Combe-Grenal (Domme, Dordogne), rapport d'opération 2016

Combe-Grenal (Domme).

2 pages; National audience

Migrations et changements climatiques : l’histoire évolutive des lemmings.

6 pages; National audience

La station de La Balutie (commune de Montignac, Dordogne). Rapport de fouille 2017 et demande d'opération triannuelle 2018-2020

Le Moustier (Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère, Dordogne). Rapport d'opération 2015, projet de recherches 2016-2018

L’histoire de La Balutie, un gisement oublié, voisin de Lascaux et de Regourdou

Cette contribution a pour objet de retranscrire l’histoire du site paléolithique de La Balutie (Montignac-Lascaux, Dordogne, France). L’histoire de ce site très tôt oublié, n’est ni sensationnelle, ni exceptionnelle, mais s’avère retranscrire l’atmosphère caractérisant les débuts des explorations des gisements préhistoriques de Dordogne. On y retrouve de grands noms de la Préhistoire de Dordogne qui n’ont légué que peu d’écrits sur le site, du mobilier trié (surtout lithique) du Paléolithique moyen et supérieur qui a alimenté de nombreuses collections privées avant d’être dispersé au sein de diverses institutions, et un contexte local compliqué et agrémenté de conflits. Notre connaissance d…

Late Quaternary changes in bat palaeobiodiversity and palaeobiogeography under climatic and anthropogenic pressure: new insights from Marie-Galante, Lesser Antilles.

25 pages; International audience; Data on Lesser Antillean Late Quaternary fossil bat assemblages remains limited, leading to their general exclusion from studies focusing on Caribbean bat palaeobiodiversity and palaeobiogeography. Additionally, the role of climatic versus human pressure driving changes in faunal communities remains poorly understood. Here we describe a fossil bat assemblage from Blanchard Cave on Marie-Galante in the Lesser Antilles, which produced numerous bat remains from a well-dated, stratified context. Our study reveals the occurrence of at least 12 bat species during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene on Marie-Galante, whereas only eight species are currently kn…

Combe-Grenal (Domme, Dordogne), rapport d'opération 2019

New data on the possible Neandertal burial at Regourdou (Montignac-sur-Vézère, Dordogne, France).

17 pages; International audience

De Bivaag à ECSIT : 10 ans de recherche dédiée à la biodiversité ancienne des îles de Guadeloupe.

International audience

Carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotope fractionation during food cooking: Implications for the interpretation of the fossil human record.

13 pages; International audience; ObjectivesStable isotope data provide insight into the reconstruction of ancient human diet. However, cooking may alter the original stable isotope compositions of food due to losses and modifications of biochemical and water components.MethodsTo address this issue, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotope ratios were measured on meat aliquots sampled from various animals such as pork, beef, duck and chicken, and also from the flesh of fishes such as salmon, European seabass, European pilchard, sole, gilt-head bream, and tuna. For each specimen, three pieces were cooked according to the three most commonly-known cooking practices: boiling, frying and roasting on…

Le Bois de Milhac. Rapport d'opération 2016 : prospection thématique et sondage

Looking inside rodent teeth: δ18O analysis used to reconstruct the environment of MIS 3 in Northeastern Iberia

International audience; Small mammals (insectivores, bats and rodents) are one of the most useful tools to reconstruct Quaternary environment. Recent studies have demonstrated the relation between the stable oxygen isotopes (mainly δ18O) from biogenetic phosphates from rodent teeth with the δ18O from meteoric water; that at the same time can be potentially related with palaeotemperatures. This work explores the palaeoenvironment reconstructions based on the δ18O composition of phosphates from enamel of rodent teeth (mainly Murinae and Arvicolinae) to approach to the Marine Isotope Stage 3 (ca. 60-30 ka) in Northeastern Iberia. Fourteen new δ18O analyses from current samples are presented, c…

Combe-Grenal (Domme, Dordogne), rapport final d'opération 2015-2017

A taphonomic investigation of small vertebrate accumulations produced by the snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) and its implications for fossil studies

17 pages; International audience; The action of predators, such as diurnal raptors, owls, mammals or humans, influence the nature of smallvertebrate fossil assemblages but currently their taphonomic features are still poorly understood. In this study,we investigate the taphonomic signature of the snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) based on an analysis of pelletscollected at breeding sites located in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. This taxon is widely distributedthrough the North Hemisphere and was an important predator in Pleistocene times. Taphonomic parameterssuggest that, contrary to previous assumptions, B. scandiacus produces, on average, moderate digestion of incisors,molars and post-cra…

The DeerPal project: humans and deer during the Palaeolithic, integrating the variability of prey ecology and ethology in the investigation of past human – environment interactions

International audience

Regourdou (Montignac-sur-Vézère).

2 pages; National audience

Regourdou (commune de Montignac, Dordogne). Rapport d'opération de prospection thématique 2016 et demande d'autorisation de fouille programmée annuelle 2017

Late Pleistocene (MIS 3-4) climate inferred from micromammal communities and δ18O of rodents from Les Pradelles, France.

