Chasse, habitats et rythme des déplacements : réflexions à partir des campements magdaléniens de Champréveyres et Monruz (Neuchâtel, Suisse)

Abstract

The two Magdalenian open-air sites Champréveyres and Monruz, on the northern shore of Lake Neuchâtel, were occupied during the warm season, predominantly during the spring and early summer. The diverse faunal assemblages include the horse as the dominant species, which yielded 70 and 90 % of the weight of acquired animals, respectively. Due to their behavioural adaptation as animals with long fleeing distances, horses cannot be hunted close to an actively occupied site. Horse hunts must therefore have taken place at a relatively long distance from base camps and, in addition, could be carried out only from some kind of ambush or hunting hide. Since the weight of a horse precludes transport as a whole, and the skeletal representation indicates that entire horses were present on the site, the most plausible conclusion is that camps were relocated to a successful horse-hunting site. While consuming the horses and possibly preparing them for later use, other activities were performed, including the hunting of other, smaller species. After a mean duration of from one to a few weeks, the camp was relocated to a subsequent horse-hunting site, at a distance of some kilometres. The number of burning cycles in the hearths as well as the amount and types of lithic material corroborate these conclusions. Since horse-hunting sites need to meet specific, strategic characteristics, the number of reoccupations of the main horizons (6 for Champréveyres, 20 for Monruz) is easily explicable.