Abstract
The impact of deteriorating climatic conditions on variability in the archaeological record towards the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) remains uncertain. Partly as a result of poor-quality data, previous studies on Upper Palaeolithic (UP) societies of North-Western Europe prior to the LGM have focused on techno-typological traditions and diversification to outline the diachronic processes through which assemblage composition changed. This study addresses the adaptive trade-offs brought about by the general climatic downturn towards the LGM in North-Western Europe, by investigating the impact of local climate and habitat characteristics on the behavioural variability that characterises Gravettian technological organisation compared to the previous Aurignacian, based on two assemblages from Walou Cave, Belgium. This site is one of the rare well-stratified sites in North-Western Europe with evidence for multiple occupation events accompanied by a fine-grained palaeoenvironmental record. We use a combination of analytical techniques (AMS, LA-ICP-MS and ZooMS) to evaluate questions about hunter-gatherer adaptations. Faunal remains at Walou Cave mirror the faunal diversity documented at numerous other Aurignacian and Gravettian sites in the broader European context, which is similar between both periods. The overall picture presented here, using multiple lines of evidence, is not entirely clear; nonetheless, the results suggest that Gravettian technologies are unlikely to solely be a product of heightened risk in relation to a significant reshuffling of food resources compared to the previous Aurignacian. Future research of the factors structuring assemblage variability prior to the LGM will have to assess whether Aurignacian and Gravettian technologies indeed offer no relative material advantage over one another, a phenomenon called ‘technological equivalence’.
Highlights
In Europe, the period between 33 and 20 ka uncal BP experienced the growth of global ice-sheet and mountain-glacier extents towards the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) 11 Page 2 of 41Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology (2021) 4: 11(Clark et al 2009), seeing a series of profound behavioural changes in human evolutionary history
From the remaining two radiocarbon dates of 29,800 ± 760 and 29,470 ± 640 uncal BP for CI-1, one was obtained on multiple bone fragments, the other on several charcoal samples described as deriving from hearth waste (Dewez 1993)
All taxa identified by Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) for the Aurignacian or Gravettian osseous artefacts are present in the respective faunal assemblages
Summary
In Europe, the period between 33 and 20 ka uncal BP experienced the growth of global ice-sheet and mountain-glacier extents towards the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) 11 Page 2 of 41Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology (2021) 4: 11(Clark et al 2009), seeing a series of profound behavioural changes in human evolutionary history. By comparison with the previous Aurignacian, the laminar technology of the Gravettian period is oriented towards regular and elongated, and to some extent straighter blanks (Klaric 2003, 2013; Lengyel and Chu 2016; Moreau 2010, 2012; Touzé 2018; Touzé et al 2016) This is not to say that Gravettian lithic technological systems do not exhibit any common features with the previous Aurignacian (see ‘Lithic Technology’) (Moreau 2012; Moreau and Jöris 2013; Pesesse 2010); the Gravettian is generally characterised by a higher investment in debitage surface maintenance, partly resulting in increasingly bidirectional laminar blank production methods using two opposed striking platforms (Klaric 2003, 2013; Lengyel and Chu 2016; Moreau 2010, 2012; Touzé 2018; Touzé et al 2016).
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