The middle Paleolithic stratigraphic sequence of Les Pradelles (Charente, France) spans from the end of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 until the middle of MIS 3. Micromammal remains are present in all the stratigraphic levels, offering a rare opportunity to address the questions of both environmental and climatic fluctuations throughout this period. Climate modes were studied through the taphonomy, biodiversity and oxygen isotope compositions of phosphate (δ18O p ) from 66 samples of rodent tooth enamel. The δ18O p values from the lower sedimentary levels provide summer mean air temperatures of 19 ± 2°C (level 2/1) and of 16 ± 2°C (levels 2A, 2B and 4A). Within the middle of sequence (level 4…

Combe-Grenal (Domme, Dordogne), rapport d'opération 2018

Le Moustier (Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère, Dordogne). Rapport de fouille triennale 2016-2018, projet de recherches 2019-2021

La station de La Balutie (commune de Montignac, Dordogne). Rapport de fouille 2018 et demande d'opération triannuelle 2019-2021

How complex is the evolution of small mammal communities during the Late Glacial in southwest France?

11 pages; International audience; The Late Glacial was a slow gradual warming associated with short, cold events that occurred between 18.0 and 11.7 ka cal. BP. Pollen analyses from deep-sea and lacustrine cores have well documented the evolution of floral communities in western Europe and suggest that climatic fluctuations influenced the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems. However, the exact impact of these climate changes on small faunal communities in southwest France is still poorly documented. Peyrazet Cave is an archaeological site located in the Lot (France) that has been excavated since 2008 and has yielded a Late Glacial sequence dated between 15.5 and 11.1 ka cal. BP. Thousands o…

Summer air temperature, reconstructions from the last glacial stage based on rodents from the site Taillis-des-Coteaux (Vienne), Western France.

AbstractThe oxygen isotope composition of phosphate from tooth enamel of rodents (δ18Op) constitutes a valuable proxy to reconstruct past air temperatures in continental environments. This method has been applied to rodent dental remains from three genera, Arvicola sp., Microtus sp. and Dicrostonyx sp., coming from Taillis-des-Coteaux, Vienne, France. This archaeological site contains an exceptionally preserved sedimentary sequence spanning almost the whole Upper Palaeolithic, including seven stratigraphic layers dated from 35 to 17 cal ka BP. The abundant presence of rodent remains offers the opportunity to quantify the climatic fluctuations coeval of the various stages of human occupation…

Écosystèmes et petits mammifères en Europe au Pléistocène supérieur.

Regourdou 1 (Dordogne, France) : one of the oldest nearly complete Neandertal skeleton ?

International audience

La station de La Balutie (commune de Montignac, Dordogne). Rapport de sondage 2016 et demande d'opération de fouille 2017

Identifying fossil rabbit warrens: Insights from a taphonomical analysis of a modern warren

14 pages; International audience; The European rabbit is a small burrowing mammal that is particularly abundant in Western Europe since the Pleistocene and introduced around the world over the last few centuries. Rabbit bones are regularly recovered from archaeological and palaeontological sites; however, demonstrating their contemporaneity with associated material is often difficult. Additionally, determining the origin of rabbit remains in fossil sites is equally problematic due to the lack of reference collections for natural accumulations. In order to address these issues, we excavated a modern rabbit warren in southwestern France using modern archaeological field methods and techniques…

Investigating the influence of climate changes on rodent communities at a regional-scale (MIS 1-3, southwestern France).

25 pages; International audience; Terrestrial ecosystems have continuously evolved throughout the Late Pleistocene and theHolocene, deeply affected by both progressive environmental and climatic modifications, aswell as by abrupt and large climatic changes such as the Heinrich or Dansgaard-Oeschgerevents. Yet, the impacts of these different events on terrestrial mammalian communities arepoorly known, as is the role played by potential refugia on geographical species distributions.This study examines community changes in rodents of southwestern France between50 and 10 ky BP by integrating 94 dated faunal assemblages coming from 37 archaeologicalsites. This work reveals that faunal distributi…

Lièvre et lapin à Regourdou (Montignac-sur-Vézère, Dordogne, France) : études paléontologique et taphonomique de deux accumulations osseuses d’origine naturelle.

Since the end of the nineteenth century, a great deal of work studyingsubsistence patterns of prehistoric societies in Western Europe has been done. During the Middle Paleolithic, humanswere interested in small game, particularly the Leporidae, taxa that were abundant in their territories. However,distinguishing the exact nature of their origin in an archaeological site is not an easy task, given that numerous agentscould be responsible for their accumulation (i.e., natural mortality, acquisition by humans and/or other terrestrialcarnivores, or even nocturnal or diurnal raptors). In this contribution, we put forth a new taphonomic and paleontologicalstudy of the leporids of Regourdou, a Mou…