternation of specialized hunting of reindeer and horse or the hunting of these ungulates in equal proportions. In the south of France, hunting was more diversified and included greater proportions of forest and mountain ungulates and small game. Specialized hunting was rare. Abri Faustin, situated in north of the Aquitaine Basin, is one of the few sites in the south west of France dating to the Late Magdalenian with a faunal spectrum dominated principally by horse. Despite this particularity, the site has never been subject to a detailed archaeozoological study. New datings recently performed as part of the Magdatis project have confirmed an occupation contemporary with the Bolling interstadial. We here propose a detailed study of the hunting strategies, transport, and butchery practices carried out on horses at this site. The methods that were used are conventional in zooarchaeology: age determination, quantification of skeletal elements and observation and quantification of natural and anthropogenic marks. The bone assemblage contains 1453 bone and dental remains. A taphonomic study has revealed the excellent preservation of these remains, allowing a high-resolution archaeozoological study to be performed. Moreover, the bone refits shows that the dispersal of the remains is limited. Horse is the dominant species in terms of the number of remains (NISP = 853), number of specimens (MNI = 20) and quantity of resources. Its exploitation does not appear to represent a specialization in terms of the activities carried out on the site in view of the food and utilitarian exploitation of small game (Le Bail, 2005; Mallye, 2007; Val, 2009) and the presence of domestic lithic and bone tools. The Magdalenians favoured family groups, which were more predictable, rather than singles groups. Seasonality indices show that hunting episodes took place throughout the year. Hunting of singles groups did occur but was more opportunistic than that of family groups. Hunting strategy can be presumed but not clearly demonstrated. We presume that the Magdalenian took advantage of the topography of Entre-deux-Mers to approach the groups of horses. High disparities in skeletal representation cannot be explained by differential preservation and food utility indices (FUI and MUI) are not correlated with the survival percentage. We assume that whole horse carcasses were transported from the kill site to the base camp. The presence of foetal remains supports this hypothesis.This leads us to conclude that the kill site must have been located in the immediate vicinity of the shelter. The reconstruction of the butchery processes implies that horses were exploited both for their food resources (meat, marrow, and fat), and for utilitarian and symbolic purposes. We propose the use of a bone boiling method for the extraction of marrow from spongy shafts and of fat from long bone ends. The results of our study reveal many common elements with sites dominated by Horse, contemporary with the occupation of Abri Faustin, in the Rhineland, on the Swiss Plateau, and in the Paris Basin (Bignon, 2003; Street et al. 2006; Muller, 2014): seasons and hunting strategies, proximity of the kill and processing sites, exploitation for food and utilitarian and symbolic purposes. Carcass exploitation was always optimal, with extraction of fat and marrow from mandible and long bones. Even if the use of horse bones for utilitarian and symbolic purposes was never systematic in the Late Magdalenian, we see it sporadically on some sites. All these observations suggest a certain uniformity in the exploitation of this ungulate across Europe during the Late Magdalenian. francaisLe Magdalenien superieur se developpe durant la fin de l’episode d’Heinrich 1 (Dryas ancien) et l’inter-stade du Bolling. Cette periode est marquee par une recomposition des biotopes et la reouverture de territoires pour les groupes humains. Cette culture connait dorenavant une extension a l’echelle de l’Europe et plusieurs modeles de mobilites territoriales sont proposes dans differentes regions (Bassin parisien, plateau Suisse, Rhenanie). Ces modeles sont bases sur l’alternance saisonniere de chasses specialisees sur le renne et le cheval ou de chasses de ces ongules en proportion egale. Dans le Sud de la France, les spectres de chasse se diversifient au profit d’ongules forestiers ou montagnards mais egalement de petits gibiers. Les chasses specialisees y sont exceptionnelles. L’abri Faustin, situe dans le Nord du Bassin aquitain, est un des rares gisements du Sud-Ouest de la France appartenant au Magdalenien superieur ayant livre un spectre faunique majoritairement domine par le cheval. Malgre cette singularite, ce gisement n’a jamais fait l’objet d’une etude archeozoologique detaillee. De nouvelles datations recemment effectuees dans le cadre du projet « Magdatis » ont permis de confirmer une occupation contemporaine de l’interstade du Bolling. Nous proposons ici une etude detaillee des strategies de predation, de transport ainsi que des pratiques boucheres employees sur le cheval au cours du Magdalenien superieur. L’etude taphonomique a mis en evidence une excellente preservation des restes osseux et dentaires permettant la mise en œuvre d’une etude archeozoologique a haute resolution. Par ailleurs, les remontages montrent une dispersion limitee des vestiges. Le cheval est l’espece dominante en termes de nombre de restes et de quantite de ressources, meme si son exploitation ne marque pas une specialisation dans les activites pratiquees sur le site. Les Magdaleniens ont privilegie les groupes familiaux, plus previsibles, aux groupes de celibataires. Les indices de saisonnalite revelent que les episodes de chasse se sont repartis tout au long de l’annee. La presence de toutes les portions squelettiques sur le gisement et de restes de fœtus va dans le sens d’un transport de carcasses entieres. Cela nous amene a conclure que le site d’abattage devait se trouver dans les environs immediats de l’abri. La reconstruction de la chaine operatoire de boucherie montre que le cheval a ete exploite pour ses ressources alimentaires (viandes, moelles et graisses) mais egalement utilitaires. Les resultats de notre etude revelent de nombreux points de convergence avec les gisements domines par le cheval et contemporains de l’occupation de l’abri Faustin en Rhenanie, sur le plateau Suisse et dans le Bassin parisien (Bignon, 2003 ; Street et al., 2006 ; Muller, 2014). |
| Starting Page | 693 |
| Ending Page | 716 |
| Page Count | 24 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.3406/bspf.2015.14597 |
| Volume Number | 112 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.prehistoire.org/offres/file_inline_src/515/515_pj_170418_151032.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.3406/bspf.2015.14597 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
