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Mobilité et subsistance au Magdalénien dans le Bassin de l'Aude

1999; French Prehistoric Society; Volume: 96; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3406/bspf.1999.10940

2419-6568

Laure Fontana,

Abstract While the Magdalenian population of the Aude basin is fairly well known nowadays, the subsistence strategies of the groups of humans had not yet been studied. Examination of the faunal remains from five sites (Lassac, Gazel, Canecaude and Belvis, excavated by D. Sacchi and La Grande Grotte at Bize, excavated by A. Tavoso) occupied between 1 7 000 and 12 000 BP has shown that the reindeer was the preferred game for 5 000 years in the north of the Aude region (together with the varying hare at Gazel) — Fontána, 1998a. It has moreover revealed that all the northern sites were occupied (in the Badegoulian and Middle Magdalenian) during the same seasons (from late autumn to early spring) and that they were probably all living sites. Since only one period of the annual nomadic cycle was represented, I proposed that Ariège could correspond to the other part of the territory exploited by these groups. During the later Magdalenian, the sites (mainly in the south of the Pyrenean foothills) seem to testify to less extensive occupation and the Belvis cave was occupied in the summer months, probably intermittently, for hunting oriented towards ibexes, as part of a diversified spectrum. These data led me to envisage the hypothesis of greater mobility (during the summer months) in this region and for this period. Finally, research has shown that the possible seasonal movements of reindeer in no way resembled migrations and that the hypothesis of a temporary high altitude refuge after 12 000 BP (prior to the move towards the north) was not proved.